Have you ever looked at the bright stars of the night sky and wondered about the
vastness of space and the place of our home within the vast ocean of the cosmos? Lost
somewhere between eternity and immensity is our tny planetary home. The Universe is so vast
that if we were to put our planet in the universe randomly, the likelihood of it being near any
other planet would be one in a billion trillion, trillion (10^33). There are some hundred billion
galaxies, each on average with a hundred billion stars, and in all the galaxies, there are about as
many planets as stars, around ten billion trillion. Such calculatons comparing our world with
the vastness of space motvate one to delve into the imaginaton of cosmic secrets.
We as a species are at that point of our development that we have explored 15 billion
years of evoluton of the universe and yet there is no limit to the developments. The human
brain has the power to incorporate the hidden secrets of the vast ocean of the cosmos and it is
interestng to think what our brain is more capable of achieving. One such marvel of human
curiosity towards the developments of space exploraton is NASA's Moon Mission of 2024
called Artemis. NASA launched 12 human missions to the moon between 1968 and 1972, of
which 6 were successful, enabling 12 people to set foot on the moon. The goal of Artemis,
NASA's upcoming lunar exploraton mission, is to not only visit the moon but also set up ever
more difficult interstellar journeys. Everything we need to be able to achieve in the universe,
we frst need to be able to perform between the planet and its astronomical satellite.
So, what is the Artemis mission and how will it look like? Unlike Apollo, Artemis opens
the door for humanity to sustainably live and work on another world for the frst tme.
Everything is designed and tested with keeping the astronauts in mind. The spacecraf being
used for the trip is a deep space human rated vehicle named Orion, which is made up of three
parts: a crew module for the crew, a service module for the support systems, and a launch
module with the capability of rescuing the crew during launch. It has two extended solid rocket
boosters, making it the current most potent rocket in existence. The rocket weighs 6 million
pounds (about 2721552 kg) when it is on the launch pad, of which 5.2 million pounds (about
2358678.4 kg) are merely fuel. Now let us have a look at the procedure designed for the
mission. Once the engines of the rocket are ignited, the two solid rocket boosters come to life
thundering the crew upwards which separates from the rocket two minutes into the launch.
Eight minutes into the launch, the core stage of the rocket is depleted and separated, and the
upper stage fres briefy, placing Orion into a parking orbit around the Earth. The crew
reconfgures the spacecraf for deep space travel and, with a go from the mission control,
reignites the upper-stage exploraton engines to leave Earth's gravitatonal pull completely.
Orion is put on a course that will intersect the moon days later.
Everything needed for the mission will be placed on the lunar surface in advance.
This includes human-rated systems, science experiments, and rovers. There will also be a
dedicated lunar staton in orbit around the moon called the gateway to Prestage a lunar lander
and develop communicatons. The gateway has the ability to adjust orbits around the moon,
allowing access to all parts of the moon, which was not possible in the apollo mission. Gateway
was created with open standards so that it may be expanded when new missions and
collaboratons emerge, enabling many missions to the moon at once and serving as a hub
between Earth and everything beyond it. Once ORION has successfully docked with the
gateway, pre-selected members will be transferred to the moon lander, which will then land on
the lunar surface. Afer the mission is completed, the moon lander will ascend back to the
orbitng gateway. Once the crew is back and the spacecraf is undocked, the crew members will
ignite their spacecraf's engines to break out of the lunar orbit, placing it on a mult-day
trajectory back towards Earth. The safe return of the crew will mark the success of this mission,
and this would be the frst tme in history that humanity lived and worked in a world other than
their own.
Our knowledge of the cosmos is like ankle-deep water on the shore of a vast
ocean, whereas the universe is the ocean calling us towards itself, ready to be explored and
whose vastness is beyond our most courageous imaginatons. The universe is ours and ours to
explore, and there is a lot to learn from it. Just because human life started on earth, it does not
mean that it is destned to end here. The cosmos is a vast entty and beyond our understanding,
but we know that wonderful things are flled in it. While Apollo placed the frst steps on the
Moon, Artemis opens the doors for humanity to completely new possibilites. This new chapter
in space exploraton will forever establish our presence in the stars!