Artemis 1 – NASA: Watch live the return of the NASA spacecraft from the Moon

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Artemis 1 represents NASA’s latest effort to return humans to the Moon

The return of Artemis 1 from the Moon to the Earth, perhaps, is the most dangerous point of its ambitious mission NASA. The US space agency’s Orion capsule will enter the Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of 40,000 kilometers per hour, facing temperatures of 2,760 degrees Celsius, half the heat of the sun.

THE NASA describes the return as its “priority” for the mission because its engineers want to see if the spacecraft can withstand the temperatures of re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere to make it safe for humans.

Artemis 1 represents NASA’s latest effort to return humans to the Moon. NASA plans to send human crews on future Artemis missions. The next mission (Artemis II) is expected to take place by 2023, while the Artemis III mission, for a single landing on the Moon, is planned for 2025. The durability of the Orion capsule will determine a lot…

The last people to walk on the moon were the two male astronauts of the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, while ten other American astronauts had preceded them during five previous missions, with the first landing on the moon by the Apollo 11 mission in 1969.

In recent years, China has successfully landed three robotic missions to the moon and is planning its own lunar base for the 2030s, India and Israel sent their own lunar missions in 2019, but they failed. In general, there is traffic from several countries bound for the Moon, and the US has an extra competitive incentive to catch up.

NASA has in recent decades turned its attention to other planets (Mars) and large moons (Saturn and Jupiter), but now it is interested again in the Moon, including as a way station for more distant space goals. Especially since in recent years it has been realized that there is enough water in frozen form on the moon, something important for a more permanent human presence, not only as drinking water, but also as rocket fuel after it breaks down into oxygen and hydrogen.

The Moon or a space station in lunar orbit will act as a refueling station for a longer journey, e.g. on Mars. At the moment, however, scientists do not know exactly how much water there is on the Moon and how easy it will be to use in practice, as it is usually found deep in sunless craters.

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