1 of 34

Mars and (Back) to the Moon…

Unit 6: Space Exploration

2 of 34

3 of 34

First flyby – Mariner 4 (1964) – sent back 21 images

Mariner 6 (1969) – 75 images
Mariner 7 (1969) – 126 images
Mariner 9 ( 1971) – 7,329 images

First Orbiter/Lander – Mars 3 (USSR - 1971) – first successful landing, but only returned 20 seconds of data

Viking 1 (1975) – first picture from the surface + soil experiments
Viking 2 (1975) – extensive atmospheric data + soil experiments

Early Exploration

4 of 34

5 of 34

Sojourner (1997)

7 days
The size of a microwave
Landed at Ares Vallis because it looked like the site of an ancient flood

Spirit & Opportunity (2003)

Both about the size of a golf cart
Spirit lasted for 6 years
Opportunity lasted for 15 years (died in 2019)

Traveled 28 miles

Mars Rovers

6 of 34

Curiosity (2011/12)

17 cameras, 10 scientific instruments, a laser to vaporize small rocks, drill
Size of a small SUV
Goals: determine if there was ever life, study climate and geology, prepare for human exploration
Still in operation

Mars Rovers

7 of 34

Perseverance (2021)

Landed in the Jezero Crater – looking for evidence of past life
Size of a small SUV
Includes a small helicopter – ingenuity (died 1/18/24)

Mars Rovers

8 of 34

Scale Model of Perseverance

9 of 34

Perseverance: A Year in Review

10 of 34

11 of 34

Mars and Deimos (from the United Arab Emirates Hope Probe, launched by a Japanese rocket)

12 of 34

HUMANS ON MARS: ARTEMIS

The upcoming mission back to the moon is a practice run for sending humans to Mars

…BUT WHAT IS ARTEMIS?

13 of 34

BACK TO THE MOON: WHO IS GETTING US THERE?

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space �Administration (NASA) agency is a U.S.

government agency responsible for science

and technology related to air and space.

Government contractors and commercial and

international companies hired by NASA

to support their missions and programs.

NASA

PARTNERS

NASA PROGRAMS

Program that will land the first woman and the next man on the Moon by 2024.

As you know, today we are talking about how we are going to the Moon.
And the first thing we are going to go over is WHO. Who is getting us to the Moon?

[CLICK]

I am sure you have heard of NASA — which is the agency in charge of science and technology that has to do with space.

[CLICK]

So NASA has lots of programs that they work on … and there is so much work to be done on those programs that they need to hire additional people and teams to support

[CLICK]

So that’s where NASA partners come in. And these partners are government contractors and other commercial and international companies that NASA hires to work on certain programs

[CLICK]

Today we are going to talk about one specific NASA program: Artemis — which is the program focused on landing humans back on the Moon

[CLICK]

Specifically, we are going to cover some areas of Artemis being worked on by one of NASA’s partners … that partner is Northrop Grumman, [CLICK] … and that’s where I come in!

14 of 34

SO, WHAT IS ARTEMIS EXACTLY?

Twin sister of apollo mission
Will land the first woman and next man on the moon by 2026
Explore more of the lunar surface than ever before
Use what we learn from Artemis to send astronauts to mars

15 of 34

GOING TO THE MOON: �HOW ARE WE GETTING THERE?

Source: NASA Website

16 of 34

THE INITIAL PLAN

17 of 34

18 of 34

SPACE LAUNCH SYSTEM (SLS)

1

2

3

4

So let’s talk about he Space Launch System.
[CLICK]
In the video, you saw that the Space Launch System — or the SLS — is comprised of four main components [CLICK]:

A Cargo Hold
An Exploration Upper Core Stage
The Core Stage
The Solid Rocket Boosters

All-together, making up the “The World’s Most Powerful Rocket”

One of the four main components of the SLS are the two solid rocket boosters that will provide the power to get the rocket off the ground and out of earth’s atmosphere.
[CLICK]
And as noted in the video — the boosters will do this in just the first 2 minutes of launch, before being spent and released — actually disconnecting from the Core Stage so the rest of the SLS can continue it’s journey and deliver our astronauts to the Gateway.
These rocket boosters are what some of my teammates in Utah, Florida and Alabama are engineering today.
And they are doing some very important and really cool work.

19 of 34

SPACE LAUNCH SYSTEM (SLS)

A super heavy-lift rocket: the most powerful rocket NASA has ever built
Already used for Artemis I, with the goal of later being used to send astronauts beyond Earth’s orbit
Before launching, the SLS underwent hot fire tests

The hot fire test is a comprehensive assessment of the rocket’s core used to design specifics for launching

So let’s talk about he Space Launch System.
[CLICK]
In the video, you saw that the Space Launch System — or the SLS — is comprised of four main components [CLICK]:

A Cargo Hold
An Exploration Upper Core Stage
The Core Stage
The Solid Rocket Boosters

All-together, making up the “The World’s Most Powerful Rocket”

One of the four main components of the SLS are the two solid rocket boosters that will provide the power to get the rocket off the ground and out of earth’s atmosphere.
[CLICK]
And as noted in the video — the boosters will do this in just the first 2 minutes of launch, before being spent and released — actually disconnecting from the Core Stage so the rest of the SLS can continue it’s journey and deliver our astronauts to the Gateway.
These rocket boosters are what some of my teammates in Utah, Florida and Alabama are engineering today.
And they are doing some very important and really cool work.

20 of 34

21 of 34

ORION SPACECRAFT

The Orion spacecraft sits on top of the SLS and carries astronauts into space and safely returns them home
It has been designed not just for the moon, but also for deep space travel to Mars

22 of 34

GATEWAY

Lunar Lander

Orion

Power and Propulsion Element (PPE)

1

Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO)

2

3

Logistics Module

HALO

Habitation and Logistics Outpost

Now we are going to switch gears and talk about another part of Artemis that my Northrop Grumman colleagues and I are supporting: Gateway
If you remember from the first video, part of the Artemis pre-staging includes Gateway [CLICK] — a dedicated lunar space station that orbits the moon.
Gateway is critical to the Artemis mission, because this is what will allow our astronauts to explore the Moon for extended periods of time.
Gateway is also necessary for future deep space missions, like going to Mars.
[CLICK]
The Gateway outpost is where the Orion Spacecraft will dock, with our astronauts onboard, and it is where the lunar lander will be pre-staged, ready to land the astronauts on the Moon.
Now, there are a three critical elements of Gateway, which provides support for long-term human missions to the Moon.
the Power and Propulsion Element (or PPE)
the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (or HALO)
and the Logistics Module (LM)
TODAY, we are going to focus on #2 [CLICK] the Habitation and Logistics Outpost, which I will refer to as HALO going forward.

23 of 34

LUNAR GATEWAY

The Gateway will be a small, human-tended space station orbiting the Moon
It will include docking ports, space to live and work, and on-board science investigations

One of the ports will be the HALO – Habitation And Logistics Outpost

24 of 34

HALO

HALO will be about the size of an RV camper.

Pressurized living quarters for supporting a crew of four astronauts for up to 30 days when attached to Orion

Habitation and Logistics Outpost

25 of 34

TOUR THE HALO

26 of 34

WHERE ARE WE NOW?

27 of 34

ARTEMIS I

Uncrewed lunar flight test
Launched: November 16, 2022
Splashdown: December 11, 2022
Duration: 25 days, 10 hours, 53 minutes

28 of 34

29 of 34

30 of 34

WHAT DID WE LEARN?

Artemis 1 carried two “moonikins” 🡪 mannequins in spacesuits designed for the real astronauts or Artemis 2 and 3
The SLS is now the most powerful operational rocket in the world
The SLS significantly damaged the launch pad, which will need to be redesigned to withstand future launches
The Orion capsule is reusable, but the SLS is not (and is incredibly expensive to build)
The Moon is still ridiculously impressive

31 of 34

WHAT COMES NEXT?

Artemis 2: the first crewed test flight to the moon since Apollo

The crew will fly beyond the far side of the moon, complete a lunar flyby, then return to Earth
This will be the furthest any human has flown into space
Will occur no earlier than September 2025

Artemis 3

The first moon landing since Apollo 17 in 1972
The crew will doc on the Lunar Gateway and remain in space for 30 days
The plan is to sample lunar water ice that was first detected in 1971
No earlier than September 2026

32 of 34

ARTEMIS II: MEET THE CREW

33 of 34

ARTEMIS II UPDATE

34 of 34

BUT 2 MONTHS AGO…