On the 16th of November 2022, the Artemis 1 NASA (National aeronautics space administration) mission took place. At 6.47 am the SLS (Space launch system) rocket carrying an Orion capsule set to orbit the moon blasted off from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. Interestingly the SLS rocket carrying the Orion capsule is the most powerful rocket to make a journey into space. The point of the mission was to boost the progress of future Artemis missions that NASA says will go into the depths of space exploration like never before.
The Orion capsule made a lunar orbit 400km about the moons surface and having a total distance of 450,000 km. When arriving in lunar orbit the capsule then continued into deeper space for yet another 64,373km. Although the mission was not crewed by humans a Shaun the sheep plush toy and an Alexa were on board the capsule and got an amazing view of the moon! Finally, after being in space for a total of 25 days and 10 hours, the Orion capsule landed in the Pacific Ocean re-entering earth at a speed of 24,500 miles per hour.
Although the mission was a success, the mission gave NASA many things to improve on for Artemis 2, set to launch in 2024. One problem that NASA faced with Artemis 1 was both the budgeting and timing of the mission. NASA thought that the funding for the SLS rocket alone would be $10 billion however it exceeded the mark of $20 billion. Furthermore, NASA intended for launch to take place first in 2016, however it overran by 6 years. Not to mention the fact that out of all the Artemis missions, this has been the only planned one in terms of budget and manufacturing.
In the future NASA hope that these Artemis missions will send the first humans to space in the 2030s. Artemis 1 launched as a test run for Artemis 2. This will be a manned mission to the moon and the very first woman will set foot on the moon. The first person of colour will also set foot on the moon.
The Artemis missions will be a significant boost to Space exploration and will further the ongoing race for humanity to set foot on our nearby planet Mars. Artemis 2 will be the first time that humans set foot on the lunar surface since 1972 (Apollo 17). We can only look forward to May 2024 when the second of the Artemis missions will launch and broadcast to the world.
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