In the early hours of Saturday, Cyprus time, NASA's Artemis II mission spacecraft is expected to return, which with its four astronauts laid the foundations for man's return to space exploration on the moon and beyond.
The astronauts made history after five decades by reaching the farthest distance ever reached by a human, 400.171 kilometers from Earth, surpassing a record previously set by Apollo 13 in 1970, while observing the so-called dark side of the Moon, the one that is never visible from Earth.
After a flight around the Moon, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen are preparing for their return to Earth scheduled for Friday, April 10, i.e. Saturday morning in Cyprus.
The astronauts are now tasked with reviewing reentry and splashdown procedures and conducting a return orbit correction burn.
Koch and Hansen will begin by storing the equipment they had during the mission, removing cargo and locker nets, installing and adjusting the crew seats to ensure all items are secured before returning to Earth.
As part of the day's activities, the crew will review the latest weather update, recovery force status, and entry schedule. Throughout the day, they will also review post-landing operations.
Orion's thrusters are scheduled to fire for the second reentry correction burn to further improve the spacecraft's path to Earth. The maneuver will further improve Orion's trajectory and ensure the spacecraft remains aligned for reentry. During the burn, Hansen will review the steps of the process and monitor Orion's guidance, navigation and propulsion systems.
As Artemis II nears its return to Earth, NASA teams on the ground are completing final preparations for Orion's reentry and landing at approximately 5:07 p.m. PDT on Friday, April 10, off the coast of San Diego, which is 3:7 a.m. Eastern Time on Saturday.
During reentry, the service module will separate about 20 minutes before Orion reaches the upper atmosphere southeast of Hawaii. If needed, a final orbit adjustment burn will refine the flight path before the spacecraft begins a series of maneuvers. Orion will reach its maximum speed – about 23.864 mph – just before reentry.
As Orion descends to about 400.000 feet, the spacecraft will enter a scheduled six-minute communications blackout as plasma forms around the capsule during peak heating. The crew is expected to experience up to 3,9 Gs.
After emerging from the communications outage, Orion will shed its forward fairing, deploy its parachutes near 22.000 feet, and then deploy its three main parachutes at about 6.000 feet to slow the capsule for landing off the coast of San Diego.
Within two hours of landing, the crew will be removed from Orion and flown to the USS John P. Murtha. Special teams will pick up the crew using helicopters, and once aboard the ship, the astronauts will undergo medical evaluations before boarding an aircraft bound for NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
What will happen next?
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NASA's latest plans include another mission in 2027 to test the system's capabilities closer to the lunar surface before sending astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time in more than 50 years, and also aims for annual lunar missions thereafter. The goal is to send astronauts to explore the Moon's South Pole for the first time in 2028.
The target
Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since XNUMX and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from XNUMX-XNUMX. In XNUMX–XNUMX she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.
The goal of the Artemis program, named after the Greek mythology goddess of hunting and the Moon, is to return humanity to the Moon and remain there permanently for research and robotic exploration of the Moon's poles.
Astronauts on the moon will work and reside for a long period of time in the permanent base that will be established with the help of space vehicles and 3D printers.
Of great importance to NASA is the exploitation of the natural wealth of the moon. The reason is that the natural wealth will allow NASA to take the greatest giant leap for humanity, which is the mission of the first humans to the planet Mars.
The role of Cyprus
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It is noted that Cyprus also has a role in the Artemis program since, through collaborations with the Cyprus Space Exploration Organization, possible solutions have been found to problems that occur with the health of astronauts through candidate special pharmaceutical treatments, as a result of research with the collaborating body of the International Center for Research and Innovation, which is the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics.
Source: KYPE
