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NASA Artemis Mission Overview News Conference · Elon Musk Podcast

1:02
Good morning and welcome to our briefing today about NASA's
1:06
Artemis 2 test flight set to send 4 astronauts around the
1:10
moon next year as the first mission under the Artemis
1:13
program. I'm Rachel Craft with NASA
1:15
Communications. We have several key people here
1:18
today at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston to share more
1:21
details about the mission. They are Lakeisha Hawkins,
1:26
acting deputy associate administrator for NASA's
1:29
Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, Charlie
1:34
Blackwell Thompson, Artemis Launch director, Judd Freeling,
1:40
Artemis 2 Ascent flight director, Jeff Ratigan, lead
1:46
flight director for the mission, Rick Henfling, Artemis 2 entry
1:51
flight director, and Dan Flores, NASA test director.
1:56
We'll have some remarks this morning from each of our
1:58
participants here, and then we'll take questions from
2:01
reporters both here in the room and on the phone.
2:04
And reporters who are on the phone, you can get into the
2:09
question queue by pressing *1. And with that, we'll start with
2:12
Lakisha. Good morning and thank you for
2:17
joining us. I'm glad we opened with that
2:20
video. It gets your heart pumping and
2:23
it reminds US of the historic nature of the mission that we
2:27
are about to embark upon. We're here today to talk about
2:31
Artemis 2 and we together have a front row seat to history.
2:36
We're returning to the Moon after over 50 years during the
2:41
Apollo program, the Apollo era, and we are going back to the
2:46
moon now. This is a series of tests.
2:50
Artemis is Artemis 1 was a 25 day mission.
2:55
It was a great success. What we demonstrated the
2:58
capabilities of the SLS rocket, the Orion spacecraft and all of
3:04
the supporting operational and ground systems.
3:08
We were able to test out those capabilities in a real deep
3:11
space environment. And so now here we are moving on
3:15
to Artemis 2, Artemis Tools, a 10 day test flight we will be
3:20
launching for crew, our friends Commander Reed Wiseman and
3:25
Pyler, Victoria pilot Victor Glover and Mission Specialist
3:30
Christina, coach and Canadian Space Agency and Mission
3:35
Specialist Jeremy Hansen. And that got them along with our
3:40
ground teams. We are going to be working
3:41
together to execute this mission, but let me emphasize
3:46
that this is a test flight. And so the activities that we do
3:51
together, we are going to learn from them.
3:55
And so while Artemis 1 was a great success, there are new
3:58
systems and new capabilities that we will be demonstrating on
4:01
Artemis 2, including the life support systems, the display
4:06
capabilities, software, and etcetera.
4:10
We'll be taking lessons learned that we learned from Artemis 1
4:14
and incorporating that into Artemis 2, and then building
4:18
upon what we learned from the last mission.
4:21
This is a stepped approach and all that we learned from Artemis
4:25
2. We will build upon that to
4:27
prepare us for our first crude landing on the surface of the
4:31
moon for Artemis 3. Now there's some things that
4:36
we're doing for Artemis 2. We can talk a little bit about
4:40
what that mission will look like.
4:43
This is going to be a free return trajectory.
4:47
And what that means is, is a mitigation.
4:49
We are going to essentially set the course when we do the
4:54
translunar injection burn on day 2 to use physics, the Earth and,
5:00
and moon gravity to make sure that we can return the crew and
5:04
without having to make major course corrections.
5:08
Propulsion burns. This is something that we've
5:11
experienced before. If you recall in your history,
5:14
we did that on Apollo 8 and Apollo 13.
5:18
And so when you look at this map, we go from launch and then
5:23
the boosters, of course, which provide about 75% of the thrust
5:27
that we need in order to be able to get the spacecraft aloft.
5:32
Once we do that and of course the R25 engines burn, then we're
5:38
going to jettison the boosters as well as the launch board
5:43
systems. Once we get through main engine
5:46
cut off, then we're going to do an apogee raise burn and a pair
5:50
G raise, the apogee raise, renew for a pair G raise burn, and
5:54
then we're going to demonstrate a Rendezvous proximity
5:58
operations demonstration. And I think my colleagues are
6:01
going to talk a little bit about that.
6:03
That's going to be critical to ensure that we can control 2
6:07
bodies in close proximity to one another as we prepare to do
6:12
something similar on Artemis 3, when we get ready to move the
6:17
crew from the SLS Orion into our landing system in preparation
6:21
for landing. And then after we dispose of the
6:26
upper stage, the ICPS, we're going to do some checkouts of
6:31
some of our life support systems in HEO or high or thoroughbred,
6:36
and then we commit to translunar injection.
6:40
We then make our path out to the moon, around the moon, and then
6:45
return back home. Once we get to the entry
6:49
interface, once we hit the atmosphere, then all that's left
6:54
to do is splash down and to safely recover our crew.
6:59
Our job is not only to launch this crew, but to make sure that
7:03
we return our friends home safely.
7:07
So there's a couple other things I want to talk about.
7:11
I'd like to talk about the mission management team.
7:13
The mission management team will be activated about two days
7:17
before the launch. Then the mission management team
7:20
is responsible for the overall risk management and critical
7:24
decisions at key points during the mission.
7:29
And that team is going to be made-up of senior leaders and
7:32
technical experts who understand the risk that we have been
7:37
mitigating and thinking through and some accepting as we lead up
7:42
to the mission and then be able to support that and lead that
7:46
during the mission. But the real time decision
7:52
making, a lot of that will be handled by my launch in flight
7:58
and return recovery colleagues sitting next to me and they'll
8:01
be talking a little bit more about their jobs during this
8:04
mission. We'll start at Kennedy Space
8:07
Center and then we will transition here to Johnson Space
8:10
Center Acts after the proximity operations demonstration on
8:15
lunch day one. And then from then on, we'll
8:18
meet daily or they'll meet daily until the crew is safely
8:21
returned. And so one more question that I
8:25
often get asked is when will we actually launch?
8:30
The agency has made a commitment to launch no later than April of
8:35
26th and we intend to keep that commitment.
8:39
We're also though working to accelerate as much as we can in
8:44
terms of the preparations and the operations preparation to
8:48
potentially as early as February.
8:51
But we want to emphasize that safety is our high priority.
8:55
And so as we work through these operational preparations, as we
9:00
finish stacking the rocket, we're continuing to assess to
9:04
make sure that we do things in a Safeway.
9:08
And once we get through some of those key integration points,
9:12
once we get ready through some of those test prep activities, I
9:16
will be able to fully assess where we are now.
9:20
The process that we go through and in order to be able to set
9:24
that is we understand where our progress is in terms of stacking
9:30
of the rocket and our OPS planning and preparation, our
9:33
training planning and preparation.
9:36
And then we take a look at the potential launch periods that
9:38
are available to us, the launch periods, which is the days and
9:42
essentially that falls about monthly days available to us as
9:47
well as the windows within those days that are available that are
9:50
suitable for us to be able to launch.
9:53
And we take a look at our technical readiness.
9:55
We take a look at potential constraints, technical
9:59
constraints. And we also of course take into
10:02
consideration or the mechanics, the physics of the Earth
10:06
relative to the moon, the trajectory that we have prepared
10:11
and set out for ourselves and any range constraints in the
10:15
Earth and space weather. All of these we put together to
10:18
make an assessment of what is available to us to be able to
10:21
execute on this mission. And as we get closer, we're
10:24
narrowing that down and we'll be ready to talk about that very
10:27
soon. And so I'll just conclude by
10:30
saying that we're making preparations and when we are
10:34
ready to safely launch, we are going to accelerate as much as
10:38
we can to do so. We'll be able to execute this
10:41
mission and it is our plan and our desire to be able to bring
10:46
our crew safely home. With that, I'll turn it over.
10:52
Oh, I think I lost the mic. With that, I'll turn it over to
10:54
Charlie Blackwell Thompson. Thank you, Lakeisha, and thanks
10:58
for everyone who's joining us today, either here in the room
11:01
or online. I'm going to talk about our
11:04
preparations at the Kennedy Space Center for this SLS rocket
11:08
in the Orion spacecraft as we prepare for Artemis 2.
11:12
And as Lakeisha said, this is a very exciting time for us.
11:16
Orion is in its final preparations in what we call our
11:20
offline processing. It is currently in the launch of
11:24
the launch Abort facility. Launch Abort System facility are
11:28
the last of as we call it back at Kennedy and it is finishing
11:32
up it's processing there. We expect that to complete in
11:34
about a week or so and then it'll be headed over to the
11:39
Vehicle Assembly Building or the VAB.
11:41
The SLS rocket is pretty much stacked and ready to go.
11:46
It's test campaign is behind it. We are finishing up some of our
11:50
close outs and some of our other work, but most of our work there
11:53
on SLS is is behind us, which is which is a wonderful milestone.
11:58
Later this week we plan to stack the Orion stage adapter.
12:03
It does have some some payloads on board it that'll be going
12:07
along for the ride with us, some cube sats.
12:10
So we're looking forward to that as well.
12:13
Once Orion is complete over in the LASSOP, we'll bring it over
12:16
to the VAB. It will get mated to the SLS
12:20
rocket and we'll begin our test campaign.
12:24
And as part of that, some of the tests are the same that we did
12:27
during the Artemis One time frame.
12:30
There's an end to end contest. There's an interface
12:32
verification test, but we also have some new ones.
12:36
And those new tests consist of the countdown demonstration
12:40
test, which is about our crewed flight.
12:43
If any of you remember or were following back in the shuttle
12:46
days, we had a similar test that was called TCDT Terminal
12:50
Countdown Demonstration Test. That's where we suit up the
12:55
crew. They come out, we go through our
12:58
checklist and our countdown. They'll enter the ship, we'll do
13:03
COM checks, we'll we'll get them strapped in, we'll do COM
13:06
checks, we'll do the configuration of the crew
13:08
module, and we'll countdown to inside of terminal count before
13:12
we have a plan stop. As part of that, we'll also do
13:17
an egress demonstration and that will be what we call a CDDT Part
13:23
1. Once that testing is complete,
13:27
we have some other servicing OPS that we'll take care of in the
13:30
vehicle Assembly building. We will go ahead and do our
13:34
flight termination system test and we'll start closing out the
13:37
vehicle compartments as as part of our final close outs of SLS.
13:44
And when all of that is done, we'll get ready to roll out from
13:51
the VAB to the pad. And you can see some imagery
13:56
here from roll out from Artemis One.
14:00
It is truly a beautiful sight when that vehicle begins to make
14:03
its way across the threshold of the VAB and along that four mile
14:08
journey to the pad. Once we get to the launchpad, we
14:14
will make the connections between the mobile launcher and
14:18
the pad. We have a little bit of testing
14:20
that we will do out there as well.
14:23
We have some COM testing that we'll do in the in the RF
14:27
environment. We have booster servicing to
14:30
take care of. We have emergency egress system
14:32
to do the final configuration of.
14:34
We'll take care of that right after getting to the pad.
14:37
We'll have the crew come out for what we call Part 2 of CDDT and
14:42
that is where we'll walk down that emergency egress system and
14:46
go over the the events of egress in the in the event that we have
14:51
to perform one of those on launch day.
14:55
After that we're off to wet dress, wet dress rehearsal be a
14:59
full tanking of the vehicle course stage and upper stage.
15:03
We will get into a terminal count and again we will count
15:06
down inside a terminal count to about the 29 second point and
15:11
then we will terminate that test.
15:13
We'll go review the data and a few days later we'll get into
15:17
launch countdown. Our countdown is 2 days long,
15:21
very similar to what we had for Artemis One.
15:24
We do have a couple of changes though because we have a crew
15:27
this time around. So after tanking, we we have a
15:30
new built in hold that we will use just prior to sending the
15:36
the crew to the pad. We will send them out, get them
15:40
strapped in again, COM checks and get the crew module
15:44
configured and we'll countdown to our final planned whole
15:48
point, which is AT -10 minutes, very similar to what we did
15:52
during Artemis One. We'll do our final readiness
15:54
checks, make sure all of the work is complete, that we are
15:58
tracking no constraints. And at that time, we will give
16:02
the go to pick up the count at t -, 10 minutes, which again is
16:05
our last planned whole point. And we'll countdown through
16:09
terminal count. The launch abort system or the
16:12
last will become available to us at 5 minutes, 25 seconds and
16:17
then we'll countdown through our terminal count.
16:19
Again, we'll be terminating the propellant to the vehicle,
16:23
pressurizing flight tanks, transitioning from ground power
16:28
over to onboard power and then transitioning the software from
16:33
the ground over to the flight. And we'll get down into that
16:37
inside of 31 seconds and we'll countdown, we'll get, we'll get
16:42
the GLSS go for course age engines start right around 10
16:45
seconds, just like Artemis One. We'll begin that stagger start
16:49
of the engines and then we'll have booster ignition and lift
16:53
off. And at that point in time, our
16:56
launch control team will hand over control of the vehicle to
17:00
the flight control team. And just like that, I'm going to
17:03
do it here today as I hand off to Judd Freeling, our Ascent
17:07
Flight Director. Thanks Charlie.
17:10
So of course we at the Mission Control Center will be following
17:13
along with a pre launch with Charlie through the RF link of
17:16
the Kennedy Uplink ground station and we can probably
17:20
still start the video. I got an animation to show you
17:23
what it's going to look like when we lift off.
17:26
So that £8.8 million of thrust is going to start to propel the
17:31
crew upwards towards towards our mission objective.
17:35
There you can see we'll clear the tower probably about 10
17:39
seconds after liftoff and then we'll start a roll maneuver that
17:44
will get the crews ahead a heads down position and then pitch
17:47
down so that we can start developing some horizontal
17:51
velocity. And you can see from this, this
17:53
shot gives you a good wide angle from what that that trajectory
17:57
is going to look like. So about a minute in or we get
18:00
to our SuperSonics or Mach 1A little little shortly after we
18:05
get to our Max cube, they're at about 200 and or 150,000 feet.
18:09
The solid rocket boosters separate from the stack.
18:14
We continue on upwards then about a little over 3 minutes,
18:21
the SM panels jettison revealing the solar rays and then about 6
18:27
seconds later the last jettisons.
18:29
That's the the last the launch of port system.
18:33
So we continue on past get to a Miko.
18:39
So main engine cut off and the core stage separates from the
18:44
upper stage and the the Orion space gal there you see a good
18:48
shot from inside the core stage. By that time at Mikko we're at a
18:54
15 by 1200 nautical mile orbit with just the upper stage and
18:59
Orion. We will do a few maneuvers
19:02
including extending the the nozzle and RL 10 engine as well
19:05
as you can see the the solar rays deploying at that point.
19:09
That's about 20 minutes into the mission.
19:12
We'll continue on past that. And as that we're doing those
19:17
activities, Christine and Jeremy will be getting out of there.
19:21
They're setting up the toilet and the the water dispenser as
19:25
well as the last shot you saw there was doing the upper stage
19:30
perigee rays maneuver. That'll get us to 100 by 1200
19:33
nautical mile orbit, after which we'll be in a safe orbit.
19:38
This, this chart shows you. We're now on the right side of
19:41
that chart. A little bit after that perigee
19:44
rays maneuver, Christine and Jeremy will be getting out of
19:47
their orange survival suits, and then we'll be doing several
19:53
activities up until the apogee rays maneuver.
19:56
And so the apogee rays maneuver is also performed by the upper
19:59
stage. That'll get us to a 0 by 38,000
20:04
nautical mile orbit. That'll set us up.
20:07
For our prox OPS demonstration at that time after ARB, Victor
20:15
and and Reed will be getting out of their orange survival suits
20:19
and Christina and Jeremy was setting up the camera for the
20:22
proximity prox OPS demonstration so they have a good view out the
20:27
docking hatch at that time. We will then separate the ICPS
20:34
from the Orion spacecraft and that's when I hand over to our
20:37
lead flight director, Jeff Radigan for him to do the
20:40
proximity demonstration. So, Jeff?
20:42
All right. Thanks, Judd.
20:44
So let's see. At this point in the mission,
20:45
the crew and the Orion spacecraft are in a high Earth
20:47
orbit. They're in a 24 hour orbit.
20:49
It'll take them again 24 hours to come back around and get
20:52
ready for TLI. And so we're going to spend that
20:55
24 hours checking out the Orion spacecraft, ensuring that
20:58
everything is ready to go before we actually take the crew to the
21:01
moon. And the, the first thing we're
21:03
going to do there is, as was mentioned, is this procs OPS
21:05
demo where we're going to take Orion and we're going to have
21:08
Reed and Victor fly it and approach the ICPS.
21:12
We're going to do that in a way that checks out the handling
21:15
qualities of the Orion spacecraft.
21:17
Let's see if we could cue the video, please.
21:19
We've got a, a nice animation that'll show you exactly what
21:22
what we're going to do there. So we'll separate from the the
21:27
ICPS and the Orion spacecraft will then flip around and go
21:32
nose on to ICPS, which is where our camera is for docking.
21:36
And the crew will use that camera to then do a series of
21:40
maneuvers to ensure that all of our ground models, all of the
21:42
preparations that we've done prior to flight actually match
21:45
what is going on with the spacecraft.
21:48
And so they'll do a series of turns, series of approaches and
21:51
departures in order to ensure that the the manual control of
21:55
the vehicle is what we were expecting it to be.
21:58
Of course, on Artemis One, we did test the automated control
22:01
of the vehicle and that was very successful.
22:03
This is an opportunity to for us to test the crude control and a
22:06
way for us to check that out in preparation for future Artemis
22:09
missions. After the crew does their their
22:14
checkouts there, then they'll set for the departure burn, our
22:17
USS Two, our separation burn from ICPS.
22:20
And of course, we'll send it on its way having done its job.
22:24
And then the, the Orion will continue on to do a perigee
22:27
raise burn that will allow us to raise our perigee off the Earth
22:32
and to set up for TLI as we check out our ecosystems and
22:38
ensure that everything is working there.
22:39
As we, the crew then has a good night's sleep that is
22:43
interrupted by that perigee raised burn.
22:45
It's actually right in the middle of the night.
22:46
Unfortunately, physics cannot be defied.
22:48
We have to put the burns where they are necessary for the
22:51
trajectory. So the crew will get a short
22:53
nap, they'll get up, they'll do the burn, and then they'll go
22:55
back to sleep again in preparation for TLI.
22:58
On the next day, Orion will come back down from the high Earth
23:02
orbit to approximately 100 nautical miles off the surface
23:05
of the Earth and perform TLI sending the crew on the way to
23:09
the moon. That's going to be a very
23:11
exciting day. I have to admit, I'm, I'm very
23:13
much looking forward to the day where we send, you know, a crew
23:16
back to the moon for the first time in a long time.
23:20
On the way to the moon, the crew will complete a series of
23:22
checkouts of the Orion spacecraft.
23:24
We again want to ensure that all of our systems are, are working
23:27
successfully and then we have a number of test objectives.
23:30
As was mentioned, it's a test flight.
23:31
So we're going to we're going to put the vehicle through its
23:33
paces and check all the systems, ensuring that everything is
23:36
ready to go. And then all of those checkouts
23:39
will be interrupted by a lunar flyby.
23:41
And it'll be very enjoyable for us to watch the crew and
23:45
enjoyable for them to watch as they fly past the moon.
23:48
It's going to look a little different than previous flybys.
23:51
And here we've got the video going of what it's going to look
23:54
like to the crew. They're going at least 5000
23:57
nautical miles past the moon, which is much higher than
23:59
previous missions have gone. And so the moon's going to look
24:01
a little bit smaller in comparison.
24:04
I can give you is if you held a basketball out from your hand,
24:08
that's about the distance, the sight distance that the moon
24:13
will appear to the crew in the window.
24:14
So it's going to look a little bit smaller as since they're not
24:17
going as low, but they are going, you know, further past
24:20
the moon than anyone's gone before.
24:22
And so I'm sure they'll be pretty excited about that.
24:25
They'll complete their observations.
24:26
And as you saw in the video, half the moon is lit, half of it
24:30
is in darkness. And so the crew as they go,
24:33
they'll have, they'll see that transition.
24:35
And I think the video we have is representative of early in, in
24:39
the year. And so they'll complete their
24:41
observations and then become on their way back home.
24:45
We do have a series of correction burns.
24:46
Lakisha mentioned we're on a free return trajectory, but we
24:48
will be slightly correcting that as as our NAV dispersions cause
24:53
us to do those correction burns on the way home.
24:55
So we'll have a few of those. And as we approach the Earth,
24:59
then I'll hand it over to Rick, who's our entry flight director.
25:02
Thanks, Jeff, and thanks to all who were able to join us this
25:05
morning in person and online. So I am in charge of the entry
25:09
team. So we will come on console about
25:11
the time that the flight crew wakes up on landing day.
25:14
We will have a short conference with Reed and Victor and
25:17
Christina and Jeremy. We'll provide them updates on
25:20
the weather at the landing site and any other updates on
25:23
spacecraft performance from the overnight period.
25:26
The crew's going to spend their morning tearing down the toilet.
25:30
They're going to deconfigure the water dispenser.
25:32
They're going to put away the food warmer.
25:34
Basically all the things that they set up on flight day one,
25:36
they're going to put away and Stow for entry.
25:40
Once the crew gets the the cabin configured, we're going to
25:42
perform that last final trajectory correction maneuver
25:46
that Jeff talked about. This is going to put us on track
25:48
for a bullseye landing in the eastern Pacific off the coast of
25:51
San Diego. Once that trajectory correction
25:55
maneuver is complete, the flight crew are going to put their
25:58
orange survival suits back on. They're going to do a leak check
26:01
to ensure that they're leak tight for entry, and that
26:05
process is going to take about two hours to do for all all four
26:08
crew to get suited. In the meantime, while the
26:11
flight crews are donning their suits, the ground team is going
26:14
to be doing some final spacecraft configurations like
26:17
configuring the backup flight software to perform an entry in
26:21
the event of a failure of the primary flight computers.
26:25
Once we get to about an hour from entry interface, that's
26:27
when the the pace of activity is really going to pick up.
26:30
The the first major activity is we're going to hand down from
26:34
the deep space communications network to the tracking and data
26:37
relay satellite system network. This is the first time we'll be
26:40
back on Tedris since just before the Translunar injection burn.
26:46
So the the comp system will get reconfigged about 38 minutes
26:49
prior to entry interface, at which point we'll perform a comp
26:52
check and then we will start configuring the service module
26:56
for disposal. We're going to position the
26:59
solar arrays in a position that's favorable for separation.
27:02
We're going to perform a a test firing of the crew module
27:05
thrusters to ensure they're warmed up for entry.
27:07
And then we're going to get into the proper attitude for service
27:11
module separation. Separation will occur about 20
27:14
minutes before entry interface and the the next step will be
27:18
then to maneuver the crew module into the entry interface
27:21
attitude. This is to get the heat shield
27:23
facing forward to take the the brunt of the the heat that's
27:26
going to be generated on entry. Just before entry interface,
27:31
we're going to perform a a firing of those crew module
27:34
thrusters. We're going to do a burn called
27:35
the raise burn. This is going to sweeten up our,
27:38
our entry flight path angle to ensure again that we, we get
27:42
that bullseye landing off the coast of San Diego.
27:46
So at 400,000 feet and about 17175 nautical miles from our
27:50
splashdown location, we'll hit entry interface and that's when
27:53
the the heat of, of the atmosphere is going to start
27:56
interacting with our heat shield and we're going to create that,
27:58
that plasma trail. You see, this is a video from
28:01
Artemis One looking out the crew module windows towards the
28:04
plasma trail. The spacecraft is going to
28:06
perform some bank maneuvers. It's going to roll right and
28:09
left. And you can see that here in the
28:10
in the video to fine tune the the landing spot, our entry
28:16
guidance flight software will take care of that for us.
28:19
And that's all going to put us on target for that, that
28:21
targeted splashdown waiting for the recovery forces.
28:26
Once we get to about 325 mph and about 24,000 feet altitude,
28:32
we're going to start deploying some of our parachutes.
28:34
All right. We'll have two drogue parachutes
28:36
that deploy and then they'll bring us down to about a a speed
28:40
of around 115 mph, at which point our three orange main
28:45
parachutes will deploy. And that's going to bring the
28:47
flight crew down to the safe splashdown velocity of 15 mph.
28:52
And that will be in a location right near where the recovery
28:56
forces are waiting to to extract the flight crew from the
28:59
spacecraft. Once the spacecraft is landed in
29:02
the in the ocean, we'll perform a couple of other
29:05
reconfigurations and then we're going to power down the
29:07
spacecraft so that I can hand over to Dan Flores who is going
29:12
to be a part of the the recovery team to extract the flight crew.
29:15
All right. Thanks, Rick.
29:16
So again, Dan Flores, I am here representing the lane and
29:20
recovery team. I'll walk you guys through the
29:21
process of how we we get to the capsule to recover both the crew
29:25
and Orion back to the recovery ship.
29:29
I'm going to say this is my favorite part of the mission
29:31
because like Lakeisha said, we have our friends flying around
29:34
the moon. This is when we get to bring our
29:36
friends back home to their families.
29:38
Within 24 hours of splashdown, we're going to be positioned on
29:41
the recovery ship in the Pacific Ocean just off the coast of San
29:45
Diego, which is our nominal landing site.
29:49
The recovery ship is going to approach the landing zone and a
29:51
team of Navy divers on small boats, they're going to deploy
29:55
from the weldeck of that ship into the open water just prior
29:59
to splashdown. Our team here at Johnson Space
30:02
Center, they're going to map out where all the various elements
30:04
that that Rick mentioned, the drug parachutes, Ford Bay cover,
30:07
all the mortars that that jettisoned from Orion.
30:10
They're going to analyze where they're going to land relative
30:13
to the splashdown zone. We're going to map that out and
30:15
deliver that to our small boats and helicopters to ensure that
30:18
they're safely away from from that zone.
30:22
The Navy divers, they're going to be the first ones to approach
30:24
Orion. And once they initiate their
30:27
approach, they're they're going to conduct assessments of the
30:29
air in the water surrounding the capsule to make sure it's safe
30:33
to approach and help the crew exit the Orion.
30:36
After ensuring the area is safe, they'll open Orion's hatch and
30:39
they're going to help the astronauts from their seats into
30:42
a large inflatable called the front porch, which you can see
30:44
on the screen there. Once all four astronauts are on
30:48
the front porch, they'll carefully drift several yards
30:51
away from from Orion and they're going to be awaiting pickup from
30:55
from the Navy helicopters that will be deployed from the
30:57
recovery vessel 2 helicopters. They're going to rotate picking
31:02
up all four crew members before before they return to the
31:05
recovery ship within a couple of minutes of each other.
31:08
Once the crew has exited the helicopters, they'll transition
31:11
over to the ship's medical Bay and they're going to undergo a
31:13
routine post flight checkups and we expect to recover the crew to
31:17
the medical Bay within two hours of splashdown.
31:21
With the crews safely out of the capsule and attendant to their
31:24
recovery, our team's going to start on the recovering of the
31:28
Orion capsule back to the recovery ship ship and we're
31:30
going to use procedures similar to the ones that we use for
31:32
Artemis 1. The Navy divers are going to
31:35
secure a system of lines to the capsule using connection points
31:41
and a pony collar that you can see around the capsule in that
31:43
image, and that's going to help tow Orion inside the ship.
31:48
When Orion's close to the ship, we're going to attach an
31:50
additional series of lines to help stabilize the capsule as it
31:54
transitions into the Weld decks. Sailors, our Navy sailors, are
31:59
going to help manage the lines and handle the lines.
32:02
They're going to pull on the lines with the assistance of a
32:04
NASA technicians that are going to operating key ground support
32:07
equipment to help stabilize the capsule as it comes in.
32:11
Once Orion is safely inside, we're going to start making our
32:14
return back to Naval Base San Diego and depending on our
32:16
distance to shore, the Artemis 2 crew will either fly back to San
32:21
Diego on helicopters or they'll just stay on the ship in in and
32:24
ride back on the ship back to San Diego.
32:28
Once we arrive back on shore, the astronauts are going to
32:31
depart back to Houston while the NASA recovery team is going to
32:34
complete our post post splashdown processing activities
32:37
of Orion before it's transported back to the Kennedy Space Center
32:40
in Florida. Some of these post operations
32:43
include initial assessments of the capsule and removal of any
32:47
scientific payloads that need to return back to their NASA center
32:51
of origin. Before I wrap up my opening
32:54
remarks, I just want to take a moment and really thank our
32:56
partners from the from the military who support our Artemis
33:00
recovery efforts and have supported NASA since early days
33:03
of of human spaceflight. Our joint NASA, Navy and Air
33:07
Force team, they've been training for several years
33:09
together to ensure a seamless recovery of Orion and the
33:12
Artemis 2 crew. We had a successful recovery of
33:15
the uncrewed Orion during Artemis 1 and we feel very
33:19
confident that through our testing and our training
33:21
alongside the Navy and other collaborators, we will make
33:24
Artemis 2 just as successful. So thank you and happy to take
33:28
any questions. All right, Thank you all.
33:31
We'll go ahead and take some questions both here in the room
33:34
and on the phone. For those joining by phone, just
33:36
a reminder, you can press *1 to raise your hand and *2 to put it
33:40
down. And as you asked your questions,
33:44
please limit yourselves to 1 to start and we'll go ahead and get
33:48
started over here. Thank you very much.
33:56
Tariq Malik with thespace.com. I think for Lakeisha or for
33:59
Charlie, just about the, the that opening of the window for
34:03
Artemis 2 as early February, I'm very curious like what is that
34:07
earliest date that you could be looking at in February?
34:09
And what is the, the number of days per month that you're
34:14
looking at to, to kind of have that, that time period in which
34:18
to fly? Thanks.
34:19
OK, Charlie, why don't I start and then you can help me fill in
34:23
the gaps, right. So, so right now that window
34:27
could open as early as the 5th of February depending on how how
34:33
we progress. Of course, there will be more
34:35
work in order to be able to nail that down.
34:39
In terms of launch periods, generally those windows go
34:47
anywhere. Our periods range anywhere from
34:50
4:00 to about 8 days in each month.
34:53
And so as we get closer, we'll be able to more clearly
34:57
communicate what those periods could be.
35:02
You want to add Charlie? No, I think you covered it.
35:05
OK, Thank you. So I.
35:09
Think this is for for Jeff. Approximately how much time
35:13
around sort of closest approach to the moon is that period that
35:19
that the crew is going to be doing that?
35:20
I mean about how much time is that?
35:22
Thanks. Yeah.
35:23
And, and it, it's really, I would say we think of it as a, a
35:29
full day of science as, as the crew approaches, right.
35:31
And they spend, I'll say about two hours in that, that real
35:35
close approach timeline where where you're really, you know,
35:40
you can't really tell the difference in the moon's not
35:42
changing size out the windows. Maybe the way I'd I'd phrase it,
35:45
because obviously you're still either approaching or leaving
35:48
the moon and you're, you know, your closest approach is only a
35:51
single point in time, but it's, it's a couple hours where you
35:53
can't really tell the difference.
35:55
On the other hand, we're, we're spending most of that day doing
35:59
science as we approach the moon and, and then as we leave it as
36:02
well. And so really we're dedicating a
36:04
full day of this mission to to observing the moon and, and
36:08
doing the lunar science that we can on Artemis 2.
36:12
Hey, Bill Harwich, Cbsi think this is for Jeff.
36:15
Can you go over with us what sort of I know you're on a free
36:18
return trajectory obviously, but if you have a major problem with
36:22
the TLI burn like like either the man module engine doesn't
36:26
fire under speeds. What what sort of abort options
36:29
are they are there once you get to that point in the mission And
36:32
how do you how do you get back if you don't get a full duration
36:35
burn that sort of thing? Thanks.
36:37
So I'm going to split your, your question into a couple answers
36:39
because I'm going to avoid using the word abort on what we call
36:42
ATLI recovery. And so I do want to, to, to
36:45
differentiate there because we have what we're going to do the
36:48
TLI on the ohms that Orion has. And so we'll, we'll start with
36:53
that engine and where we'd have an issue and do a partial burn.
36:56
In that case, we have the option of using the plus X thrusters
37:00
that we have on Orion in order to recover that TLI burn and
37:03
still go to the moon. And, and really that's our first
37:07
and, and primary goal is to get back on our free return
37:10
trajectory, get to the moon and, and do the, the full completed
37:13
mission. And so we have the ability to
37:15
recover in a partial TLI burn case.
37:18
We also have the ability to do an abort burn.
37:21
And there's, there's varieties of aborts, but we can use those
37:26
same plus X thrusters to bring the crew home.
37:28
Now it's going to take a few days.
37:30
It's not, it's not like low Earth orbit where you come home
37:32
immediately. It's going to take a little
37:33
while to come home, but we have we have the opportunity to to
37:37
continue to take the crew past the moon or if we don't think
37:39
that's prudent, we can take a more securities pathway and and
37:43
bring them home. But we would still use those
37:46
that second set of thrusters to do it.
37:52
Eric Burger, Ars Technica Question about the the the first
37:56
day you spend orbit around the moon, where you're checking out
37:58
Orion. You know, if there's a problem
38:01
with some spacecraft system, thermal or whatever that you
38:04
might be able to fix or address, is there a loiter period?
38:07
Could you make a second orbit and then go to the moon?
38:09
Or how long do you have to kind of check the spacecraft out
38:12
before you have to make a decision either to come back to
38:14
Earth or go out to the moon? I see.
38:20
I'll take that one as well. And so we in for many of our
38:24
launch days, it's really a propelling question how much
38:27
propellant we have in order to ensure that we can get Orion to
38:30
the moon. If we are unable to do that on
38:33
the first, the first opportunity of TLI and we stay another Rev
38:39
in the high Earth orbit, obviously the Moon's changing
38:42
position. And so we have a new set of
38:44
targets that we need to ensure that we've got enough propellant
38:47
in order to to fly past. And so most days we have that
38:51
opportunity to do a second Rev in the high Earth orbit and try
38:54
and fix whatever issue caused us to miss that first TLI
38:58
opportunity. And of course, that's our, our
38:59
preference, right? We want to, we want to solve
39:01
whatever problem we run into and then we want to take the crew to
39:04
the moon. And so we have the opportunity
39:06
to do that again, assuming that the propellant is there.
39:10
And in most cases it is, it is launch day dependent, but that
39:14
is something we're preparing to do and something that in the
39:17
eventuality that we're unable to do TLI on the on the 1st Rev,
39:21
we'll do it on the second Rev. OK.
39:23
We'll take one more here and then we'll go to take a few from
39:26
the phone. Go ahead, Micah.
39:27
Thank you Micah Maidenberg, Wall Street Journal for Administrator
39:30
Hawkins. Sorry, did this.
39:41
OK, I'll try this again. I just given the time that has
39:45
elapsed since Artemis 1 competition that NASA is facing
39:50
with China at the moon and new NASA leaderships drive to move
39:54
faster. I wonder if you could talk about
39:56
what kind of pressure or urgency you and your your teams are
40:01
facing to make Artemis to happen and avoid further delays, you
40:06
know, outside of the window that we've been talking about this
40:09
morning. Thanks all.
40:10
Right. Well, that's a, that's a really
40:12
good question. So to be clear, right, the
40:17
message has been clear to us that this administration has us
40:23
to acknowledge that we are indeed in a, well, you know,
40:26
what people have commonly called a second space race?
40:30
There is a desire for us to return to the surface of the
40:34
moon and to be the first to return to the surface of the
40:37
moon. With that being said, NASA's
40:41
objective though, is to do so safely, right?
40:46
And so we are certain and we have done assessments and we
40:50
have worked together as a team to ensure that the progress that
40:54
we are making is moving in an accelerated fashion, but that we
40:58
are doing everything that we can to also ensure that this mission
41:02
is successful and that we return the crew back home safely,
41:07
right? And so I don't want us to lose
41:09
sight of one for the other. It's a great question.
41:14
OK. We have a few on the phone.
41:17
We'll take a couple of those and then we'll come back into the
41:19
room. First up, we have Marsha Dunn
41:22
with The Associated Press 0. Hi, good morning.
41:27
I know you're going 5000 miles beyond the moon, but what's the
41:30
closest point to the moon that you're going to come?
41:33
How far away will you be at the closest approach?
41:37
And also I'm I'm thinking you are all now students of Apollo,
41:42
which is considered still NASA's pinnacle half a century later.
41:46
Do you think Artemis can set a similarly high bar, or are these
41:50
comparisons unfair? And what, if any, take away
41:54
lessons from Apollo are you actually applying for Artemis 2
41:58
and beyond? Thanks so much.
42:01
So I think that was multiple questions.
42:03
Why don't we talk about the distance?
42:04
I'll. Take, I'll take the first one.
42:05
I think it's the easiest. So the the actual distance from
42:09
the moon is is actually launch date specific because we're
42:11
flying past the moon. Once we have a specific launch
42:15
date, we'll be happy to give you the number for each of the
42:17
launch dates, but it is somewhere between 5000 and 9000
42:20
nautical miles past the moon. Let's see, that was the easy
42:24
one. That was the easy one.
42:25
OK. I think the second part of your
42:28
question, I think there were multiple parts, but I'm going to
42:31
hit what I can remember and we'll we'll do the best we can
42:34
here. I think you were harkening back
42:36
to Apollo and part of your question was, is this the same
42:39
or as we're doing, are we doing something different from Apollo
42:43
and so similar to Apollo? Yes, we are returning to the
42:46
Moon and yes we are moving in accelerated fashion to get to
42:53
the surface of the Moon. But for different from Apollo
42:57
though we are going back to the moon and to establish a
43:01
sustained presence on the moon, we want to demonstrate long term
43:06
capability on the surface of the moon.
43:08
We are going to continue to add capabilities on the surface of
43:12
the Moon. We are going with with
43:16
commercial and and international like minded partners and we are
43:22
demonstrating those capabilities so that we can go on to the next
43:26
destination. We've got our eyes set further
43:29
deeper into space on to Mars and being able to show that we can
43:34
establish a presence on Mars and further destinations.
43:38
And so we honor the Apollo missions and what was done and
43:44
even the flag that was left behind.
43:47
And we are planning to go to the moon again for a sustained
43:52
presence. OK, We'll take another from the
43:56
phone bridge, this one from Jackie Waddles with CNN.
44:02
Hi, folks. Thanks so much for doing this.
44:04
Quick question about a wet dress rehearsal.
44:07
Can you guys give any indication on where you are on the timeline
44:10
for a wet dress and how far in advance of launch does that wet
44:14
dress need to be completed before you start facing schedule
44:18
pressures? So you want me to take that one?
44:22
I think you should take that 1C. All right.
44:25
So our wet dress rehearsal is planned as part of our pad flow.
44:30
There is a limited amount of activities that we purposely
44:33
take to the pad. All of our testing is done.
44:37
The majority of it is actually done in the VAB.
44:39
If it can be accomplished in the vehicle assembly building, we
44:42
want to do that before roll out. So when we roll to the pad, it
44:45
is to do wet dress or launch or both.
44:49
And in this case, it is to accomplish both in the single
44:52
pad flow. So our pad flow is a little over
44:56
2 weeks long. It sits at about 18 days of
44:59
work. We do carry a few contingency
45:01
days with us as part of our plan and and our wet dress happens
45:05
toward the end of that flow. So the plan for wet dress is
45:10
very similar to what we did for Artemis one.
45:12
Of course this time a little bit different because we have Orion
45:17
that is up on top and while it is not cryogenically fueled in
45:22
any way that is the rocket down below.
45:25
We do go through all of the Orion activities and terminal
45:29
count with the configuration, the commands, the responses and
45:32
the LCCS. And so that is really our best
45:35
risk reduction tests that we do as part of our Artemis 2
45:40
campaign. And today that test will be
45:42
finished up a few days ahead of launch.
45:45
And so it's about two to three days before we would start into
45:48
our two day launch campaign. OK, well take two more here in
45:54
the room. OK, next.
45:59
Thank you very much. Ivan Semanek with the Globe and
46:01
Mail in Canada. I have to ask, I mean, when
46:05
people have talked about the similarity with Apollo 8, one
46:08
way this mission is different is you have an international
46:11
partner on board in the form of Jeremy Hansen.
46:14
I'm curious how that plays out and kind of the color and
46:18
character of the the mission so far and in the planning, you
46:22
know, how the international side of it, you know, is exhibited.
46:27
And if there's time for a technical question, what happens
46:31
on the return if there are choppy seas or bad weather?
46:35
I'm just curious about what contingencies are.
46:38
Maybe Daniel can answer that one about how you plan for that.
46:42
Thanks. Yes, I'll take the first part of
46:46
your question then and then hand it over to to Dan.
46:49
You know, Jeremy is, is just a pleasure to work with, right?
46:51
He's he's a fantastic astronaut. Every once in a while you get
46:56
the little bit of the Canadian accent and you know, we, we get
46:59
to joke about that a little bit. But in working with an
47:01
international partner, of course, you know, we have a, a
47:04
number of things where they bring a little bit different
47:06
perspective, which I think is, is helpful.
47:09
You know, there's a lot of times where he'll ask, hey, why are we
47:12
doing this? Why, why are we doing this?
47:14
And I have to provide them an answer.
47:16
And, and of course, you know, every once in a while, you know,
47:19
I start thinking to myself, well, why are we doing this?
47:22
Why, why can't we do it a little bit differently?
47:24
Why can't we do it a little bit better?
47:25
And having that, that, you know, outside perspective is very,
47:29
very helpful. And, you know, we, we appreciate
47:32
his inquisitive nature. He's one of the most curious
47:34
people I've ever met in, in my time here, always wants to know
47:39
exactly what's going on and, you know, demands a level of rigor.
47:42
Not, not that we aren't rigorous here anyway, but he just adds
47:46
that little bit on the top that I think is is truly helpful for
47:49
our flight here. And and the way he gets along
47:51
with the rest of the crew is I think demonstrative of that is,
47:55
is the one he's generally the one pushing to, Hey, why can't
47:58
we do this? Why can't we make this a little
47:59
bit better? And those are all great
48:02
questions and things that we truly enjoy about about working
48:04
with them. Yeah, with, with respect to the
48:07
choppy seas for landing right, a hand well ahead of landing, our
48:11
mission management team and our flight team, flight control
48:14
team, they're going to be and the recovery team, they're going
48:16
to be looking at the weather forecast for the landing zone
48:19
well ahead of time. If there's if we have
48:22
unfavorable conditions, right to violate the the limits of the
48:25
the vehicle or for recovery operations decision is going to
48:28
be made to either move the landing location based on the
48:32
the entry trajectory. So we have various weather
48:34
alternate options and Rick could go into details and, and all of
48:38
those. But if for some reason after we
48:40
land the, the weather is unfavorable, right, the Navy
48:43
really just needs the small boats with the divers that they
48:45
get to the crew. We also have multiple
48:48
contingencies that we work with the Air Force to ensure that we
48:50
get personnel on time to the crew to to rescue them.
48:56
OK. We'll go back to here in the
48:57
room. Hello.
48:58
Everyone, Michael Burton, University of Nebraska, Lincoln,
49:01
Lakisha, you talked a little bit about this, and I wondered if a
49:04
few of you could comment. This is such an exciting time.
49:07
It's so similar to perhaps when early colonists came to America.
49:11
We're talking about sending people to Mars.
49:15
This is one step in that direction.
49:17
So can you talk a little bit about what it means to you
49:19
personally and being part of this great time in Space Flight
49:24
history? I feel like we have a front seat
49:31
to a history making experience. It's funny to me that you talk
49:36
about colonists so you know, you know, but you know, explorers,
49:40
etcetera, right, because I'm growing up.
49:43
That was always so interesting to me.
49:45
I mean, one of my favorite book series was the Laura Ingalls
49:49
Wilder series, the Little House series, right?
49:52
Where they were explorers themselves, right?
49:56
And they were trying to figure out how to live off of the land.
50:01
And very similarly, we are working with a team of pioneers
50:06
and ultimately when we get to the surface of the Moon, there
50:11
will be very similar exploration going on.
50:15
And the crew there on the surface of the moon will be
50:17
trying to figure out how to live off the land, how to live off
50:21
and utilize the regolith to build structure and to pull
50:26
water from water ice and to be able to to distill that down to,
50:31
to fuel that's needed and etcetera.
50:34
We are very much on the cusp, on the verge of exploration in a
50:40
very similar way, and this is a very exciting time to be a part
50:44
of it. Yes, Paul Hunter in Broadcasting
50:49
Corporation. Just a follow up of a kind on
50:52
the Jeremy question. He's the first non American to
50:56
get out there. And I wonder what, setting aside
50:59
the curiosity that Jeremy brings, what was the thinking
51:03
that went into that decision to broaden these types of missions
51:07
beyond strictly Americans? And what do you think it means
51:10
for the space program going forward to take it to include
51:15
other countries and astronauts from other countries?
51:17
Well, the team is looking at me, so I think that this must be my
51:20
question, right? Oh goodness.
51:23
So I think I, I, I mentioned before, right, that we are going
51:28
with like minded countries, with friends.
51:33
And I believe that this is a demonstration, part of the
51:36
demonstration of America's leadership very different from
51:41
the Apollo missions. Before we realize that there is
51:46
benefit from a strategic standpoint, from a resources
51:49
standpoint to be able to partner with others and other countries
51:55
as evidenced by the many, many countries that have signed on to
51:59
the Artemis Accords. Many countries still see NASA
52:04
and America's leadership as very important for the future of
52:09
space exploration. And partnering with Canada,
52:13
partnering with Jeremy, going with our NASA team is a first
52:18
step in demonstrating that. OK, we'll go here.
52:23
Yes. Will Robinson Smith with Space
52:25
Flight Now. Thank you so much for taking the
52:27
time to do this with us. Question for Charlie Bachwell
52:29
Thompson. Regarding activities at the pad,
52:33
you mentioned that the crew will be doing a walk down with the
52:36
emergency egress system. Will they be riding the baskets
52:40
down to the terminus point or just kind of checking them out
52:43
at the top of the mobile launcher?
52:44
And then just during the winter's rehearsal, if there's
52:47
another hydrogen leak, would that be a potential show stopper
52:51
that could result in the rocket going back to the VAB?
52:54
Or is the the plan to, you know? Power through that based off the
52:58
learnings from Artemis One. Thanks.
53:00
So the test at the pad with the crew is a walk down of the
53:04
system configured. It does include a basket
53:08
release, but at this time as part of the baseline it is not
53:13
does not include the crew riding the basket.
53:16
It is really close to the launch.
53:18
And so we certainly would not do not plan to have the Artemis 2
53:23
crew ride the basket. In regard to wet dress rehearsal
53:28
and what we would do in the event that we had an issue.
53:31
You know, we learned an awful lot during Artemis 1 and we
53:35
learned the relationship between the flow rates, the pressures
53:40
and how how we have this manifest or could manifest into
53:44
leaks. We have made some modifications
53:48
to the ground side of the plate, the LH2 plate that we think
53:53
we'll see some improvement there.
53:55
And, and then also, if you recall, during Artemis One, we
54:00
had a leak with the replenish valve that is on the mobile
54:03
launcher, and that was during the launch countdown attempt #3.
54:06
So what I would, what I would say is that during Artemis One,
54:10
we learned a whole lot about how to manage our way through the
54:14
loading operations. That was very successful on the
54:17
third launch attempt. It was a really quiet tanking
54:20
until we picked up that leak on the replenish valve.
54:23
Since that time, we've actually modified that valve.
54:27
You recall we sent a red crew out to the pad, they torqued it.
54:30
We didn't have any additional issues, but we've, we've
54:32
actually made a, a change to that valve to kind of keep some
54:35
additional compression on it. So we don't expect to have that
54:38
problem again. We fully tested it in a cryo
54:41
environment in a, a cycle set that was very reflective of what
54:45
we would do for launch. We believe that that issue has
54:48
been put to bed. We intend to load the vehicle
54:51
very similarly to how we did it for launch.
54:53
Countdown attempt #3 and so we believe that we'll have success
54:58
there as well. And then I mentioned on the
55:00
backside of the ground plate, we did make some additional mods.
55:04
The interface between the flight and ground plates are exactly
55:08
the same. So that's the reason that we
55:10
believe the loading procedures that we utilize for our tanking
55:14
test, which was successful, as well as launch countdown attempt
55:17
#3 which was successful. We believe that those will serve
55:20
us well. In the event that we had
55:23
something that needed to be repaired.
55:24
It would really depend on what that repair was.
55:27
You may recall that we ended up changing a seal out at the pad
55:30
and we were able to remain at the pad and and get that work
55:32
done. So really would depend on what
55:35
the the problem was. Eric Berger, Ars Technica, a
55:42
couple more from me is if you do launch on the 5th, is that a
55:46
night launch? I think is there, Do you have a
55:48
time or window for that day And then if there's a government
55:51
shutdown at the end of the month, does the launch slip day
55:54
for day essentially? Charlie, why don't you take the
55:58
first part and then I'll I'll follow up with.
56:00
You, Yep, I certainly can take the first part.
56:03
So most of our launch attempts in the in that February window
56:07
or in the evening, yes. And to the second part of your,
56:12
your question, in the past, we have typically been able to
56:16
prepare for and work with leadership to be able to request
56:24
and gain acceptances exceptions, to be able to continue very
56:31
safety critical activities in the event of a shutdown.
56:36
And we anticipate in this particular case that this is
56:41
obviously very safety critical and we anticipate being able to
56:46
request and being able to continue to to move forward on
56:49
Artemis 2 in the event of a shutdown.
56:53
OK, Micah, go ahead and then we'll go back to the phone
56:55
bridge. Hi Micah Maidenberg, Wall Street
56:59
Journal for Director Blackwell Thompson.
57:02
I'm curious, did the anomaly with the SRB during that test
57:06
over the summer cause any new prompting, any new checks or
57:10
analysis regarding the boosters that are going to be used for
57:13
the SRBS that are going to be used for Artemis 2A particular
57:16
with regards to crew safety? Thanks.
57:20
So I I'll take a shot at this and then I'll look to Lakeisha
57:23
for a little bit of help here. But that was on the new design
57:26
of the boosters which the issue that they had.
57:30
And I do not believe that there's an applicability for the
57:34
current booster design, which is based on our shuttle heritage.
57:37
Yeah. So that's that's correct,
57:39
Charlie. That actually was a different
57:41
configuration of booster. And so while that was an
57:46
excellent demonstration of the evolution of potential future
57:52
booster designs, it has been made clear and and we have
57:56
confirmed that there is a difference between the two
58:00
booster configurations and not applicable to or impactful to
58:04
Artemis 2. OK, we'll go back to the phone
58:09
and we have Jeff Faust with Space News.
58:15
Good morning. Question for Jeff Radigan.
58:18
When you're doing that Proxops demonstration, the vicinity of
58:21
Icps, how close are you able to get to the upper stage or can
58:26
get to the upper stage before safety becomes an issue?
58:29
And how long would you have to actually perform those tests
58:32
before you have to move on to the next phase of the mission?
58:35
Thanks. So appreciate the question at
58:40
that time. Let's start with the fact that
58:42
ICPS is going to be passivated and so it's it's main propulsion
58:46
system will have all of the propellant vented from it and
58:50
it'll be relying just on its reaction control system.
58:52
And so that actually allows it to be at a low energy state and
58:56
therefore allows us to bring Orion as close as 10 meters and,
58:59
and fly in formation with the ICPS and be confident that if we
59:03
were to have an issue with ICPS, the crew would have plenty of
59:06
time to react and then do a, a breakout burn to take Orion away
59:10
from from ICPS. When I say plenty of time, I
59:13
mean on the order of, you know, roughly 10 minutes to observe
59:17
that, you know, something was wrong.
59:18
It gives us a chance to talk about it with the crew and then
59:21
perform a breakout burn. So due to the fact that we've
59:24
configured the vehicle ahead of time to be able to approach
59:28
Orion, we can bring what is fairly close in Space Flight, 10
59:31
meters and still be confident that there's not going to be a
59:35
safety issue if we have an issue on ICPS.
59:39
As far as how long the demonstration is going to take,
59:42
it's roughly about an hour and a half.
59:43
I think of it as really 245 minute sessions.
59:47
We've got a first session where the crew is actually piloting
59:50
off the nose of ICPS and then ICPS will do a turn about
59:55
halfway through and then we'll perform our, our flight test on
59:59
this on the the side of ICPS before doing our, our breakaway
1:00:02
burn. So about 90 minutes.
1:00:07
OK. Next we have Lauren Grush with
1:00:10
Bloomberg. Hey everyone, thanks so much.
1:00:14
I wanted to follow up on the Procs OPS demo as well.
1:00:18
I'm just curious how you use that demo to inform Orion's
1:00:21
future docking for Artemis 3? Is there additional testing
1:00:25
beyond this demonstration to ensure a smooth docking?
1:00:28
And will this ensure that Orion can dock with any type of
1:00:32
Lander? Just would love more.
1:00:33
Details there. Thanks so much.
1:00:37
See, so I'll take a shot at that one.
1:00:39
The, the what we're really learning on Artemis 2 is, is, is
1:00:45
how closely our ground simulations and our ground
1:00:49
models match the spacecraft as it flies in space.
1:00:51
This is why we need a fixed target in space to actually
1:00:55
pilot Orion around such that the inputs that we've modeled on the
1:00:58
ground and that we have full confidence in as it's gone
1:01:00
through a full verification program.
1:01:04
And of course, you know, this is, this is not our first time
1:01:06
docking vehicles in space. We actually do that pretty
1:01:08
regularly, but we want to test this specific vehicle in Orion
1:01:13
in order to ensure that everything matches.
1:01:15
And so as as far as confidence going forward, I actually have
1:01:19
great confidence the vehicle today, even before doing the
1:01:21
proc stops demo that we would be able to dock with future
1:01:25
vehicles. It's something that it's, it's
1:01:27
an operation that we're quite confident in doing.
1:01:30
And I've done with many other vehicles before and gotten the
1:01:32
verification right on the first try.
1:01:34
But it also makes a lot of sense since we have this opportunity
1:01:37
to go test it. We absolutely should go test it
1:01:40
in flight. And so that's really what what
1:01:42
we're doing with the procs OPS demo is testing our verification
1:01:46
in, in space. And so I'm looking forward to to
1:01:49
seeing how it correlates. I expect it'll correlate quite
1:01:52
closely. But of course, that's why we do
1:01:54
the test is is so we can we can learn something that we couldn't
1:01:58
learn on the ground. Next up on the phone is Marcia
1:02:02
Smith with Space Policy Online. Thanks so much.
1:02:08
I had two questions. 1 is on the ICPS and the service module.
1:02:12
Will they be commanded to re enter?
1:02:14
You mentioned that you're going to be passivating the ICPS.
1:02:18
Will the reaction control thrusters be enough to be
1:02:20
orbited? And will the service module
1:02:22
automatically re enter? What happens to those but more?
1:02:25
Broadly, I had a question, Lakisha, you were talking about
1:02:28
the importance of this historically and I'm wondering
1:02:31
what the plan is for NASA and maybe gratial could.
1:02:36
Add something to this What is the plan for public engagement
1:02:39
during those 10 days? How are you going to bring the
1:02:41
public along? What are you going to have the
1:02:43
astronauts doing inside the spacecraft and being back to
1:02:47
Earth? What kind of cameras have you
1:02:48
got on the exterior of Orion? That kind of thing.
1:02:51
How do you bring the public along?
1:02:54
So I'll, I'll take a shot at the first one.
1:02:56
So the ICPS itself, so recall the ARB apogee, Raysburn puts us
1:03:02
in a 0 by 38,000 nautical mile orbit.
1:03:04
I mean that 0 means if we did nothing else, it's going to
1:03:08
impact the earth. And so after the Proxops demo,
1:03:12
Jeff and his team will will perform the perigee rays
1:03:15
maneuver for the the Orion spacecraft.
1:03:18
But the ICPS will continue down to that 0 perigee and has still
1:03:23
has reaction control jets to to basically target the the correct
1:03:27
part in the ocean for disposal. As far as the service module,
1:03:32
that's really on, on Rickshift, but I, I can answer that one
1:03:35
too. After they separate from the,
1:03:38
the, the CM from the SM, the SM disposes in the Pacific, you
1:03:45
know, behind or I mean behind the, the, the CM.
1:03:48
So and then the public, I think that's probably yours, Keisha.
1:03:53
Yeah. So I'll, I'll talk a little bit.
1:03:55
You refer to the historic nature of this mission.
1:03:59
It is fully our intention to turn us into somewhat of the
1:04:05
Artemis generation, just as the Apollo generation had the
1:04:10
mission and the astronauts and the work that was going on, on
1:04:15
the names of of every American and people around the world.
1:04:19
And so to that end, there is an expectation, and I'll get my
1:04:23
friends to talk about a little bit about the comp capabilities
1:04:26
in order to be able to understand directly what's going
1:04:29
on with the crew and the mission.
1:04:31
But there is an expectation that daily we will be able to have
1:04:35
press briefings, we will be able to talk about the progress of
1:04:39
the crew, how they're progressing, how they're doing
1:04:42
so that we can bring the public along with us and that we can
1:04:46
all have some ownership in this mission.
1:04:49
Jeff. And Jeff, if you could talk a
1:04:50
little bit specifically about the comp capabilities so that we
1:04:53
can know what's going on every day.
1:04:56
So as we've as we fly further from Earth, of course you know
1:04:59
Judd mentioned will be on the various different, you know
1:05:01
communication systems. When we're on the TEDRA system,
1:05:04
the tracking and data realized satellite system, we have a much
1:05:07
higher bandwidth. And so I expect the the high
1:05:11
definition videos that you guys are expecting from us that you
1:05:14
see all, all the time on space station and we'll be able to
1:05:18
have that capability as we go further from Earth and we have
1:05:21
to go on to the deep space network.
1:05:23
We have a much lower bandwidth. And so we are prioritizing
1:05:26
getting video of the crew, getting video of the cameras.
1:05:29
If you saw from Artemis one, we of course had a video set up as
1:05:34
we got close to the moon and had that that down linking, but it
1:05:38
is a much lower data rate. And so our ability to transfer
1:05:42
high def video is is significantly reduced or not not
1:05:46
even possible on certain days of the mission.
1:05:48
And so we're going to keep the video on as much as we can.
1:05:51
But I do want to calibrate your expectations.
1:05:53
It's a lower bandwidth. It's going to look a little
1:05:55
grainy and that is just due to the distance and due to the
1:05:57
communication assets that we have available.
1:06:01
It it turns out the moon's a pretty long way from Earth when
1:06:05
we're start talking communication signals and
1:06:07
bandwidth, and so we just need to set our expectations there.
1:06:10
The good news is we're recording a significant amount of video
1:06:13
during the mission and afterwards, of course, that'll
1:06:15
be that'll be released. That'll be amazing.
1:06:19
And I'll just add, we do plan 24/7 coverage of the mission,
1:06:24
starting with tanking all the way through crew recovery.
1:06:28
We've been working very closely with Jeff's team, Charlie's team
1:06:32
and the team that Dan supports to make sure we can show you the
1:06:36
crew and keep your prize of their activities.
1:06:39
And we're working hard to develop engagement opportunities
1:06:43
to bring the public along with us.
1:06:46
We recently launched an effort where anyone around the world
1:06:49
can submit their name to fly on a little microchip that it will
1:06:52
be inside Orion. We've invited the public
1:06:56
previously to submit ideas for the little plush animal or doll
1:07:03
that will ride with the crew and indicate when they're in space.
1:07:07
And we'll have more to come. OK.
1:07:10
Next from the phone we will have Anthony Leone.
1:07:20
Hello, thank you for taking our questions today.
1:07:23
With the Artemis 1 mission, when Orion came back and there were
1:07:27
issues with the heat shield for the and then it actually
1:07:32
postponed the Artemis 2 launch. So how was the heat shield with
1:07:38
this mission, what you learned from Artemis one, how did you
1:07:42
incorporate that in Tarnamis 2? And how confident are you that
1:07:46
the heat shield will be OK for Artemis 2?
1:07:49
And my second question, how does it feel to be part of history
1:07:53
where you were sending humans back to the moon and someone
1:07:58
else said we are the Artemis generation.
1:08:01
How does it feel to be a part of this historic event?
1:08:04
Thank you, Rick. Why don't you start with that
1:08:07
question? All right, great.
1:08:08
Thanks for the question. So for those who are are less
1:08:11
familiar, on Artemis One, we performed a skip entry
1:08:14
trajectory, which means that we had an initial dip into the
1:08:17
atmosphere to bleed off some of our energy.
1:08:20
And then we, we, we lofted our our trajectory a little bit and
1:08:23
then entered a second time to to burn off the remainder of our
1:08:26
energy. As part of some of the routine
1:08:29
post flight inspections, it was noted that some of the char from
1:08:33
the heat shield had mechanically liberated on entry and we took
1:08:36
this problem very seriously. There were teams across the
1:08:40
country, both involving NASA, other governmental agencies and
1:08:45
private industry to really work to, to determine the cause of
1:08:52
this problem. Because this is, this is
1:08:53
ultimately had the the chance of becoming a, a crew safety
1:08:57
problem. And what those teams found both
1:09:01
the the the primary team as well as an independent review team
1:09:05
that was set up was that the gas generation, as the ablative heat
1:09:11
shield decompose during entry, that gas generation, the
1:09:17
expectation is those gases dissipate through a porous heat
1:09:20
shield. And as the the gases are
1:09:22
generated and the the heat shield material turns to char,
1:09:26
it becomes more porous. And the ideal solution is as
1:09:30
that porosity increases, the gases that are generated get
1:09:34
dissipated and and and move away from the spacecraft.
1:09:38
What we saw on Artemis 1 was the trajectory that we flew.
1:09:42
This skip entry created a environment where the gases that
1:09:48
were generated as the heat shield decomposed the generation
1:09:51
rate exceeded the rate of the gas dissipation.
1:09:55
And when the generation rate exceeds the rate of dissipation,
1:09:58
we get a pressure build up. And that pressure build up
1:10:02
inside the heat shield is what ultimately resulted in that
1:10:05
mechanical separation or liberation that we, we saw an
1:10:08
entry on Artemis 1. So what did we do about it?
1:10:11
Well, we understood that and this was understood and
1:10:15
replicated in multiple tests. We had test facilities across
1:10:18
the country engaged in solving this problem.
1:10:21
And if you, if you look back, there's a great quote from
1:10:24
Wernher von Braun about a test being worth 1000 expert
1:10:27
opinions. Well, we had a number of tests
1:10:30
and they all helped back up this, this understanding of of
1:10:34
what was going on in the char. And so the Artemis 2 trajectory
1:10:37
that we're going to fly is going to be one that is not going to
1:10:41
replicate that temperature environment which was conducive
1:10:44
to that, that increased gas generation rate.
1:10:47
And so the confidence that we have an Artemis 2 is built upon
1:10:52
numerous tests throughout the course of multiple years and it
1:10:58
helped inform how we were going to fly this mission.
1:11:00
And, and I have the utmost in confidence in, in the engine
1:11:03
engineering expertise that went into the testing and the flight
1:11:07
rationale that we are are are going to be able to bring the
1:11:11
Artemis 2 flight crew home safely at the end of the
1:11:13
mission. Rick, I want to emphasize, I
1:11:16
appreciate that summary. I want to emphasize as well,
1:11:19
right is we brought in expertise from all over in order to be
1:11:24
able to come to those conclusions.
1:11:26
Not only did we bring in the NASA expertise, but we also
1:11:30
brought along expertise from industry as well as DoD and DOE.
1:11:35
You mentioned there was an independent review team that
1:11:39
came in, a group of experts that came in as an assessed and
1:11:43
affirmed that they too agreed with the conclusions that were
1:11:48
drawn, the testing that was done.
1:11:51
They had an opportunity to to walk that down and fully
1:11:54
understand that as well and agree.
1:11:57
And this conversation was taken all the way through agency
1:12:01
leadership. And so the leadership at the
1:12:04
time as well as the current leadership understands and fully
1:12:08
affirms that the way that we are going as well as the trajectory
1:12:13
that we have chosen to be able to mitigate Artemis 2, we are
1:12:17
all on board with. And so from a risk perspective,
1:12:21
we feel very confident that we are going to be able to bring
1:12:25
our crew back safely for Artemis 2.
1:12:28
And then the second question was related to place in history.
1:12:33
I know at least amongst the flight directors here, none of
1:12:36
us were born during Apollo. And so this is our opportunity
1:12:40
to inspire a generation of, of kids to get involved in, in
1:12:46
future space exploration. And maybe one of those kids who
1:12:48
was inspired by what we do on Artemis 2 becomes that person
1:12:52
who sets the, the, the first footprints on the surface of
1:12:55
Mars. And so it's a it's an honor to
1:12:57
be a part of the flight director team leading the flight control
1:13:00
team to execute this mission. OK, we'll take another from the
1:13:06
phone from Christopher Mick of Hudson * Observer.
1:13:12
Good morning. Thank you.
1:13:13
I want to ask specifically about the cube set that are going to
1:13:16
be on the ride along. If there's any more information
1:13:18
that can be provided on like the deployment sequence, and if any
1:13:21
of the science they'll be generating will be applicable to
1:13:24
future Artemis data sets. So why don't I start and maybe
1:13:30
you guys can jump in and and provide a little bit of context
1:13:35
for whatever I missed. So yes, so we are going to be
1:13:39
bringing a few payloads along with us, as you call them cube
1:13:44
sats. And this is another opportunity
1:13:48
for us to partner specifically with other countries.
1:13:53
So far, what we've got confirmed is 3 cube sats that are fully
1:13:58
integrated, 1 is from Germany, and we call that TAC lease, and
1:14:02
that is an assessment of radiation effects on
1:14:07
electronics. The second one is with Saudi
1:14:11
Arabia and that is a series of instruments that is going to be
1:14:15
checking out space weather. And then the third is from South
1:14:20
Korea and that one is called K Rad and that one is going to be
1:14:24
checking out the biological effects of radiation.
1:14:28
And once deployed, those instruments will be able to go
1:14:32
off and independently assess all of their tests and science
1:14:36
objectives. Anything you guys want to add to
1:14:40
that? Let's see, Lakisha, I'll just
1:14:41
mention that as far as deployment that occurs after the
1:14:45
procs OPS demo and after Orion has done a separation burn from
1:14:48
ICPS. One of the last things ICPS does
1:14:51
is activate the launcher and put the cube sats out prior to it
1:14:55
finalizing its disposal trajectory.
1:15:00
OK. We'll take a few more here in
1:15:01
the room and then we'll wrap up. Hi, Phillip.
1:15:05
Sauce again. I I think this is for Judd.
1:15:08
Could you talk a little bit about the launch abort modes and
1:15:10
maybe some of the calls that we might hear from the Capcom and
1:15:13
the crew during the launch? Thanks.
1:15:15
Yeah, sure. So we have continuous launch
1:15:19
abort capability throughout the window.
1:15:22
We also have a single engine capability.
1:15:24
So those are two a little bit closely rated but but but
1:15:27
different concepts. So right off the pad we have a
1:15:31
single engine capability that takes us if all the way to the
1:15:36
Pacific Ocean if we get a single RS25 engine failed off the pad
1:15:41
and that mode that we would abort in if we had an additional
1:15:46
failure. So something that was emergent
1:15:48
during that time is the last abort mode, abort mode 1.
1:15:53
So that we have that abort mode all the way up until the last
1:15:56
jettison, which is about 3, a little over 3 minutes.
1:16:02
The single engine out capability also, let's see it about 23
1:16:07
seconds or so, we gain a higher energy alternate mission.
1:16:12
So if we had a single engine out after that 23 seconds, we could
1:16:16
make a mission to a low Earth orbit.
1:16:19
We would lose the the lunar mission, but we'd still make a
1:16:22
mission and be able to check out all of the life support systems
1:16:25
in a low Earth orbit. Our next major milestone would
1:16:31
be another 3 engine press call. So that's about 5 minutes 5515
1:16:36
ish or so whereby if we lost RS25 engine after that time, we
1:16:42
can make full nominal mission. During the time between last
1:16:46
jettison and we'll call it about 7 minutes and 30 seconds, We
1:16:52
have what's called a mode 2 or a untargeted abort splashdown
1:16:56
capability. Whereas we would land in the
1:16:59
Atlantic Ocean at about that 7 1/2 minute mark.
1:17:04
We pick up what's called AOA capability abort once around
1:17:08
capability, whereby if we had an abort during the 7 1/2 minutes
1:17:13
to the the nominal meet go to around 8:00-ish minutes, then we
1:17:17
could make the Pacific Ocean stretch capability off the coast
1:17:22
of Baja. Bill.
1:17:25
Bill. And for Rick, you talked about
1:17:28
the environmental change for entry, but how is that done?
1:17:32
I mean, I've heard still described as a skip entry, just
1:17:35
not the same sort of skip entry. But I've also heard people say
1:17:38
it's not a skip entry technically anymore.
1:17:40
So can you straighten up exactly how the thing comes in to make
1:17:43
you comfortable with? Shield.
1:17:45
Sure. Thanks for the question.
1:17:47
We can we characterize it as a lofted entry for Artemis 2.
1:17:51
So what was done to redesign the trajectory for Artemis 2?
1:17:55
We moved our target line closer to San Diego.
1:17:58
So in my opening remarks, I had talked about how entry interface
1:18:01
is going to start at 400,000 feet altitude and 17175 nautical
1:18:06
miles away from our landing site.
1:18:09
By redesigning that target line, we shortened our entry range,
1:18:13
which changes the temperature profile that the heat shield
1:18:16
acreage material is going to see.
1:18:18
And so by changing that temperature profile, that's what
1:18:21
gives us that confidence that that the heat shield is not
1:18:24
going to, we're not going to see those mechanical liberations on
1:18:27
Artemis 2 like we saw on Artemis One.
1:18:29
Yeah, we don't, we don't, we don't go as high on that, Skip.
1:18:32
It'll just be a little bit of a loft.
1:18:36
It's Paul Hunter again from CBC News.
1:18:39
At the end of the day, what is the ultimate singular measure of
1:18:46
success for Artemis 2? You want me to start?
1:18:54
I'll take that one. I think you should.
1:18:55
You know, when we, when we look at what a successful Artemis 2
1:18:59
mission is, taking our crew back to the moon and bringing them
1:19:02
home safely and paving the way for the next Artemis mission is,
1:19:05
is really what we define to be a fully successful mission.
1:19:09
And are there other things that we're going to do during Artemis
1:19:11
2? Absolutely.
1:19:12
We're going to go test the life support system in a high Earth
1:19:14
orbit. We're going to test the handling
1:19:16
qualities of Orion. We're going to go perform a test
1:19:19
flight. A test flight doesn't have one
1:19:21
singular objective. It's got many of them.
1:19:23
But in order for, you know, at least me personally to call this
1:19:27
mission fully successful, we need to go fly by the moon and
1:19:30
bring the crew home safely and and welcome them back with open
1:19:33
arms. OK.
1:19:35
I think that's a great way to end.
1:19:37
We're going to go ahead and wrap up today.
1:19:39
Thank you for joining us. You can TuneIn shortly at 11:00
1:19:43
AM Central Time this morning to hear more about the science and
1:19:46
technology aboard Artemis 2. And you can follow our progress
1:19:51
at nasa.gov.