NASA’s Orion spacecraft makes close flyby of the Moon and heads on to orbit

https://www.theverge.com ^ | Nov 22, 2022, 11:46 AM CST | By GEORGINA TORBET

[Red Badger]

NASA’s Orion capsule snaps a selfie, with the far side of the Moon in the background. Image: NASA

NASA’s Orion spacecraft has made it past the Moon as part of the uncrewed Artemis I mission, firing its engines to pass within 81 miles of the lunar surface, and is operating with high accuracy.

The spacecraft performed an outbound powered flyby burn yesterday, Monday, November 21st, completing its closest flyby. The engines “all worked perfectly,” said Judd Frieling, a flight director at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, in a press conference. With three trajectory correction burns performed, the spacecraft has now fired all three of its thruster types: its large orbital maneuvering system engine, small reaction control system thrusters, and medium-sized auxiliary engines.

Now Orion is traveling onward to its next target, a distant retrograde orbit beyond the Moon where it will spend approximately one week. To get there, the spacecraft will perform a second engine burn on Friday, November 25th, pushing it to around 57,000 miles beyond the Moon. It will then enter an orbit traveling the opposite way around the Moon from the direction in which the Moon orbits around the Earth.

The advantage of this distant orbit is that it uses little fuel, allowing Orion to stay there for around a week. During this time, Orion’s systems will be tested to check that they are ready for an eventual crewed mission called Artemis II.

According to NASA, the spacecraft has used 76 pounds less fuel than expected, meaning it has a little more breathing room available for the rest of the mission.

The Orion capsule sits in shadow to the left. To the right, the grey bulk of the Moon dominates the image. Between the two, Earth appears as a small blue and white ball.

NASA’s Orion capsule captures Earth and the Moon during the sixth day of the Artemis I mission. NASA

NASA also shared results from its review of the launch of the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket, which took place last week.

“The results were eye-watering,” said Mike Sarafin, Artemis I mission manager, in a press conference. “The rocket performed and / or exceeded expectations.” He went on to say that all the results were either as predicted or off by less than 0.3 percent.

However, there was an issue with the mobile launcher for the Space Launch System. The mobile launcher is the structure consisting of a base and tower which provides power and fuel to the rocket while on the ground. It was somewhat discolored and damaged in the launch. “The mobile launcher itself has a little bit of damage to it, but it will be ready to fly the crewed launch on Artemis II,” Sarafin said. The damage was around the mobile launcher deck, which was hit by exhaust from the boosters at a temperature of 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

Most of the deck was protected by systems designed to keep the hardware safe, but there was some damage to an elevator in the tower. “We had the world’s most powerful rocket, and the pressure basically blew the doors off our elevators,” Sarafin said. “Right now, the elevators are inoperable.”

There was also some damage to the pneumatic lines, and an investigation did find one piece of silicon material called RTV from the Orion spacecraft on the pad, which could have come loose either during launch or during Hurricane Nicole, which had previously caused some damage to the spacecraft.

Overall, officials said that the issues with the ground system were minor and will be repairable before the next flight of Space Launch System for the Artemis II mission, currently scheduled for 2024. Artemis I’s mission will continue until December 11th, when it will splash down in the ocean.

[fretzer]

>silicon material called RTV

That would be silicone, not silicon. You know, that stuff fake things are made from.

[NorthMountain]

1) Both Saturn-V and STS beat up the launcher, so it's hardly surprising that SLS did as well.

2) piece of silicon material called RTV NO. That's silicone (with an "e"), not silicon. Learning the difference is left as an exercise to the reader.

[wally_bert]

A better concept than building a spaceship to go to the moon, salvage all the junk up there, bring it back and selling.

Nod to Salvage One.

[dragnet2]

I did a lunar flyby last week.

Copernicus crater near center is about 58 miles in diameter. The crater floor is about 2.4 miles below the crater rim crest. Mountains rise from the center of the crater to a height of about 3000 feet. Note the line or trail of smaller craters to the right. This was a big impact.

f

[Steely Tom]

Ever read “The Man Who Sold The Moon” by Robert A. Heinlein?.....................

Many times.

"They're moving Hell, and I've got an option on the first five loads!"

[Red Badger]

Elon Musk is “Delos David “D. D.” Harriman”...............

[Steely Tom]

Elon Musk is “Delos David “D. D.” Harriman”...............

Pretty close.

Having read about a few of the great California success stories, I'm of the opinion that Heinlein was thinking of Henry J. Kaiser when he came up with old D.D., but I'm sure he would have liked Musk.

[Red Badger]

“Requiem_” was the sequel.................

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requiem_(short_story)

[SunkenCiv]

I’ve seen some young ignoramus spout how this is the first mission into deep space since the end of the Apollo program. Guess those self-esteem, deviant sex, and basketweaving classes didn’t cover it.

[Red Badger]

Depends on what his definition of ‘Deep Space’ is?!...................

[SunkenCiv]

Her. Most of the money has been spent on the STS and ISS in Earth orbit, but a great many missions have been sent beyond Earth. And the US has sent probes to the Moon as well.

[BiteYourSelf]

Where’s the earth shattering kaboom
?
There should have been an earth shattering kaboom.🤪

[BiteYourSelf]

Yah mean boobies?😁

[minnesota_bound]

All fake. This is done in a computer.

[George from New England]

Can’t explain it ..

Why isn’t the MSM showing photos are ANYTHING on this mission.

MSM loved the launch and now crickets.

[George from New England]

Also of note. 50 years ago the trips to the moon were ‘timed’ to arrive at moon either at the First Quarter or Last Quarter.
This is so communications both ways are void of solar noise interferences.
This Artemis 1 trip is ‘timed’ just as the sun goes behind the moon as in ‘New Moon’ time. Earth people will ‘see’ very noisy if not unusable data from the moon locale. This could last for days.
Just more stupid from nasa. I guess the wokeness outweights science again.

[Red Badger]

That would coincide with the MAGA agenda, so it’s suppressed..............

[kosciusko51]

They have the attention span of goldfish, and they’re busy blaming normal people for the insane person shooting up a club devoted to deviance.

[SunkenCiv]

Deep space missions (like the Mars flyby in the mid-60s) used then-expensive RAM to store images, due to the slow transmission speed for the images. Likely something like that technique will be used.

[George from New England]

I was just suggesting that the timing makes for more difficult communications due to solar noise.
If we send a command, we might not get a handshake in the return data.