ARTEMIS; NOW GOING TO DO IT RIGHT

 

By Wes Oleszewski- Aero-News Network Spaceflight Analyst

My model LEM with Rusty on the porch

On Friday, February 27, NASA announced a fundamental change in the plan for the Space Launch System (SLS) and the Artemis Program. Beginning immediately the cadence of SLS launches will be changed from the previous one launch every two or three years. Instead, the flight rate and profile will be closer to that of the Apollo missions in the late 1960s. This change injects a great deal of positive energy into the Artemis Program.

Artemis II’s mission will remain as a deep space lunar fly-by to check out a crewed Orion spacecraft at lunar distance. Artemis III, however, will not be a lunar landing mission. Rather, Artemis III will be an Earth Orbital mission to test the Orion along with the lunar landing vehicles as well at the new lunar EVA spacesuit. This is similar to the Apollo 9 mission where a Saturn V launched a crew of three astronauts, Commander (CDR) Jim McDivitt, Lunar Module Pilot (LMP) Rusty Schweickart and Command Module Pilot (CMP) Dave Scott, into Earth orbit where they exercised the Lunar Module (LM). Prior to the undocking and flight of both the Command Module (CM,) and the LM, the LMP suited up in the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) and exited the LM. He stood on the front porch testing the EMU before astronauts attempted to do so on the lunar surface. Later he and the CDR undocked and flew the LM out away from the CM, tested the LM decent engine, staged and tested its ascent engine. They then used the rendezvous system to rejoin the CM. The Artemis III crew will do the same and conduct similar testing. If all goes well, thereafter, Artemis IV will likely be the lunar landing mission.

The critical difference here is that the long-held cadence of one SLS mission every two to three years no longer exists. The flights will be spaced much closer together and if there is a problem on one flight it will no longer cause great delays in upcoming missions. This rapid cadence has a number of advantages. The primary being what Administrator Jared Isaacman termed “muscle memory.” That is, the human factor of  ground crews doing the job often in a short time, leads to instinctive responses and correct procedures. A symptom of this could be seen in the Artemis II close-out crew taking more time than expected during the first wet dress rehearsal. It had been more than three years between their doing that activity on a live SLS.

During the press conference on February 27, NASA officials said several times,

“We brought our history books with us.”

They also directly referenced Apollo and showed how the cadence of that program in the late 1960s and early 1970s had led to achieving what was once thought to be impossible. There is no reason to think that such cannot be done again in this era. NASA has the hardware in the works to make it happen. The Trump administration has provided the funding to make it happen. All that is lacking is the people-power, and NASA will now be hiring many more men and women to do the job. NASA will also be going far beyond these first four Artemis missions with launches taking place on a regular basis. The SLS is about to become a space work-horse.

For the aerospace industry and the peaceful advancement of human civilization, this is a very good thing.