Has Artemis II demonstrated that we can again land on the Moon?

 

Nasa has released stunning images from the mission, including our world setting below the lunar surface(Image: NASA)

 

Nasa's Artemis II mission has passed every major test since its launch on 1 April, with its rocket, spacecraft and crew performing better than engineers had dared to hope for.

 The first six days of the mission have demonstrated, in a way that no simulator could, that the Orion capsule functions as intended with people aboard for the first time. Perhaps its greatest achievement, though, is through the actions of the Artemis crew, which have generated hope, agency and optimism for a world appearing to be in desperate need of inspiration.

 But the bigger question is still whether or not a Moon landing by 2028, as Nasa and President Trump hope, is now a realistic objective.

READ MORE: Earthset and a solar eclipse: Nasa releases first images from Moon fly-by

What Artemis II has taught us so far

The most significant lesson about Artemis II had already been learned a few days before Nasa's Space Launch System (SLS) reached the Kennedy Space Center launch pad. "Launching a rocket as important and as complex as SLS every three years is not a path to success," Nasa Administrator Jared Isaacman stated after two scrubbed launches in February and March due to distinct technical issues. In November 2022, the initial uncrewed Artemis I mission launched.

He stated that the agency needed to stop treating each rocket "like a work of art" and begin launching with the frequency of a serious program. In essence, it was a declaration that learning the same things over and over again every three years had to stop. That is significant because it reframes everything that has occurred since. What has the mission shown us in the six days since Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen took off on April 1? In light of that ambition, what has the mission shown us? The short answer is more than anyone could have possibly hoped for.

A suprisingly smooth ride said the astronauts as Nasa's most powerful rocket took them into Earth orbit last week (image: NASA)

A Rocket that did the job

The SLS generated 8.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff and, by every measure engineers care about, performed to plan.  Each phase of the ascent was, in the understated language of mission control, "nominal": maximum dynamic pressure, main engine cut-off and booster separation.

 Two of the three planned course corrections on the way to the Moon were scrapped because the trajectory was already so accurate they were not needed.  As Dr Simeon Barber, space scientist at the Open Univertsity, put it: "Credit to them - they got it right the first time."

The crucial moment occurred a day after launch. The translunar injection burn, during which Orion fired its main engine for five minutes and fifty-five seconds, put the spacecraft on a looping path to the Moon without requiring any major maneuvers. The powerful engine burn was "flawless" according to the head of the Artemis programme, Dr Lori Glaze.

L-R Jeremy Hansen, Christina Koch, Reid Wiseman and Victor Glover were also guinea pigs to test how humans interacted with the spacecraft (Image: NASA)

Humans in the machine

The official purpose of this mission is to put people inside Orion and find out what happens - not just to the spacecraft, but to the interaction between crew and machine.  What has unfolded is precisely what was anticipated, and precisely what could not have been learned in a simulator.

 There have been toilet problems.  The crew had to bag water as a precaution due to an issue with the water dispenser. An early press conference mentioned a minor redundancy loss in one of the helium systems, which was quietly fixed. "This is all about putting humans in the loop - these pesky humans that press buttons, breathe carbon dioxide, want air conditioning, and want to use the toilet," Barber observed. It was all about how the system works with those guys on board."

Engineers are proving that Orion is safe enough to carry humans to the Moon by monitoring the CO2 removal system during back-to-back exercise sessions or testing how the spacecraft handles with the thrusters deliberately disabled. "Orion itself seems to have worked pretty well, actually - certainly all the propulsion stuff, which is the real critical stuff," was Barber's overall assessment.

Great science or Nasa hype?

NASA has talked up the scientific returns.  The crew made extensive observations during their flyby - around 35 geological features noted in real time, colour variations that could reveal mineral composition, and a solar eclipse from deep space that pilot Victor Glover said "just looks unreal."

 One image stood out: the Orientale basin, a 600-mile crater near the far side of the Moon that was seen in its entirety for the first time with human eyes. However, the science is not the primary focus. Professor Chris Lintott of Oxford, co-host of The Sky at Night, was blunt: "The artistic value of the images returned from Artemis and its crew is significant, but their scientific value is limited."

 In 2023, India's Chandrayaan-3 landed close to the south pole. China's Chang'e-6 retrieved samples from the far side in 2024.  This area has been mapped in incredible detail by robotic probes.

The most affecting moment came not from any instrument, but from the crew.  As the astronauts broke the distance record set by the stricken Apollo 13 crew in 1970, Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen called down to Mission Control in Houston.

 He stated that there was a bright spot northwest of Glushko crater on the nearside-farside boundary. His voice became more dense, "We lost a loved one." "She was Carroll; she was Reid's wife and the mother of Katie and Ellie. And we would like to call it Carroll."  Forty-five seconds of silence followed.  Wept Commander Reid Wiseman. The crew embraced.  Back on Earth, his daughters were watching from Houston.

 Beyond sentiment, that moment is significant. Space programs don't last long if they can't make real, unscripted human emotions. In addition to its engineering, Apollo's message about human reach and bravery is what keeps it in cultural memory. Artemis II made the same assertion at that time.

Orion's heatshield will be tested as it renters the Earths atmosphere (Image: NASA)

The biggest test to come

The mission is not over.  Orion is heading home, due to splash down in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego on 11 April.

 What remains is re-entry into Earth's atmosphere - the moment that caused so much anxiety after Artemis I, when unexpected heat shield damage triggered an investigation that delayed this mission by more than a year.  At roughly 25,000 mph (40,000 km/h), the Orion capsule will enter the atmosphere. That is the test that no simulator can duplicate, and its outcome will be more important to the legacy of this mission than any image of the far side of the Moon. If re-entry goes well, the picture that emerges from Artemis II will be genuinely encouraging.  The rocket worked.  The spacecraft worked.  The crew dealt with the systems with skill and grace. And Nasa has at last articulated a credible plan to build on this moment rather than wait three years and start again.

 A moon landing by 2028 is still a long way off. Barber's instinct is that it is more like three to four years away, and that judgement is hard to argue with.

 But the smoothness of this mission - from launch to lunar flyby - has shifted the probability in the right direction.  Orion's ability to fly is no longer the issue. The question is whether the pace can be maintained by the landers, the cadence, and the political will. At least the spacecraft has done its part. Artemis II a story of inspiration and a story of science.  The events of last night had echoes of the Apollo programme.  This was a moment in time when we could for one night remember that we are one, at a time when the world lacks optimism, just as the 1960s did with wars all over the world and civil unrest in the United States. That picture of the Earth is visible to us. This is only a test flight for an eventual landing on the Moon—not just one, but many more to come—and it is by no means the end of the story.

Source: BBC