Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio, Hey brain Stuff. Lauren Vogel bomb here. After its first two launch attempts were scrub NASA's Artemis one mission finally lifted off from Kennedy Space Center's Pad thirty nine B in the early hours of November six. The last time that NASA astronauts walked on the lunar surface was nearly
half a century ago. Those Apollo missions to the Moon were named after the Greek god of the Sun. In a way, it makes far more sense for these new Moon missions to be named after Artemis, Greek goddess of the Moon and Apollo's twin sister. The missions will also land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon. Artemis one is essentially an unscrewed rehearsal for crude flight that will journey to the Moon and
land somewhere in its southern polar region. It's the first integrated test of the Orion spacecraft, the Space Law System or SLS, rocket, and the ground systems at Kennedy. The SLS is the most powerful rocket ever developed, and the Orion spacecraft has ventured farther than any vehicle designed for humans. Has ever flown, traveling two hundred and eighty thousand miles that's four hundred and fifty thousand kilometers from Earth to
a location beyond the far side of the Moon. As of this recording, it's on its way home, scheduled to return to Earth on Sunday, December eleven. It will have been in space for forty two days, longer than any human spacecraft that hasn't been docked to a space station.
After coming within about eighty miles or undred thirty kilometers of the Moon's surface and traveling a total of one point three million miles that's two point one million kilometers, Artemis Ones arind spacecraft will have a targeted splash down in the Pacific Ocean, somewhere off the coast of San Diego. One of the main objectives is to test Orion's heat shield when it re enters Earth's atmosphere, but this mission's go olds to demonstrate complete operational capabilities during all of
its phases. For the article, this episode is based on hows to work. Spoke with Craig hard Grove, an associate professor at Arizona State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration. He was born, making him too young to remember the last time that astronauts walked on the Moon. He said, I'm hopeful that this is the start of, you know, a new future for people in space. Hard Grove has
another reason to be excited about the mission. He's the principal investigator for the Luna h MAP cubes at, one of ten different shoebox sized miniature space probes that rode into space on Artemus one with the intention of being left in lunar orbit. It's science mission is to measure neutrons that are being leaked by the Moon in an effort to identify how much water ice is there and
where it's located around the Moon's south pole. The Luna h MAP unfortunately encountered some propulsion problems during the trip, and we've yet to see how its mission will play out. But mapping those water deposits someday could provide NASA with the ingredients to make rocket fuel, enabling a future in which spacecraft could be lighter and cheaper because they wouldn't have to haul fuel from Earth's surface. The ability to refuel at a lunar base could also enable NASA to
venture farther and deeper into space than ever before. The Artemis one mission will perform other scientific research as well. Instead of human astronauts, the Orion spacecraft contains two mannequin like devices that are designed to measure potential radiation exposure to astronauts and particularly female astronauts, during the trip. That research is especially crucial because the female bodies have greater sensitivity to the effects of space radiation, and nine of
the eighteen Artemis astronauts are women. The project is meant to gather data about which parts of our anatomy are most at risk from space radiation, and thus to help design future systems to protect space travelers. How Stuff Works also spoke with Matt Siegler, a research scientist at Southern Methodist University and the Planetary Science Institute who isn't involved in Artemis one, but has participated in research on other
NASA missions. He explained, like Apollo, before we strop our best and brightest astronauts to the top of a rocket, we need to test it. So this launch will carry no people, but it will carry exact copies of all the systems we will need when they do go, and
instruments to make sure all is functioning as planned. Siegler is also excited about scientists having greater access to the Moon, which he describes as quote a treasure trove of the history of the Solar System because things change so slowly.
There After Artemis one, NASA will proceed ahead to Artemis two, possibly in the spring of That flight will be crewed by human astronauts, paving the way for Artemis three at the earliest, which will include a piloted land on the Moon's surface a NASA has announced thirteen potential landing spots on the Moon near its south pole, each one containing
multiple landing sites for Artemis three. All thirteen will have areas with continuous access to sunlight during the time period that NASA plans for astronauts to be on the lunar surface. The sunlight is critical for long term stays on the Moon because it's the source of power for solar cells and because it keeps temperatures more steady. The Ryan spacecraft's re entry into the Earth's atmosphere will provide an important
test of Artemis one's safety. It will enter the atmosphere to speed of about twenty five thousand miles an hour. That's forty kilometers an hour and slow to about one percent of that speed as it descends. In the process, the friction will create temperatures of approximately five thousand degrees fahrenheit or two thousand, eight hundred degrees celsius. After deploying its parachutes, the spacecraft will slow to less than twenty miles an hour or thirty two kilometers an hour before splashdown.
And in addition to the aforementioned mannequins, Artemus one has two additional passengers, stuffed toys of Snoopy wearing an orange NASA space flight suit and Sean, the sheep representing the European Space Agency in a blue flight suit of his own. A Snoopy and Sean aren't merely going for a joy ride. They have a job to do. They're zero gravity indicators. When they start to float in the cabin, it means
Artemis has reached the weightlessness of micro gravity. The Snoopy, of course, is the beagle from Peanuts, created by cartoonist Charles Schultz in fifty If you're wondering why Snoopy, of all characters, he has experience. In nineteen sixty nine, the Apollo ten crew nicknamed their module Snoopy because it's snooped around the Moon to check out the proposed landing site
for the Apollo eleven mission. The command module was nicknamed Charlie Brown after the dog's cartoon owner, and a snoopy toy did previously fly on the clumb be A Space Shuttle. And this is not the only snoopy space fact. There are also the fabric hoods that astronauts have long worn under their helmets. In the Apollo era, they had big pouches on both sides of the head to hold communications equipment. These were known as snoopy caps because they've looked like
the beagles black ears. Luckily, for future artemis astronauts, communications have come a long way in the past half century, and the much smaller equipment no longer requires a bulky cap. Meanwhile, it is Shawn's first time going to space, and the e s A has extensively documented his training process. Go ahead and google Shawn the Sheep e s A Blog. It is so worthwhile. Sean is, of course a protagonist of stop motion cartoons created by Nick Park about his
inclusion in the mission. The e s as Director for Human and Robotic Exploration one David Parker said in a press release, this is an exciting time for Shawn and for us at E s A. We're wooly very happy that he's been selected for the mission, and we understand that although it may be a small step for a human,
it's a giant leap for lamb kind. Today's episode is based on the articles Artemis One is Headed for the Moon written by Patrick J. Keiger and Snoopy and Sean the Sheep Are Set for the Moon, written by Christen hall Geisler, both for house toff works dot com. The rain Stuff is production of My Heart Radio and partnership with howstuff Works dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Klang.
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