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Credit: NASA
Now that the NASA Artemis 2 mission has orbited the Moon, the journey home continues, taking astronauts Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen farther from Earth than any previous astronaut. What awaits them when they re-enter Earth’s atmosphere?
The last 100 or so miles of their 695,081-mile (1,118,624 km) journey are potentially the most dangerous. At about 75 miles (120 km) above Earth, Artemis 2The Orion capsule will be our entry environment Estimated 23,840 mph (38,367 km/h). Enough to fly from New York to Tokyo in less than 20 minutes, the capsule was heading in that direction. Instead, it will be on target for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego on Friday evening (April 10).
Eight dramatic minutes after entering the atmosphere.
Artemis 2’s Orion capsule will hit Earth’s atmosphere on April 10 at about 24,000 mph. A heat shield and 11 parachutes will help it survive the fiery journey and land safely. | Credit: NASA
At first, the plan was for Orion The capsule dips in and out of the atmosphere, like a skipping stone, slowly drifting at some high speed through successive periods of friction with the atmosphere.
However, this approach was dropped after re-entry Artemis 1 mission in December 2022, which saw an unidentified Orion return to Earth from lunar orbit. On that mission, Orion’s protective heat shield, which prevents the capsule from burning up as friction with the atmosphere raises the temperature to 2,760 degrees Celsius (5,000 degrees Fahrenheit). A great loss was experienced.
The heat shield is made from a titanium base covered in 186 blocks of a heat-resistant material called Avcote, each of which is 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) thick. During Artemis 1’s atmospheric reentry, gases trapped within the heat shield expanded at high temperatures, tearing off four-layered pieces of avcot and reducing the effectiveness of the heat shield.
This could be dangerous for the astronauts on board Artemis 2. Therefore, Artemis 2’s Orion will enter Earth’s atmosphere at a steeper angle than originally planned to reduce the time it spends orbiting the atmosphere at higher speeds and temperatures, and to reduce the chance of damage.
During this phase of descent, Orion will be engulfed in a fireball, igniting flickering plasma out the window hatches. The landing will be rough and tumble, and for a short time the plasma envelope around the capsule will cut off communication with ground control – always a nerve-wracking moment, hoping the capsule gets the worst of it and communication is restored.
At this stage, Orion will be 26,500 feet (8,077 meters) above the Pacific Ocean but still descending at 325 miles per hour (523 kilometers). The pyrotechnics will fire to release the first set of parachutes, three forward-bay-covered chutes, which are 7 feet (2.1 m) across. At 25,000 ft (7,620 m), two large drug chutes with a diameter of 23 ft (7 m) will deploy the main parachutes to stabilize the capsule before release at 9,500 ft (2,896 m) and a downward speed of 130 km/h (2900 km).
The main parachute is a more complex system. First, three pilot chutes will be released, each 11 feet (3.4 m) in diameter, and these pilot chutes will eject the three main ones, which are a whopping 116 feet (35.3 m) wide, each weighing 310 pounds (140 kg), the Orion crew module will descend 185 feet (265 m).
These main parachutes will slow the capsule’s descent to less than 20 mph (32 km/h), gentle enough for a successful splashdown into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego on Friday at 8:07 p.m. EDT (5:07 local time; 1207 GMT on April 11).
Recovery teams will then be activated, as the USS John P. US Navy rescue helicopters from Murtha conduct search and rescue operations. These assets will be deployed two hours prior to the scheduled splashdown.
The crews on board have trained repeatedly for this moment, including 12 dress rehearsals known as Underway Recovery Tests, or URTs, which include a pretend capsule called the Crew Module Test Article. They’ve actually done this once, too, with the unidentified Orion capsule of the Artemis 1 mission.
If all goes according to plan, the crew of Artemis 2 will be retrieved from their capsule, its hatch will be blown and the crew module will float into the waves as it is equipped with flotation devices, safe and sound. In doing so, the astronauts will cement their place in history and pave the way for the Artemis 4 mission to eventually return and land on our soil. the moon In late 2028, nearly 60 years after astronauts took their last steps there.
