Artemis SLS, Starship... Do you know any of these names? No? Don't worry, most people don’t. These names correspond to spacecraft, and in this blog post, I will try to explain as much as possible about them. We will talk about their tests and production timelines. If you want to stay updated, follow EVERYDAY ASTRONAUT on YouTube.
First, we will start with Artemis. Artemis it’s the program that will land "the first woman and the next man" on the Moon. The program is mainly financed by NASA but expects international partnerships to play a critical role in advancing Artemis as the next step towards the long-term goal of establishing an expedition team and a sustainable presence on the Moon, laying the foundation for private companies to build a lunar economy, and eventually sending humans to Mars. This mission will serve as a test for more advanced Mars missions.
The SLS (Space Launch System), is a NASA-made rocket that uses 2 SRBs or solid rocket boosters which can be found on the space shuttle but these are a bit stretched upwards. SLS will also use 4 RS-25 engines on the first stage, these 4 engines are also found on the space shuttle, but the shuttle only used 3.
The first mission will be unmanned (that means that no crew will be needed). They will use 3 things to get there and thousands to be ready, they will need a gateway which is the name for the lunar space station, they will also need a separately launched lander and separately launched crew. These missions will start to take place in 2024 according to NASA.
Starship is our next spacecraft. This one is made by private company Space X. This spacecraft was tested many times and its most recent one was a crash, but not a failure. Elon Musk himself said there was a 10-15% chance that it would land. This test was unmanned as well and will keep testing with different models.
The starship uses many engines. I don’t know the exact number, but these engines are new; they are called Raptor engines and were made by Space X themselves. I will record a video making a replica of the hop that SN8 did on a simulation game called Kerbal Space Program. You can watch my video replica here. This rocket is a concept to make colonies on the moon and Mars or even on other planets, but they will start with the Moon and Mars.
This is very educational and interesting Diego, good work! You are so knowledgeable. I'll have to check out Everyday Astronaut to stay in touch with current developments. I like how you explained different projects in development and details about each, very cool! If you could visit any place in space, where would you go?
ReplyDeleteI would go to the moon then mars, I would go to the moon first because the moon not having an atmosphere it would be easier for the starship to lift off from earth then land on the moon re fuel and then lift off to Mars.
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