(L-R) Astronauts Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman and Christina Hammock Koch after being selected for the Artemis II mission to venture around the Moon. Photo: AFP / Mark Felix
The spacecraft that could soon carry four people on a historic lunar mission, NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion capsule, is to take centre stage, making an hours-long journey from the agency's Vehicle Assembly Building to a launchpad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The event on Saturday (local time), known as rollout, marked the first baby steps on what will be an unprecedented - and, for some, perhaps unexpected - path.
The 10-day mission, called Artemis II, will lift off as soon as 6 February, taking NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch as well as the Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen to the vicinity of the moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972.
The crew of four will travel beyond the far side of the moon, which could set a new record for the farthest distance humans have ever travelled from Earth, currently held by Apollo 13. It will also make history as the first trip beyond low-Earth orbit for a person of colour, a woman and a Canadian astronaut.
But why won't Artemis II land on the lunar surface?
"The short answer is because it doesn't have the capability. This is not a lunar lander," said Patty Casas Horn, deputy lead for Mission Analysis and Integrated Assessments at NASA.
"Throughout the history of NASA, everything that we do is a bit risky, and so we want to make sure that that risk makes sense, and only accept the risk that we have to accept, within reason.
"So we build out a capability, then we test it out, then we build out a capability, then we test it out. And we will get to landing on the moon, but Artemis II is really about the crew."
Artemis I, the programme's 25-day, uncrewed debut mission, launched in November 2022 and orbited the moon.
NASA's Artemis II Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft were rolled out of the Kennedy Space Center on Saturday, ahead of the crewed lunar mission. Photo: Jim Watson / AFP
The upcoming flight is the first time that people will be on board the Artemis spacecraft: The Orion capsule will carry the astronauts around the moon, and the SLS rocket will launch Orion into Earth orbit before the crew continues deeper into space.
"Now, with our four humans on board, we'll be testing out a lot of new capabilities that were not there for Artemis I," Horn said.
"For example, we need to keep the vehicle thermally stable, because humans need to be comfortable. But when you add people to a spacecraft, you add a lot of moisture to the air, too.
"They also need food. They need water. They need toilets. We ... also have some exercise devices on Orion this time that we're going to be testing."
NASA's priorities for Artemis II are clear, Horn added. And there's plenty to do without touching the lunar surface. Crew safety and health come first, which includes getting the astronauts back home.
Vehicle safety and health are secondary, and the mission objectives - such as testing navigation, propulsion and other onboard systems - come after that.
Similarities to Apollo 8
Artemis II's mission profile draws some parallels to Apollo 8, which launched in 1968 and took humans to the vicinity of the moon for the first time.
That mission, too, did not land on the lunar surface. It was, however, the first crewed launch of the Saturn V rocket and the first time astronauts were able to see and photograph the far side of the moon.
Like Artemis II, Apollo 8 launched at a time when the programme's lunar lander - called the Apollo Lunar Module - was not ready for a crewed flight.
As a result, NASA changed the mission profile from lunar lander training to translunar navigation training. (Lunar lander training ultimately happened during Apollo 9.)
This NASA image shows the first colour image of the Earth taken by the Apollo 8 astronauts on Christmas Eve, 1968. Photo: HO / NASA / AFP
The Artemis programme's first planned lunar lander is called the Starship HLS, or Human Landing System, and is currently under development by SpaceX.
During the Artemis III mission, which is scheduled to lift off by 2028, astronauts will launch aboard the Orion capsule using the Space Launch System rocket.
Once in lunar orbit, Orion will dock with the Starships HLS and two astronauts will transfer to the lunar lander for their journey to the surface.
Notably, there are questions about Starship's lunar lander development timeline, which has prompted NASA to consider contracting another company for the job.
Horn acknowledged the similarities between Artemis II and Apollo 8 but also noted key differences.
"Apollo 8 actually went into lunar orbit, did 10 revolutions and then came home," she said.
"We are not actually going into lunar orbit - Artemis II is a 'free return', meaning that once we leave Earth's orbit, we're already on our way home.
"We're just going to swing around the moon, and that's the beauty of it. Any number of things may go wrong, and that crew is still going to come back to Earth without having to do any other major burns," she added, referring to the firing of the spacecraft's engines.
Nasa's Orion spacecraft with the moon and Earth in the background in November 2022. Photo: NASA Johnson
There might be another parallel between the two missions, according to James W. Head, a professor of earth, environmental and planetary sciences at Brown University who worked on the Apollo programme.
"Apollo 8 was at Christmas time, so everybody was home watching it on TV. It gave people the sense that we were actually going to the moon. It was an awakening for the country and the world," he said.
"Artemis II will be that same kind of awakening moment - we're going back to the moon. Here are these four brave astronauts making observations of the moon and looking back at the Earth after over 50 years.
"It's going to be new. With all the confusion that's going on on Earth today, it could even be a force for bringing people together. There's a higher purpose here. There's something that we all need to band together to do."
Head also believes that the Apollo and Artemis programmes are linked by the rigourous approach to testing each component before mission deployment.
"The Artemis spacecraft, this is only the second time it's flown. You don't want to rush things," he said.
"Just like Apollo, you test every element one step at a time. That's why it's not landing, because it's the first time it's been essentially tried. So, it makes complete sense. It's just how NASA does missions, to ensure not just human safety, but mission success."
A bigger scope?
The current record for the farthest distance from Earth ever travelled by humans is 400,171 kilometres, set by Apollo 13 in 1970.
Artemis I already surpassed that distance, but without a crew. Now, there's a chance that Artemis II will beat Apollo 13's record with humans on board, although doing so isn't a certainty, according to Horn.
"It depends on when we fly. The trajectory is constantly changing because it is optimised for the best propulsion usage," she said.
NASA currently has a number of possible flight dates for Artemis II, starting 6 February and ending 30 April.
A group of eight astronauts and flight controllers monitor the console activity in the Mission Operations Control Room during the Apollo 13 lunar landing mission in April 1970. Photo: HO / NASA / AFP
The mission will begin with two revolutions around Earth, before starting the translunar injection - the manoeuvre that will take the spacecraft out of Earth orbit and on toward the moon - about 26 hours into the flight, Horn said.
"That's when we set up for the big burn - it's about six minutes in duration. And once we do this, you're on your way back to Earth.
"There's nothing else that you need to do. You're going to go by the moon, and the moon's gravity is going to pull you around and swing you back towards the Earth. Everybody's waiting for that big burn after launch."
Avoiding entering lunar orbit keeps the mission profile simpler, allowing the crew to focus on other tasks as there is no need to pilot the spacecraft in any way.
But would the scope of the mission be different if the lunar lander were ready for use?
"The value of incorporating other mission objectives like rendezvous, flying a trajectory involving a lunar orbit, and landing would have been assessed against the risk of first-time flight and use of all the new vehicle capability," Horn said.
"I think that the mission would have potentially evolved beyond its current scope, but there's quite a few variables at play."
- CNN
