Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff. Lauren Vogel bomb here. After its first
Speaker 1: two launch attempts were scrub NASA's Artemis one mission finally
Speaker 1: lifted off from Kennedy Space Center's Pad thirty nine B
Speaker 1: in the early hours of November six. The last time
Speaker 1: that NASA astronauts walked on the lunar surface was nearly
Speaker 1: half a century ago. Those Apollo missions to the Moon
Speaker 1: were named after the Greek god of the Sun. In
Speaker 1: a way, it makes far more sense for these new
Speaker 1: Moon missions to be named after Artemis, Greek goddess of
Speaker 1: the Moon and Apollo's twin sister. The missions will also
Speaker 1: land the first woman and the first person of color
Speaker 1: on the Moon. Artemis one is essentially an unscrewed rehearsal
Speaker 1: for crude flight that will journey to the Moon and
Speaker 1: land somewhere in its southern polar region. It's the first
Speaker 1: integrated test of the Orion spacecraft, the Space Law System
Speaker 1: or SLS, rocket, and the ground systems at Kennedy. The
Speaker 1: SLS is the most powerful rocket ever developed, and the
Speaker 1: Orion spacecraft has ventured farther than any vehicle designed for humans.
Speaker 1: Has ever flown, traveling two hundred and eighty thousand miles
Speaker 1: that's four hundred and fifty thousand kilometers from Earth to
Speaker 1: a location beyond the far side of the Moon. As
Speaker 1: of this recording, it's on its way home, scheduled to
Speaker 1: return to Earth on Sunday, December eleven. It will have
Speaker 1: been in space for forty two days, longer than any
Speaker 1: human spacecraft that hasn't been docked to a space station.
Speaker 1: After coming within about eighty miles or undred thirty kilometers
Speaker 1: of the Moon's surface and traveling a total of one
Speaker 1: point three million miles that's two point one million kilometers,
Speaker 1: Artemis Ones arind spacecraft will have a targeted splash down
Speaker 1: in the Pacific Ocean, somewhere off the coast of San Diego.
Speaker 1: One of the main objectives is to test Orion's heat
Speaker 1: shield when it re enters Earth's atmosphere, but this mission's
Speaker 1: go olds to demonstrate complete operational capabilities during all of
Speaker 1: its phases. For the article, this episode is based on
Speaker 1: hows to work. Spoke with Craig hard Grove, an associate
Speaker 1: professor at Arizona State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration.
Speaker 1: He was born, making him too young to remember the
Speaker 1: last time that astronauts walked on the Moon. He said,
Speaker 1: I'm hopeful that this is the start of, you know,
Speaker 1: a new future for people in space. Hard Grove has
Speaker 1: another reason to be excited about the mission. He's the
Speaker 1: principal investigator for the Luna h MAP cubes at, one
Speaker 1: of ten different shoebox sized miniature space probes that rode
Speaker 1: into space on Artemus one with the intention of being
Speaker 1: left in lunar orbit. It's science mission is to measure
Speaker 1: neutrons that are being leaked by the Moon in an
Speaker 1: effort to identify how much water ice is there and
Speaker 1: where it's located around the Moon's south pole. The Luna
Speaker 1: h MAP unfortunately encountered some propulsion problems during the trip,
Speaker 1: and we've yet to see how its mission will play out.
Speaker 1: But mapping those water deposits someday could provide NASA with
Speaker 1: the ingredients to make rocket fuel, enabling a future in
Speaker 1: which spacecraft could be lighter and cheaper because they wouldn't
Speaker 1: have to haul fuel from Earth's surface. The ability to
Speaker 1: refuel at a lunar base could also enable NASA to
Speaker 1: venture farther and deeper into space than ever before. The
Speaker 1: Artemis one mission will perform other scientific research as well.
Speaker 1: Instead of human astronauts, the Orion spacecraft contains two mannequin
Speaker 1: like devices that are designed to measure potential radiation exposure
Speaker 1: to astronauts and particularly female astronauts, during the trip. That
Speaker 1: research is especially crucial because the female bodies have greater
Speaker 1: sensitivity to the effects of space radiation, and nine of
Speaker 1: the eighteen Artemis astronauts are women. The project is meant
Speaker 1: to gather data about which parts of our anatomy are
Speaker 1: most at risk from space radiation, and thus to help
Speaker 1: design future systems to protect space travelers. How Stuff Works
Speaker 1: also spoke with Matt Siegler, a research scientist at Southern
Speaker 1: Methodist University and the Planetary Science Institute who isn't involved
Speaker 1: in Artemis one, but has participated in research on other
Speaker 1: NASA missions. He explained, like Apollo, before we strop our
Speaker 1: best and brightest astronauts to the top of a rocket,
Speaker 1: we need to test it. So this launch will carry
Speaker 1: no people, but it will carry exact copies of all
Speaker 1: the systems we will need when they do go, and
Speaker 1: instruments to make sure all is functioning as planned. Siegler
Speaker 1: is also excited about scientists having greater access to the Moon,
Speaker 1: which he describes as quote a treasure trove of the
Speaker 1: history of the Solar System because things change so slowly.
Speaker 1: There After Artemis one, NASA will proceed ahead to Artemis two,
Speaker 1: possibly in the spring of That flight will be crewed
Speaker 1: by human astronauts, paving the way for Artemis three at
Speaker 1: the earliest, which will include a piloted land on the
Speaker 1: Moon's surface a NASA has announced thirteen potential landing spots
Speaker 1: on the Moon near its south pole, each one containing
Speaker 1: multiple landing sites for Artemis three. All thirteen will have
Speaker 1: areas with continuous access to sunlight during the time period
Speaker 1: that NASA plans for astronauts to be on the lunar surface.
Speaker 1: The sunlight is critical for long term stays on the
Speaker 1: Moon because it's the source of power for solar cells
Speaker 1: and because it keeps temperatures more steady. The Ryan spacecraft's
Speaker 1: re entry into the Earth's atmosphere will provide an important
Speaker 1: test of Artemis one's safety. It will enter the atmosphere
Speaker 1: to speed of about twenty five thousand miles an hour.
Speaker 1: That's forty kilometers an hour and slow to about one
Speaker 1: percent of that speed as it descends. In the process,
Speaker 1: the friction will create temperatures of approximately five thousand degrees
Speaker 1: fahrenheit or two thousand, eight hundred degrees celsius. After deploying
Speaker 1: its parachutes, the spacecraft will slow to less than twenty
Speaker 1: miles an hour or thirty two kilometers an hour before splashdown.
Speaker 1: And in addition to the aforementioned mannequins, Artemus one has
Speaker 1: two additional passengers, stuffed toys of Snoopy wearing an orange
Speaker 1: NASA space flight suit and Sean, the sheep representing the
Speaker 1: European Space Agency in a blue flight suit of his own.
Speaker 1: A Snoopy and Sean aren't merely going for a joy ride.
Speaker 1: They have a job to do. They're zero gravity indicators.
Speaker 1: When they start to float in the cabin, it means
Speaker 1: Artemis has reached the weightlessness of micro gravity. The Snoopy,
Speaker 1: of course, is the beagle from Peanuts, created by cartoonist
Speaker 1: Charles Schultz in fifty If you're wondering why Snoopy, of
Speaker 1: all characters, he has experience. In nineteen sixty nine, the
Speaker 1: Apollo ten crew nicknamed their module Snoopy because it's snooped
Speaker 1: around the Moon to check out the proposed landing site
Speaker 1: for the Apollo eleven mission. The command module was nicknamed
Speaker 1: Charlie Brown after the dog's cartoon owner, and a snoopy
Speaker 1: toy did previously fly on the clumb be A Space Shuttle.
Speaker 1: And this is not the only snoopy space fact. There
Speaker 1: are also the fabric hoods that astronauts have long worn
Speaker 1: under their helmets. In the Apollo era, they had big
Speaker 1: pouches on both sides of the head to hold communications equipment.
Speaker 1: These were known as snoopy caps because they've looked like
Speaker 1: the beagles black ears. Luckily, for future artemis astronauts, communications
Speaker 1: have come a long way in the past half century,
Speaker 1: and the much smaller equipment no longer requires a bulky cap. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: it is Shawn's first time going to space, and the
Speaker 1: e s A has extensively documented his training process. Go
Speaker 1: ahead and google Shawn the Sheep e s A Blog.
Speaker 1: It is so worthwhile. Sean is, of course a protagonist
Speaker 1: of stop motion cartoons created by Nick Park about his
Speaker 1: inclusion in the mission. The e s as Director for
Speaker 1: Human and Robotic Exploration one David Parker said in a
Speaker 1: press release, this is an exciting time for Shawn and
Speaker 1: for us at E s A. We're wooly very happy
Speaker 1: that he's been selected for the mission, and we understand
Speaker 1: that although it may be a small step for a human,
Speaker 1: it's a giant leap for lamb kind. Today's episode is
Speaker 1: based on the articles Artemis One is Headed for the
Speaker 1: Moon written by Patrick J. Keiger and Snoopy and Sean
Speaker 1: the Sheep Are Set for the Moon, written by Christen
Speaker 1: hall Geisler, both for house toff works dot com. The
Speaker 1: rain Stuff is production of My Heart Radio and partnership
Speaker 1: with howstuff Works dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Klang.
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