After a final buzz by the Moon, the Artemis I mission faces its biggest challenge: coming home.
For re-entry to go just right, the capsule will need to slow down from around 40,000 kilometres per hour when it hits the top of Earth’s atmosphere, to just 32 kilometres per hour when it drops into the Pacific. The brunt of that braking energy will be borne by Orion’s heat shield, which will endure temperatures of around 2,800 °C — hotter than what’s needed to make steel.
During Orion’s second Moon flyby, it snapped this image of the far side of the lunar surface, on 5 December.Mission controllers have encountered some minor glitches during the flight, including a problem with power flow between two parts of the spacecraft. But most of the journey has gone remarkably well.
What is being tested are the effects of space radiation on simulated humans. The capsule holds two faux human torsos; one of them is strapped into a vest to protect it against radiation, and the other is not. Detectors on the torsos measure radiation dosage as Orion flies out of and back into Earth’s magnetic shield, which protects our planet against harmful solar energy.
Engineers have extensively tested the systems that will help upright Orion when it splashes down on 11 December. Like a stone skipping across the surface of a pond, the capsule will hit the atmosphere around 122 kilometres above Earth’s surface, then plunge to around 61 kilometres before deliberately skipping higher, to just under 91 kilometres, before descending again.
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