Will We Ever Get to the Moon Again
NASA has a plan: It's going to send a team of astronauts back to the moon for the outset time in more than v decades, including the outset adult female to stand on the lunar surface. Recently scientists have learned a whole lot more nigh our planet'due south largest satellite, only there'southward still a lot we have withal to understand virtually the moon and its place in the solar system. That'due south why going dorsum to the moon under the Artemis mission is so important.
But there are benefits beyond the scientific to visiting the moon — it can also help teach us how to survive abroad from our home planet and to explore further than e'er earlier. We spoke to astronaut Kjell Lindgren, a fellow member of NASA'due south Artemis Team from which the adjacent humans to walk on the moon will be selected, about why nosotros demand to go back there.
First the moon, then Mars
NASA is taking a two-pronged approach to a moon mission. There is certainly a dandy deal of scientific research to exist washed there, but NASA's aims aren't only scientific. The agency as well wants to plant a long-term moon base and to get practice at having astronauts alive on some other celestial body for extended periods of time. So Artemis is also virtually making technological advancements, or, in NASA parlance, in operational advancements.
"We're going to the moon because at that place's nevertheless and so much to acquire there, about the formation of the Globe and the moon, its place in the solar system, and nigh the universe in general. So I call up the scientific knowledge we're going to acquire is incredibly of import," Lindgren told Digital Trends. "But there are operational discoveries and practice that we need to larn as well. Nosotros all agree that our ultimate goal is to anytime get to Mars. And the moon provides a terrific platform where nosotros can practice a lot of the skills and procedures that nosotros're going to need for Mars."
Some of the practical issues faced on the moon which are comparable to missions to Mars including dealing with radiation and finding means to construct habitats or to build wearable radiation shielding. Astronauts who stay inside low-Earth orbit are largely protected from radiations from the World's magnetosphere. Simply venturing beyond that to the moon means astronauts will be subjected to levels of radiation that are 200 times higher than those on Earth.
"The journey to the moon will give us an opportunity to understand how the human body is afflicted by that radiation, and to learn more about that environs," Lindgren explained.
Practice on the ISS
We already have a lot of data well-nigh what information technology's similar for astronauts to alive in orbit thank you to decades of information from the International Infinite Station (ISS). But in that location are some key differences between living there and going to the moon. Lindgren is familiar with these differences, as he stayed on the ISS for 6 months in 2015.
"The International Space Station is unique in that information technology is a scientific platform. We're not really trained to fly the space station. Nosotros're trained to use that incredible platform to acquit science and research." Lindgren explained. So astronauts' functions reflect that. "That'south our job on the space station, to serve equally the eyes and ears and easily of the researchers on the ground to conduct scientific experiments."
Sometimes the astronauts on the ISS need to do operational tasks too, like maintaining or fixing parts of the station or adding new equipment. But the primary purpose of staying on the infinite station is scientific advancements.
The Artemis missions to the moon volition be dissimilar. The astronauts volition demand to learn to fly a spacecraft, to descend from orbit and country on the moon, to lift off from the surface, and return to Earth. And no 1 has done that for over l years.
Training for the moon
One of the challenges of a moon mission in this decade is that information technology'due south been so long since anyone performed a crewed lunar mission that much of the institutional noesis nigh how to achieve it has been lost every bit people retired from service. And then the new generation of astronauts too as engineers, mission controllers, and support staff are having to create new procedures and grooming structures.
"There's nobody in our generation who has prepared for a lunar mission," Lindgren said. "We know what the Apollo astronauts did, and so we have a flake of a framework of what's going to be expected of us."
The Artemis Ii mission will send a crew around the moon, and the Artemis 3 mission will send a crew to the moon'southward surface, so these teams will need lunar geology training. "For Artemis II, information technology'll be visual observation every bit they're going effectually the moon — the ability to look down and brand scientific observations," he said. "And of grade the Artemis III squad will exist very excited to practice field geology. That's going out and looking at the lunar landscape, identifying unlike rock formations, different types of lunar rock, and brand observations and collections for the team back at [NASA's] Johnson Space Middle."
Every bit well as scientific training, astronauts demand to go on themselves in good concrete condition and to spend time in NASA'due south supersonic jet preparation planes like the T-38 Talon. "That gives us an opportunity to practice eye-mitt coordination and inter-crew advice," in hard physical conditions, Lindgren explained. It's also an opportunity to practice procedures and simulated emergencies, to check the entire team is working smoothly together should anything go wrong.
A difference in gravity
On pinnacle of the scientific and communications training, there'southward the technical preparation astronauts need to perform their functions in infinite: operating robotic arms, going on spacewalks, using tools, and moving effectually in low gravity conditions. All of this requires a different approach in the 1/6th gravity of the moon than it does in the zero-gravity of the ISS.
"When we do spacewalk we practice that in the neutral buoyancy laboratory [NASA's behemothic pond pool where astronauts train in faux aught gravity on a replica of the ISS] and we work on the outside of the space station," Lindgren said. "Now nosotros're going to need to learn how to use the neutral buoyancy laboratory as a lunar practice surface area. So that means walking along the bottom and using tools and figuring out how to apply those tools effectively."
The gravity on the moon ways that, different in the ISS, tools will fall to the ground and accept some weight. Simply the astronauts will be able to jump high into the air and motion in a completely different way. "I call up one/6ths gravity is going to be amazing," Lindgren said. "Simply as novel as weightlessness is. Getting to alive and piece of work in that 1/6th gravity is going to be phenomenal."
For all humanity
To achieve both scientific and operational goals, the Artemis missions are going to demand a wide variety of skills sets and approaches.
That's why NASA has pointed out the diversity of its Artemis team, which includes men and women from a variety of different educational backgrounds and cultures. This tin help avoid pitfalls that arise when everyone on a project tends to think in the aforementioned fashion and to have a like arroyo. Lindgren, for instance, has a medical background and is certified in emergency and aerospace medicine. Other members of the Artemis Team have backgrounds in science or engineering in addition to those who come from the military machine.
"That variety of background and civilization, of educational background, it really brings a richness to our operations and then that not all of us are budgeted a problem as a fighter pilot, or as an engineer," Lindgren said. "We're bringing different perspectives and unlike backgrounds to that trouble solving, and nosotros're really benefiting from that."
And beyond the broad range of people in the NASA astronaut corps, the aim is to complete the Artemis mission with support from other countries besides, joining with international partners such equally other space agencies. "This mission of getting back to the lunar surface is actually for the benefit of humanity," Lindgren said.
A personal goal
Leaving World and heading off to explore across our planet is the dream of every astronaut, and the 18 members of the Artemis Team, along with the entire NASA astronaut corps, are gearing upward for this new mission with a great deal of excitement.
"For those of us who aspire to exist astronauts, the idea of landing and walking on the moon is front end and center. So to exist a role of the squad that'southward going to accomplish that is actually special," Lindgren said.
Whether he is able to assist in a scientific discovery or to assistance acquire how to support astronauts in exploring farther than ever before, Lindgren said he'd exist thrilled either way.
"I would dearest to be out on a lunar EVA [Extra Vehicular Action] and identify a stone which helps us unlock the origins of the Earth and moon," he said. "Just I'd likewise love to exist a part of that team that helps us refine our procedures and equipment so we tin say definitively, 'This is going slap-up and we're gear up to tackle Mars.'"
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Source: https://www.digitaltrends.com/features/why-nasa-artemis-moon-mission-kjell-lindgren/
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