WEBVTT - How Does the Artemis I Mission Work? 0:00:01.800 --> 0:00:04.320 Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio, 0:00:06.640 --> 0:00:11.200 Hey brain Stuff. Lauren Vogel bomb here. After its first 0:00:11.320 --> 0:00:15.480 two launch attempts were scrub NASA's Artemis one mission finally 0:00:15.600 --> 0:00:18.520 lifted off from Kennedy Space Center's Pad thirty nine B 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:24.360 in the early hours of November six. The last time 0:00:24.360 --> 0:00:27.400 that NASA astronauts walked on the lunar surface was nearly 0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:30.960 half a century ago. Those Apollo missions to the Moon 0:00:31.080 --> 0:00:33.760 were named after the Greek god of the Sun. In 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:36.000 a way, it makes far more sense for these new 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:38.720 Moon missions to be named after Artemis, Greek goddess of 0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:42.440 the Moon and Apollo's twin sister. The missions will also 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:45.000 land the first woman and the first person of color 0:00:45.159 --> 0:00:50.680 on the Moon. Artemis one is essentially an unscrewed rehearsal 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:53.159 for crude flight that will journey to the Moon and 0:00:53.240 --> 0:00:56.920 land somewhere in its southern polar region. It's the first 0:00:56.960 --> 0:01:00.480 integrated test of the Orion spacecraft, the Space Law System 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:05.399 or SLS, rocket, and the ground systems at Kennedy. The 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:08.560 SLS is the most powerful rocket ever developed, and the 0:01:08.600 --> 0:01:12.360 Orion spacecraft has ventured farther than any vehicle designed for humans. 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:15.960 Has ever flown, traveling two hundred and eighty thousand miles 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:18.880 that's four hundred and fifty thousand kilometers from Earth to 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:22.600 a location beyond the far side of the Moon. As 0:01:22.600 --> 0:01:25.280 of this recording, it's on its way home, scheduled to 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:28.440 return to Earth on Sunday, December eleven. It will have 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:31.280 been in space for forty two days, longer than any 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:34.240 human spacecraft that hasn't been docked to a space station. 0:01:36.120 --> 0:01:39.280 After coming within about eighty miles or undred thirty kilometers 0:01:39.280 --> 0:01:41.800 of the Moon's surface and traveling a total of one 0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:45.160 point three million miles that's two point one million kilometers, 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:49.120 Artemis Ones arind spacecraft will have a targeted splash down 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:51.840 in the Pacific Ocean, somewhere off the coast of San Diego. 0:01:53.840 --> 0:01:56.320 One of the main objectives is to test Orion's heat 0:01:56.320 --> 0:01:59.840 shield when it re enters Earth's atmosphere, but this mission's 0:01:59.840 --> 0:02:03.720 go olds to demonstrate complete operational capabilities during all of 0:02:03.760 --> 0:02:07.640 its phases. For the article, this episode is based on 0:02:07.760 --> 0:02:10.480 hows to work. Spoke with Craig hard Grove, an associate 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:14.279 professor at Arizona State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration. 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:18.239 He was born, making him too young to remember the 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:21.360 last time that astronauts walked on the Moon. He said, 0:02:21.760 --> 0:02:24.120 I'm hopeful that this is the start of, you know, 0:02:24.280 --> 0:02:28.960 a new future for people in space. Hard Grove has 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:31.760 another reason to be excited about the mission. He's the 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:35.639 principal investigator for the Luna h MAP cubes at, one 0:02:35.680 --> 0:02:39.840 of ten different shoebox sized miniature space probes that rode 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:42.720 into space on Artemus one with the intention of being 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:46.720 left in lunar orbit. It's science mission is to measure 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:49.320 neutrons that are being leaked by the Moon in an 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:52.120 effort to identify how much water ice is there and 0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:56.280 where it's located around the Moon's south pole. The Luna 0:02:56.440 --> 0:03:00.160 h MAP unfortunately encountered some propulsion problems during the trip, 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:02.800 and we've yet to see how its mission will play out. 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:07.120 But mapping those water deposits someday could provide NASA with 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:10.400 the ingredients to make rocket fuel, enabling a future in 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:13.680 which spacecraft could be lighter and cheaper because they wouldn't 0:03:13.680 --> 0:03:17.040 have to haul fuel from Earth's surface. The ability to 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:19.959 refuel at a lunar base could also enable NASA to 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:25.040 venture farther and deeper into space than ever before. The 0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:27.919 Artemis one mission will perform other scientific research as well. 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:32.720 Instead of human astronauts, the Orion spacecraft contains two mannequin 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:36.520 like devices that are designed to measure potential radiation exposure 0:03:36.560 --> 0:03:41.760 to astronauts and particularly female astronauts, during the trip. That 0:03:41.880 --> 0:03:45.200 research is especially crucial because the female bodies have greater 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:48.800 sensitivity to the effects of space radiation, and nine of 0:03:48.840 --> 0:03:52.960 the eighteen Artemis astronauts are women. The project is meant 0:03:52.960 --> 0:03:55.680 to gather data about which parts of our anatomy are 0:03:55.760 --> 0:03:58.760 most at risk from space radiation, and thus to help 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:03.280 design future systems to protect space travelers. How Stuff Works 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:06.160 also spoke with Matt Siegler, a research scientist at Southern 0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:10.440 Methodist University and the Planetary Science Institute who isn't involved 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:13.280 in Artemis one, but has participated in research on other 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:18.200 NASA missions. He explained, like Apollo, before we strop our 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:20.600 best and brightest astronauts to the top of a rocket, 0:04:20.680 --> 0:04:23.480 we need to test it. So this launch will carry 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:26.480 no people, but it will carry exact copies of all 0:04:26.520 --> 0:04:29.040 the systems we will need when they do go, and 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:34.000 instruments to make sure all is functioning as planned. Siegler 0:04:34.160 --> 0:04:37.360 is also excited about scientists having greater access to the Moon, 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:40.360 which he describes as quote a treasure trove of the 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:43.359 history of the Solar System because things change so slowly. 0:04:43.400 --> 0:04:49.000 There After Artemis one, NASA will proceed ahead to Artemis two, 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:52.919 possibly in the spring of That flight will be crewed 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:57.160 by human astronauts, paving the way for Artemis three at 0:04:57.160 --> 0:05:00.400 the earliest, which will include a piloted land on the 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:05.040 Moon's surface a NASA has announced thirteen potential landing spots 0:05:05.040 --> 0:05:07.760 on the Moon near its south pole, each one containing 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:12.000 multiple landing sites for Artemis three. All thirteen will have 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:15.320 areas with continuous access to sunlight during the time period 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:18.000 that NASA plans for astronauts to be on the lunar surface. 0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:21.120 The sunlight is critical for long term stays on the 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:24.160 Moon because it's the source of power for solar cells 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:30.120 and because it keeps temperatures more steady. The Ryan spacecraft's 0:05:30.120 --> 0:05:33.240 re entry into the Earth's atmosphere will provide an important 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:36.840 test of Artemis one's safety. It will enter the atmosphere 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:39.159 to speed of about twenty five thousand miles an hour. 0:05:39.360 --> 0:05:42.960 That's forty kilometers an hour and slow to about one 0:05:43.000 --> 0:05:46.320 percent of that speed as it descends. In the process, 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:49.680 the friction will create temperatures of approximately five thousand degrees 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:53.760 fahrenheit or two thousand, eight hundred degrees celsius. After deploying 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:56.599 its parachutes, the spacecraft will slow to less than twenty 0:05:56.640 --> 0:06:00.000 miles an hour or thirty two kilometers an hour before splashdown. 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:05.400 And in addition to the aforementioned mannequins, Artemus one has 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:09.880 two additional passengers, stuffed toys of Snoopy wearing an orange 0:06:10.000 --> 0:06:13.440 NASA space flight suit and Sean, the sheep representing the 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:16.360 European Space Agency in a blue flight suit of his own. 0:06:17.640 --> 0:06:20.520 A Snoopy and Sean aren't merely going for a joy ride. 0:06:20.520 --> 0:06:23.960 They have a job to do. They're zero gravity indicators. 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:26.200 When they start to float in the cabin, it means 0:06:26.279 --> 0:06:30.880 Artemis has reached the weightlessness of micro gravity. The Snoopy, 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:33.880 of course, is the beagle from Peanuts, created by cartoonist 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:38.359 Charles Schultz in fifty If you're wondering why Snoopy, of 0:06:38.360 --> 0:06:43.320 all characters, he has experience. In nineteen sixty nine, the 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:47.280 Apollo ten crew nicknamed their module Snoopy because it's snooped 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:49.719 around the Moon to check out the proposed landing site 0:06:49.760 --> 0:06:53.640 for the Apollo eleven mission. The command module was nicknamed 0:06:53.720 --> 0:06:57.719 Charlie Brown after the dog's cartoon owner, and a snoopy 0:06:57.720 --> 0:07:00.839 toy did previously fly on the clumb be A Space Shuttle. 0:07:02.920 --> 0:07:06.040 And this is not the only snoopy space fact. There 0:07:06.080 --> 0:07:09.279 are also the fabric hoods that astronauts have long worn 0:07:09.400 --> 0:07:12.840 under their helmets. In the Apollo era, they had big 0:07:12.880 --> 0:07:16.320 pouches on both sides of the head to hold communications equipment. 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:20.040 These were known as snoopy caps because they've looked like 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:25.600 the beagles black ears. Luckily, for future artemis astronauts, communications 0:07:25.600 --> 0:07:27.680 have come a long way in the past half century, 0:07:27.920 --> 0:07:33.800 and the much smaller equipment no longer requires a bulky cap. Meanwhile, 0:07:33.920 --> 0:07:36.720 it is Shawn's first time going to space, and the 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:40.680 e s A has extensively documented his training process. Go 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:43.240 ahead and google Shawn the Sheep e s A Blog. 0:07:43.880 --> 0:07:47.680 It is so worthwhile. Sean is, of course a protagonist 0:07:47.760 --> 0:07:51.680 of stop motion cartoons created by Nick Park about his 0:07:51.760 --> 0:07:54.520 inclusion in the mission. The e s as Director for 0:07:54.640 --> 0:07:58.200 Human and Robotic Exploration one David Parker said in a 0:07:58.280 --> 0:08:01.520 press release, this is an exciting time for Shawn and 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:04.480 for us at E s A. We're wooly very happy 0:08:04.520 --> 0:08:07.200 that he's been selected for the mission, and we understand 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:09.920 that although it may be a small step for a human, 0:08:10.160 --> 0:08:18.080 it's a giant leap for lamb kind. Today's episode is 0:08:18.120 --> 0:08:20.480 based on the articles Artemis One is Headed for the 0:08:20.520 --> 0:08:23.800 Moon written by Patrick J. Keiger and Snoopy and Sean 0:08:23.880 --> 0:08:26.360 the Sheep Are Set for the Moon, written by Christen 0:08:26.440 --> 0:08:29.640 hall Geisler, both for house toff works dot com. The 0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:31.960 rain Stuff is production of My Heart Radio and partnership 0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:34.480 with howstuff Works dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Klang. 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:37.480 For more podcasts for My heart Radio, visit the heart 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:40.240 Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 0:08:40.240 --> 0:08:41.000 favorite shows.