A photo of this American SLS rocket was taken Wednesday, October 20, in the assembly building of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This is the first time that we see the rocket 115 meters high, vertically, fully assembled, with its Orion spacecraft at the top. A first test flight of this new heavy NASA rocket is scheduled for early next year.
Objective of this mission, called Artemis: to send the Orion space capsule into lunar orbit, unmanned at first before two other manned missions. NOTorally, in 2024, Americans are expected to set foot on the moon again, which has not happened since 1972.
There have already been 50 missions in total to the moon. The most recent with robots. But precisely, machines are still less efficient than humans for exploring. In addition, it has been discovered in the last ten years that there is ice in the lunar subsoil, so scientists would like to take a closer look. THEhe Moon is also home to rare metals, increasingly used in electronics, as well as large amounts of helium-3, a gas that contains a lot of energy. That raises the legal question of their exploitation, but this also explains the renewed interest.
In terms of distance, the two trips have nothing to do with it. The Moon, 400,000 km from Earth, is three days away. March is more like six months but the interest of the Moon is that gravity is much weaker there than on Earth. It is necessary 20 times less energy to leave the attraction of the Moon compared to that of the Earth, therefore a lunar take-off in the direction of Mars would allow fuel savings.
Americans aren’t the only ones aiming for the moon. China, Russia and India are also working on it. And Europe is also participating in the Artemis mission alongside NASA.