Photo Credit: NASA
The Artemis I might not complete its objective as planned following a second problem that the NASA launch team ran into last Saturday.
In September and October, the ship is timetabled for additional missions. As mentioned above, however, the schedules might experience delays due to the team’s uncertainty over the new conditions. NASA states that depending on the assessment made by the Artemis I launch team, the delays could range from a few days to a few weeks, or even months.
“We will not be launching in this launch period. We are not where we wanted to be,” said Jim Free, the associate administrator from the Exploration Systems Development Mission Doctorate at NASA.
The spacecraft and rocket that make up the vessel, the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System, must be transferred to and investigated by the Vehicle Assembly Building before being allowed for its forthcoming mission by the US Space Force.
According to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, the team’s scrubs do not indicate that Artemis I is a failure. The Vehicle Assembly Building had already checked and properly evaluated Artemis 20 times prior to its planned launch dates, he told the media.
“We do not launch until we think it’s right,” Nelson stated. “These teams have labored over that, and that is the conclusion they came to. I look at this as part of our space program, in which safety is the top of the list.”
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The scrub stopping the Artemis I launch
Last Saturday, Artemis I received a request from the members to recheck the vessel three hours prior to its booked liftoff. Unfortunately, the group found a leak of liquid hydrogen. They then checked the situation and took the time to devise a solution.
Since liquid hydrogen acts as one of the propellants in the rocket’s large core, it is a critical part of liftoff. Several troubleshooting efforts by the team were made, but the leak in the Artemis I system impeded the ship from taking off.
Before the Saturday takeoff, a minor leak in the same location was also found, but the one discovered on the launch was significantly larger. Initial analysis suggested that overpressurization may have damaged the liquid hydrogen connection’s soft seal. However, the group asserted that additional evaluations are required to ensure that everything has been taken into account.
A problem atop another
Before the launch was officially confirmed, Mike Sarafin, the mission manager for Artemis, had to ensure everything was in order. As a result, it was requested to defer takeoff due to various problems that emerged repetitively. The hydrogen leak was one of many issues the Artemis team had to deal with.
Dilemmas carried on the delay, like issues with the cooling system of the rocket, ongoing leaks, and other critical problems. Because of these issues, Artemis I had been suspended twice. The team chose to “close the valve used to fill and drain it, then increase pressure on a ground transfer line using helium to try to reseal it” in response to the larger leak on Saturday, according to NASA.
The Artemis team decided to cancel the launch plan after trying to stop the leaking, but it kept happening. Additionally, Melody Lovin, a weather official, reported a 60% likelihood of good weather.
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NASA and their vision for the Artemis I
NASA has organized this mission for a long time because, if successful, NASA could establish the conditions for yet another manned trip to the moon and, more grandly, to Mars.
“As we embark on the first Artemis test flight, we recall this agency’s storied past, but our eyes are focused not on the immediate future but out there,” said Nelson.
“It’s a future where NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the moon. And on these increasingly complex missions, astronauts will live and work in deep space, and we’ll develop the science and technology to send the first humans to Mars.”
Source: CNN
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