Artemis goddess of the Moon and twin sister of Apollo (NASA, Scott Schafer, 2022).
The Artemis programme consists of a series of missions originally aimed at landing astronauts on the Moon by 2024 to study the surface with new technologies and to develop a sustainable exploration model that will help learn and improve space habitation in preparation for the next giant leap, sending astronauts to Mars.
Humans travelled to the Moon onboard 6 Apollo missions between 1968 and 1972. Of the 24 NASA astronauts that made the trip, half walked on the lunar surface, while the other half remained in orbit around our natural satellite (see Moonwalkers below).
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Updates
11 Dec 2022: Artemis 1 Splashdown.16 Nov 2022: Artemis 1 Launch.
Background
NASA's Artemis Programme.UPDATES
Artemis 1 – Splashdown 11 December 2022
Artemis 1 splashed down on Dec 11, 2022, 17:40:30 UTC west of Baja California after a 25-day uncrewed flight around the Moon. It performed a skip-reentry profile that spreads out the deceleration (g-loads) over a longer period by aerodynamically "bouncing off" the atmosphere during the initial reentry and then reentering a second time shortly after.
Travelling at 38,200 km/h as it approached the Earth, it entered the atmosphere at that speed at an altitude of 113 km. Then performed a re-entry at 87 km of altitude with a speed of 26,000 km/h, followed by further deceleration. The first set of parachutes were deployed at 8 km of altitude slowing down the vehicle from 500 to 200 km/h, the second set was deployed at 2 km of altitude bringing the speed to 25 km/h required for splashed down.
Watch the last 25 minutes of the return home from the perspective of a GoPro Hero 4 camera inside Orion.
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Artemis 1 – Launch 16 November 2022
Artemis 1 was an uncrewed Moon-orbiting mission that launched on 16 November 2022 from Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA. It was the first major spaceflight of NASA’s Artemis Programme, with the main objective of testing its components and the land support systems.
Artemis 1 launch on 16 November 2022 (NASA, 2022).The mission was an integrated system that consisted of the Orion spacecraft, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the ground systems at the launch site.
The first two launch attempts were cancelled due to a faulty engine temperature on 29 August 2022 and Hydrogen leak during fuelling on 03 September 2022. Each time, the SLS was rolled out and back to NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) where building and repairs were carried out.
The Artemis 1 vehicle was a Block 1 variant of the SLS: A core stage, two solid rocket boosters and an upper stage. The core stage had x4 RS-25D refurbished engines previously flown by the Space Shuttle around the turn of the century. The boosters also come from the Shuttle era and each contains a single motor and nozzle. The upper stage had a single RL10B-2 engine.
At launch, the core and boosters produced 4,000 tons of thrust at liftoff.
Journey and destination
After liftoff, the solid rocket boosters separated and splashed down on the ocean. Later, the Launch Abort System was jettisoned and the core stage separated to descend and also splash down.
Once in Earth’s orbit, the upper stage gained speed with a Perigee Raise burn and then a Trans-Lunar Injection (TLI) burn that placed the Orion spacecraft on a trajectory to the Moon. At 3,700 km of altitude, Orion separated from the second stage to continue towards the Moon.
Outside Earth’s orbit most of the CubeSats were deployed in 2 stages, the last one was released near the moon’s orbit.
Three weeks later Orion came within 130km from the lunar surface and entered Lunar Orbit. Orion reached a distance of 432,210 km away from Earth becoming the farthest distance from Earth travelled by an Earth-returning human-rated spacecraft, a record previously held by After Apollo 13 (400,171 km).
Orion orbited the Moon from 25 November to 01 December 2022, when it began its journey back home.
Artemis 1: Left: Orion looking back at the Earth, 16 November. Right: Orion approaching the Moon, 20 November 2022 (NASA, 2022).
Artemis 1: Orion closest to the Moon, 04 December 2022 (NASA, 2022).
The following graphic shows a summary of Artemis 1 mission. The journey consisted of 9 days, 10 hr outbound, 6 days in lunar orbit and 9 days 19 hr return, making a total of 25 days.
Artemis 1: Mission summary (NASA, 2022).
Artemis 1 Payload
Mannequins with sensors. Three mannequins were installed in the Orion Spacecraft:
- NASA’s “Captain Moonikin Campos” that recorded data on what the crew will experience.
- German Aerospace Centre’s “Helga” phantom torso measured radiation exposure without a vest. Its dosimetres detected radiation levels at stem-cell-concentration tissue locations.
- Israel Space Agency’s “Zohar” phantom torso tested the AstroRad radiation vest. The comparison provided data on the effectiveness of the vest.
Mannequins: Captain Moonikin Campos on the cockpit wearing orange.Left: AstroRad vest. Right from top: Helga and Zohar wearing the Astrorad vest (NASA, 2022).
Technology demonstration: Amazon and Cisco in collaboration with Lockheed Martin developed “Callisto” that uses video conferencing and the Amazon Alexa Virtual Assistant to interact with mission control. They also posted messages from the public that were displayed at Orion.
The zero-G indicators selected by the teams: NASA sent a plush doll of “Snoopy” wearing an orange astronaut suit, and ESA sent “Shaun the Sheep” wearing an ESA blue suit.
Orion capsule interior showing Captain Moonikin Campos on the pilot seat, the Callisto techno demonstration in the centre.Right: Floating Snoopy (green circle), enlarged for better view. Also, Shaun the Sheep from ESA (NASA. 2022).
Artemis 1 CubeSats
A CubeSat is a small satellite with a limit of 2 kg and a form factor of 10 cm. 10 CubeSats were carried in the Stage Adapter above the Second Stage. From those, 7 were selected by 3 groups at NASA and 3 were submitted by international partners.
- ArgoMoon by the Italian Space Agency, designed by Argotec to image the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage. Operational.
- EQUULEUS by the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) and the University of Tokyo to image the Earth’s plasmasphere and craters on the far side of the Moon. Operational.
- OMOTENASHI by JAXA, a lunar probe that would have attempted to land using solid rocket motors. The CubeSat failed to start.
- BioSentinel by NASA to detect effects of deep space radiation on yeast card rehydrated in space. Operational.
- Lunar IceCube by Morehead State Univesity, USA., to orbit the moon and detect water and organic compoundsin the surface and exosphere with imfrared spectrometry. Contact was lost after launch.
- Lunar Polar Hydrogen Mapper by NASA’s SIMPLEx programme aimed at orbiting the Moon and look for lunar water ice in permanently shadowed craters using a neutron detector. Engines failed to ignite and was lost.
- LunIR by Lockheed Martin to flyby the Moon and record thermography. Communications were lost and no data was collected during flyby.
- Near-Earth Asteroid Scout by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, would have flown by a near-earth asteroid using a Solar Sail. Communications were lost after launch and was lost.
- Solar Particles by the Southwest Research Institute, USA, was to orbit the Sun and study particle and magnetic activity. Contact was lost after launch.
- Team Miles by Fluid and Reason, USA., to demonstrate low-thrust plasma propulsion in deep space. Contact was not established after deployment.
Of the 10 CubeSats launched with Artemis 1, three remained operational after deployment. The remaining 7 failed.
END of UPDATES
BACKGROUND
NASA’s Artemis Programme
The Artemis Programme was established in 2017 with the goal of returning to the Moon through five increasingly complex missions. The main element is the Space Launch System (SLS), a super heavy-lift expendable launch vehicle derived from developments that started with the Space Shuttle (1981-2011).
For each launch, the central Core Stage, built by Boeing, reuses and expends 4 pre-flown RS-25D refurbished engines demounted from the Space Shuttles (14 engines were left over). The stage contains liquid Oxygen and Hydrogen.
Solid Boosters Releasing fromthe Space Shuttle (NASA, 2007).
SLS also uses two solid rocket boosters, also derived and refurbished from the Shuttle, they are filled with a composite propellant composed of Aluminium powder as fuel and Ammonium perchlorate as oxidiser, bound together with Polybutadiene acrylonitrile, a propellant fuel.
After 10 years of development, the first SLS launched from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on 16 November 2022 carrying the Artemis 1 mission (see below).
Space Launch System (SLS): Top: SLS at launch. 3D model. Solid Boosters. Bottom: Core Stage rollout from the building station (NASA, 2011).
SLS missions
Artemis 1. Launched 16 November 2022
The mission tested the SLS and the Orion spacecraft, reaching a polar lunar orbit that was kept for 6 days. Upon re-entry, the heatshield experienced more erosion than expected but splashed down in the Pacific Ocean successfully (see Updates).
Artemis 2. Launched 01 April 2026
First crewed flight to orbit the Moon and return to Earth in a similar way to Apollo 8 (1968) (see relevant blogpost).
Artemis 3. Launch 2027
Crewed mission that will practice docking test in low Earth orbit with a lunar landers developed and launched separately by Space X (Starship HLS) and Blue Origin (Blue Moon). The crew will also test the space suit known as the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU). This mission is comparable to Apollo 9 (1969).
Artemis 4. Launch 2028
Planned to land on the Moon. A prior support flight will place a lander in lunar orbit to which the crew will dock and use for landing and returning to the orbiting Orion that will take the crew back to Earth. This mission is comparable to Apollo 11 (1969).
Artemis 5. Launch 2028
Expected to perform the second lunar landing to begin the build of the Moon Base.
The SLS has various configurations that can be adapted to the needs of the mission and to the payload requirements.
SLS configurations with different payload capacities, some with the Orion capsule for crew atop (NASA, 2021).
Support missions
Lander vehicles are being developed separately by SpaceX and Blue Origin. Both will autonomously gain lunar orbit before the crewed flights arrive. Both plan on using refueling in Earth’s orbit before departing to the Moon.
SpaceX is developing the Starship Human Landing system (HLS), a variant of the Starship currently tested. It will transport crew from Lunar orbit to Lunar Surface, support them for 7 days and return to meet the Orion capsule in orbit.
Blue Origin is developing the Blue Moon landers Mark 1 and 2. Mark 1 will autonomously land on the moon with a 3-ton cargo that includes a Lunar Rover and infrastructure for a Moon base. Mark 2 will transport Crew to the surface and able to support them for up to 30 days.
Left: Mark 1 and Mark 2 landers developed by Bue Origin. Right: Spaceship HLS lander developed by SpaceX (NASA, Blue Origin, SpaceX, 2021).
REFERENCES
» NASA (2022) Artemis. NASA. [Online article]. Available at NASA.gov. Accessed: 08 September 2022.
» NASA (2026) Space Launch System. NASA. [Online article]. Available at NASA.gov. Accessed: 08 September 2022.
» NASA (2022) The Artemis Accords. NASA. [Online article]. Available at NASA.gov. Accessed: 08 September 2022.
» NASA (2026) The Moon. NASA. [Online article]. Available at NASA.gov. Accessed: 27 March 2026.
» NASA (2022) Who Has Walked on the Moon? NASA, Solar system exploration, 20 July 2022. [Online article]. Available at solarsystem.nasa.gov. Accessed: 08 September 2022.
» Wikipedia (2022) Artemis. [Online article]. Available at Wikipedia.org. Accessed: 08 September 2022.
» Wikipedia (2022) Artemis I. [Online article]. Available at Wikipedia.org. Accessed: 27 March 2026.
» Wikipedia (2026) Blue Moon (spacecraft). [Online article]. Available at Wikipedia.org. Accessed: 27 March 2026.
» Wikipedia (2026) Shuttle-derived vehicle. [Online article]. Available at Wikipedia.org. Accessed: 27 March 2026.
» Wikipedia (2026) Starship HLS. [Online article]. Available at Wikipedia.org. Accessed: 27 March 2026.
== END of Artemis + Artemis 1 ===
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