CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida – NASA’s Apollos are hard to follow, even after all this time.
As four astronauts prepare to take off on humanity’s first trip to the Moon in more than half a century, comparisons between Apollo and NASA’s new Artemis program are inevitable.
The world’s first lunar visitors orbited the Moon on Apollo 8. The Artemis II crew will play it safe and zip around the Moon on a slingshot.
Another key difference: Artemis is more reflective of society, with a woman, a person of color, and a Canadian who flies off the handle.
Although Artemis is based on and pays homage to Apollo, “there’s no way we can be that same mission, we don’t even hope to be,” said NASA astronaut Christina Koch, part of the Artemis II crew.
Here are the details of Apollo versus Artemis, Apollo’s twin sister in Greek mythology, as NASA targets the first six days of April for liftoff.
It took NASA just eight years to put its first astronaut in space and Apollo 11’s Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon in 1969, surpassing the deadline set by President John Kennedy for the end of the decade.
“The Apollo program continues to impress me,” said Artemis II astronaut Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency.
Artemis has progressed much more slowly, after decades of indecision and back-and-forth between the Moon and Mars as the next great destination. NASA’s new moon rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), has only taken off once on a test flight with no one on board more than three years ago.
New NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman reviewed the Artemis program in February. Eager to emulate Apollo, it added a mission between the upcoming Artemis II mission and the moon landing that now moves to Artemis IV in 2028.
During next year’s revamped Artemis III, astronauts will stay closer to home in the same way that Apollo 9 did in 1969. Instead of attempting a moon landing as originally planned, they will practice docking their Orion capsule in orbit around Earth with one or both of the lunar landers being developed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. Rival companies are speeding up work on their landers in a bid to be first.
The Soviets were bitter rivals of the United States during Apollo, but their lunar rockets kept exploding upon takeoff and they ended up giving up. Now the Chinese are the competition.
China has already landed robotic spacecraft on the far side of the Moon – the only nation to do so – and is striving to land astronauts near the lunar south pole by 2030.
NASA is targeting the same polar region, where shadowed craters are believed to hold large amounts of ice that could provide drinking water and rocket fuel. Like his predecessor Bill Nelson, Isaacman is determined to beat China to the finish line and win this second space race.
The Apollo Saturn V rockets measured 110 meters, with five first stage engines. The Artemis SLS rocket measures 98 meters, but has more thrust at takeoff with its four main engines and two attachable boosters.
All but one of the Saturn V rockets lifted off from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39-A, now leased by SpaceX. NASA will use neighboring pad 39-B for all SLS flights. While the Saturn V was launched twice before carrying astronauts, the SLS has only flown once. Hydrogen fuel leaks delayed the SLS’s 2022 debut and occurred again during a countdown test in February, crippling the Artemis II. Then problems with helium reappeared, causing a new delay. NASA plans takeoff for April.
Launch control remains in the same place. There was one woman in the crowded launch room for the liftoff of Apollo 11. Now it is led by a woman: Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, Artemis launch director.
First lunar crews
Apollo 8 remains the bravest space mission of all time. Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders became the first humans to reach the Moon in 1968. Borman, the commander, insisted on making as few lunar orbits as possible given the risks. He and his bosses decided on 10 orbits as a warm-up for Armstrong and Aldrin’s moonwalk in 1969.
NASA decided a long time ago not to orbit the Moon for the debut of the Artemis crew, considering it too dangerous. The main objective is to test the life support equipment of the Orion capsule, which flies for the first time.
A big similarity between Apollo 8 and Artemis II is the difficult times that surround them. “If we can contribute a little bit to the hope of humanity,” said NASA Artemis II pilot Victor Glover, “that’s a huge thing.”
Artemis astronauts will orbit Earth for a day to make sure everything is working properly before firing up the main engine and heading to the Moon. The capsule will take between three and four days to reach the Moon and continue about 8,000 kilometers beyond, surpassing the distance record set by the ill-fated Apollo 13 in 1970.
Like Apollo 13, Artemis II will take advantage of the gravity of the Moon and Earth to make a figure-eight turn around the Moon and return home on what is known as a free return trajectory, which requires little or no fuel. This trajectory allowed the three Apollo 13 astronauts to return safely, although they had to abandon the moon landing.
The Artemis astronauts will parachute into the Pacific after their mission, as the Apollo crews did.
On Apollo, the bulky white spacesuits served double duty. What the astronauts carried for launch and return was the same for the moonwalks, since there was not enough space to store different suits.
The Orion capsules for Artemis are larger, designed to hold four astronauts instead of three plus two sets of spacesuits. NASA created entirely new spacesuits for use inside the capsule, while it turned to private companies for the moonwalk attire.
Commander Reid Wiseman and his crew will wear the custom-made orange suits for launch and reentry. They will also use them in case of depressurization or other emergency. They can survive up to six days with their suits on, inserting a straw into the helmet to drink water or protein shakes and using inner pouches and bladders as a built-in toilet.
Houston-based Axiom Space is designing the white Moonwalking suits that will accompany future Artemis crews.
The goal of Apollo was to reach the Moon before the Russians and plant the American flag. Astronauts landed six times between 1969 and 1972, with the longest stay on the surface lasting 75 hours. Five of the 24 Apollo astronauts who flew to the Moon are still alive.
For the first Artemis moon landing, a couple of astronauts could spend almost a week there. It’s a complicated plan compared to Apollo.
The Artemis moonwalkers will blast off to the Moon aboard Orion and, once in lunar orbit, transfer to SpaceX’s Starship or Blue Origin’s Blue Moon, whichever is ready first. They will descend to the surface and, after a few days, return to orbit to rejoin their Orion capsule. Orion will be the astronauts’ return home transport.
NASA is striving for sustained lunar life, followed by Mars, although “the first day of the lunar base is not going to look like a glass-domed city,” Isaacman said. Last week he presented a lunar base project with habitats, rovers, drones, power plants and much more. NASA plans to invest $20 billion over the next seven years.
This story was translated from English to Spanish with an artificial intelligence tool and was reviewed by an editor before publication.