AFP

Fifty years after the last Apollo mission, the Artemis program is poised to take up the baton of lunar exploration with a test launch on Monday of NASA’s most powerful rocket ever.

The goal is to return humans to the Moon for the first time since the last Apollo mission in 1972 — and eventually to Mars.

The 322-foot (98-meter) Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is scheduled to blast off at 8:33 am (1233 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida.

The mission, more than a decade in the planning, may be uncrewed, but is highly symbolic for NASA, which has been under pressure from China and private rivals such as SpaceX.

Hotels around Cape Canaveral are booked solid with between 100,000 and 200,000 spectators expected to attend the launch.

The massive orange-and-white rocket has been sitting on KSC’s Launch Complex 39B for a week.

“Ever since we rolled out to the pad last week, you can feel the excitement, the energy,” said Janet Petro, director of KSC. “It’s really, really palpable.”

The objective of the flight, baptized Artemis 1, is to test the SLS and the Orion crew capsule that sits atop the rocket.

Mannequins equipped with sensors will take the place of crew members, recording acceleration, vibration and radiation levels.

Cameras will capture every moment of the 42-day trip and include a selfie of the spacecraft with the Moon and Earth in the background.

– Splashdown in Pacific –

The Orion capsule will orbit around the Moon, coming within 60 miles (100 kilometers) at its closest approach and then firing its engines to get to a distance 40,000 miles beyond, a record for a spacecraft rated to carry humans.

One of the primary objectives of the mission is to test the capsule’s heat shield, which at 16 feet in diameter is the largest ever built.

On its return to the Earth’s atmosphere, the heat shield will have to withstand a speed of 25,000 miles per hour and a temperature of 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius).

Orion, its descent slowed by parachutes, will end its voyage with a splashdown off the coast of San Diego in the Pacific.

Monday’s liftoff will be at the mercy of the weather, which can be unpredictable in Florida at this time of year, and NASA has built in a two-hour launch window.

If the rocket is unable to take off on Monday, September 2 and 5 have been penciled in as alternative flight dates.

Otherwise, it’s all systems go.

NASA gave the green light for the mission on Tuesday after a detailed inspection known as a flight readiness review.

That doesn’t mean things can’t go wrong with a rocket and a capsule flying for the first time.

– ‘Inherent risk’ –

“We’re doing something that is incredibly difficult to do and does carry inherent risk in it,” said Mike Sarafin, the Artemis 1 mission manager.

Because it is an uncrewed flight, Sarafin said the mission will continue in conditions that would not be acceptable for a flight with astronauts.

“If we had a failed solar array deployment we would proceed, and that is something that we wouldn’t necessarily do on a crewed flight,” he said.

A complete failure would be devastating for a program that is costing $4.1 billion per launch and is already running years behind schedule.

The next mission, Artemis 2, will take astronauts into orbit around the Moon without landing on its surface. The crew of Artemis 3 is to land on the Moon in 2025 at the earliest.

While the Apollo astronauts who walked on the Moon were exclusively white men, the Artemis program plans to include the first woman and person of color.

And since humans have already visited the Moon, Artemis has its sights set on another lofty goal — an eventual crewed mission to Mars.

The Artemis program is to establish a lasting human presence on the Moon with an orbiting space station known as Gateway and a base on the surface.

Gateway would serve as a staging and refueling station for a voyage to Mars that would take a minimum of several months.

“I think it’s going to inspire even more than Apollo did,” Bob Cabana, associate NASA administrator and a former astronaut, said of Artemis. “It’s going to be absolutely outstanding.”

NASA’s Artemis 1 mission, scheduled to take off on Monday, is a 42-day voyage beyond the far side of the Moon and back.

The meticulously choreographed uncrewed flight should yield spectacular images as well as valuable scientific data.

– Blastoff –

The giant Space Launch System rocket will make its maiden flight from Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Its four RS-25 engines, with two white boosters on either side, will produce 8.8 million pounds (39 meganewtons) of thrust — 15 percent more than the Apollo program’s Saturn V rocket.

After two minutes, the thrusters will fall back into the Atlantic Ocean. 

After eight minutes, the core stage, orange in color, will fall away in turn, leaving the Orion crew capsule attached to the interim cryogenic propulsion stage.

This stage will circle the Earth once, put Orion on course for the Moon, and drop away around 90 minutes after takeoff.

– Trajectory –

All that remains is Orion, which will fly astronauts in the future and is powered by a service module built by the European Space Agency. 

It will take several days to reach the Moon, flying around 60 miles (100 kilometers) at closest approach.

“It’s going to be spectacular. We’ll be holding our breath,” said mission flight director Rick LaBrode. 

The capsule will fire its engines to get to a distant retrograde orbit (DRO) 40,000 miles beyond the Moon, a distance record for a spacecraft rated to carry humans.

“Distant” relates to high altitude, while “retrograde” refers to the fact Orion will go around the Moon the opposite direction to the Moon’s orbit around the Earth. 

DRO is a stable orbit because objects are balanced between the gravitational pulls of two large masses.

After passing by the Moon to take advantage of its gravitational assistance, Orion will begin the return journey.

– Journey home –

The mission’s primary objective is to test the capsule’s heat shield, the largest ever built, 16 feet (five meters) in diameter.

On its return to the Earth’s atmosphere, it will have to withstand a speed of 25,000 miles per hour and a temperature of 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius).

Slowed by a series of parachutes until it is traveling at less than 20 miles per hour, Orion will splashdown off the coast of San Diego in the Pacific.

Divers will attach cables to tow it in a few hours to a US Navy ship.

– The crew  –

The capsule will carry a mannequin called “Moonikin Campos,” named after a legendary NASA engineer who saved Apollo 13, in the commander’s seat, wearing the agency’s brand new uniform.

Campos will be equipped with sensors to record acceleration and vibrations, and will also be accompanied by two other dummies: Helga and Zohar, who are made of materials designed to mimic bones and organs.

One will wear a radiation vest while the other won’t, to test the impacts of the radiation in deep space.

– What will we see? –

Several on-board cameras will make it possible to follow the entire journey from multiple angles, including from the point of view of a passenger in the capsule.

Cameras at the end of the solar panels will take selfies of the craft with the Moon and Earth in the background.

– CubeSats –

Life will imitate art with a technology demonstration called Callisto, inspired by the Starship Enterprise’s talking computer.

It is an improved version of Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant, which will be requested from the control center to adjust the light in the capsule, or to read flight data.

The idea is to make life easier for astronauts in the future.

In addition, a payload of 10 CubeSats, shoebox-sized microsatellites, will be deployed by the rocket’s upper stage.

They have numerous goals: studying an asteroid, examining the effect of radiation on living organisms, searching for water on the Moon.

These projects, carried out independently by international companies or researchers, take advantage of the rare opportunity of a launch into deep space.

China’s autumn harvest is under “severe threat” from high temperatures and drought, authorities have warned, urging action to protect crops in the face of the country’s hottest summer on record.

The world’s second-largest economy has been hit by record temperatures, flash floods and droughts this summer — phenomena that scientists have warned are becoming more frequent and intense due to climate change.

Southern China has recorded its longest sustained period of high temperatures and sparse rain since records began more than 60 years ago, the agriculture ministry said.

Four government departments issued a notice on Tuesday urging the conservation of “every unit of water” to protect crops.

“The rapid development of drought superimposed with high temperatures and heat damage has caused a severe threat to autumn crop production,” the statement said.

China produces more than 95 percent of the rice, wheat and maize it consumes, but a reduced harvest could mean increased demand for imports in the world’s most populous nation — putting further pressure on global supply already strained by the conflict in Ukraine.

Temperatures as high as 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) have led multiple Chinese provinces to impose power cuts, as cities struggle to cope with a surge in demand for electricity that is partly driven by people cranking up the air conditioning to cope with the heat.

The megacities of Shanghai and Chongqing have cut outdoor decorative lighting, while authorities in Sichuan province have imposed industrial power cuts after water levels dropped at key hydroelectric plants.

More than 1,500 people were moved out of the area surrounding Chongqing on Monday after hot and dry conditions sparked multiple wildfires, according to state news agency Xinhua.

The searing heat is also drying up the critical Yangtze River, with water flow on its main trunk about 50 percent lower than the average over the last five years, state media outlet China News Service reported last week.

– ‘Worst heatwave ever’ –

The national meteorological service renewed its warnings for drought and high temperatures on Tuesday, calling for 11 provincial governments to activate emergency responses.

Authorities have already turned to cloud seeding — a method to induce rainfall — in parts of the country. 

State broadcaster CCTV published footage this month showing meteorological staff shooting catalyst rockets into the sky and firefighters transporting water to farmers in need.

“This is the worst heatwave ever recorded,” climate and energy expert Liu Junyan of Greenpeace East Asia told AFP.

“Climate science shows extreme heat is becoming exponentially worse,” she said.

“So it’s more likely that next year will have record-breaking heat.”

This year’s extreme weather is raising public awareness of climate change in China, with state media “now coming around to covering climate impacts” with unprecedented urgency, Liu said.

Government climate expert Zhou Bing warned over the weekend of mass displacement caused by climate change, describing extreme weather as nature’s “revenge” on humanity.

China has experienced three other episodes of intense heat so far this century — in 2003, 2013, 2017.

The gap between heatwaves is “significantly shortening”, Zhou said.