The Europe-built service module powering the Orion spaceship during the Artemis 1 mission is nailing its debut lunar round trip, but a key system for keeping future human crews alive is not being tested during the flight.
The Orion capsule, which commenced the return leg of its groundbreaking journey on Thursday (Dec. 1), is currently not filled with breathable air, European aerospace giant Airbus told Space.com. According to Airbus, which built Orion’s service module, the capsule’s life support system will only be fully put through its paces in ground-based labs before the first flight with astronauts in 2024.
The Europe-built service module, responsible for propulsion and navigation, is the part of the spacecraft that sustains livable conditions inside Orion’s crew compartment. The service module carries water the astronauts will need during the flight and generates breathable air by mixing oxygen and nitrogen that are stored in separate tanks.
“The oxygen and nitrogen delivery systems are very similar,” Airbus spokesperson Ralph Heinrich told Space.com in an email. “We carry nitrogen on board Artemis 1 and will be testing the nitrogen delivery system during the flight that’s ongoing at the moment. As the oxygen and nitrogen systems carry the same components, the test on the nitrogen distribution system will cover by similarity the oxygen delivery system. Furthermore, the oxygen system is being tested extensively on ground.”
For Airbus, the Artemis 1 mission represents a major victory. The company was awarded a contract to develop the service module, a key component of the Orion spacecraft, by ESA, based on their previous experience building the Automated Transfer Vehicle, a cargo spacecraft which used to supply the International Space Station between 2008 and 2014. During its lunar sorties in the late 1960s and early 1970s, NASA built all of the required technology at home in the United States and didn’t include any international partners.
Shaun the Sheep fortunately doesn’t mind the absence of breathable atmosphere inside the Orion capsule during the debut Artemis 1 mission. (Image credit: ESA)
The Artemis 1 service module is a culmination of ten years of work, and the Airbus team is delighted to see the craft performing with flying colors. So far, the service module has completed all of its key tasks flawlessly, including three engine burns, which first helped Orion to enter orbit around the moon, and then to subsequently leave lunar orbit to head back to Earth.
In a post-launch press conference, NASA admitted it detected 13 anomalies during the early phase of Orion’s flight, including erratic readings from star trackers that the space capsule uses to navigate.
“Engineers will be looking into the data that’s coming back from Orion so that every single system, every single component on board of the spacecraft can be tested in one way or another before the next mission,” Sian Cleaver, the European Service module project manager at Airbus told Space.com in an interview. “So far, everything is going well. Of course, there’ll be things that can be improved or changed. There were a few things that didn’t work exactly as planned, but none of them were major issues.”
Airbus engineers are receiving a stream of data from the spacecraft including “pressure, temperature, valve position data and currents and voltages” to monitor its health, Airbus wrote in an email.
“We look at all the data throughout the whole mission, and especially during major events, like main engine firings,” Airbus wrote. “[We] make sure the system is operated within its expected and qualified range. The data is also being stored continuously, to allow post flight analyses and prepare for the next Artemis missions.”
Airbus has already delivered the next service module to NASA for testing and mating with the crew compartment for the Artemis 2 mission,which will take humans to orbit around the moon for the first time since the final Apollo flight in 1972. That mission is expected to launch no earlier than 2024, if all goes according to plan. The company has also nearly completed the assembly of the third service module, which will power the Artemis 3 mission that is expected to involve a lunar landing no earlier than 2025.
The bones of the fourth service module have also been put together and plans are in place to begin work on the fifth specimen later this month. These service modules will cover Artemis missions 4 and 5, which are expected to take off to the moon toward the end of this decade. By that time, the Lunar Gateway space station will be put together in orbit around the moon, opening a new era of regular human visits to Earth’s companion.
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“It really feels like a bit of a production line going on now at our facility,” Cleaver said. “It’s really exciting. The program is really, really moving now. We have a plan for the next 10 years, and there are also clear messages from NASA and ESA that the moon is only the first step and that the technology will be used to eventually go to Mars.”
Airbus is under contract to build the service module number six and is currently negotiating another batch of three. The service modules are single-use only and will detach from the crew capsule before it enters Earth’s atmosphere during its return.
The Artemis 1 mission lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Nov. 16. The mission was a debut not only for Orion, but also for the Space Launch System mega rocket that lofted it into space. During the mission, Orion passed only 80 miles (130 kilometers) above the moon’s surface, and also broke a record for the greatest distance from Earth ever achieved by a human-rated spacecraft. By getting as far as 270,000 miles (435,000 km) from the planet, Orion surpassed the previous maximum held by the Apollo 13 mission. That mission, however, only got that far as part of a rescue operation designed to bring it back home after an onboard explosion crippled the spacecraft.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
