On March 17, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) rolled out its Artemis I moon mission to the launchpad for testing at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, United States.
What is the Artemis I Mission?
- Touted as the next generation of lunar exploration
- Artemis is the goddess of the moon.
- Artemis I is the first of NASA’s deep space exploration systems.
- It is an uncrewed space mission where the spacecraft will launch on SLS — the most powerful rocket in the world.
- The Orion spacecraft is going to remain in space without docking to a space station, longer than any ship for astronauts has ever done before.
- The SLS rocket has been designed for space missions beyond the low-earth orbit and can carry crew or cargo to the moon and beyond.
Key objectives of the mission
- With the Artemis Mission, NASA aims to land humans on the moon by 2024, and it also plans to land the first woman and first person of colour on the moon.
- With this mission, NASA aims to contribute to scientific discovery and economic benefits and inspire a new generation of explorers.
- NASA will establish an Artemis Base Camp on the surface and a gateway in the lunar orbit to aid exploration by robots and astronauts.
- The gateway is a critical component of NASA’s sustainable lunar operations and will serve as a multi-purpose outpost orbiting the moon.
- Space Agencies of Canada, Europe and Japan are also involved.
Source – The Hindu
