Of course, you might ask, ‘when is NASA NOT preparing something big?’. The American space agency has sent humans to the Moon, gathered many pictures from deep space, and so on. But its new Space Launch System megarocket may represent the most ambitious project yet, as it shall be used for future Artemis moon missions.
Therefore, NASA ordered 18 more rocket engines that value $1.79 billion. Aerospace company Aerojet Rocketdyne will provide 18 RS-25 engines for SLS rockets. LS engines manager Johnny Heflin declared the following:
We’ve already begun production on the first six new RS-25 engines,
Aerojet Rocketdyne has restarted the production lines, established a supplier base and is building engines using advanced techniques that reduce both the cost and time for manufacturing each engine.
What is the Artemis mission
The Artemis mission is expected to be one of the most ambitious plans NASA ever had. It costs $35 billion, and it’s expected to last between 2020 and 2024. The goal is to land “the first woman and the next man” on the Moon by 2024, more precisely at the lunar south pole region. NASA considers that Artemis will represent the next step towards the goal of establishing a sustainable presence on the Moon, assuring the foundation for some companies to build a lunar economy, and eventually sending astronauts to Mars.
NASA won’t be working alone for the Artemis program. Participating in the project will also be American commercial spaceflight companies and partners like the European Space Agency (ESA), Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Australian Space Agency (ASA), and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA),.
But before astronauts ever land on Mars, humanity has to assure itself as much as possible that such a trip will be safe. There’s no telling what kind of dangers humans could find on the Red Planet, because we have to admit: the Universe, in general, is a pretty unsafe place.
