Hi, welcome to another episode of Cold Fusion. This stunning picture of Earth was taken with a clarity that we've never seen before. You can make out the aurora and even our atmosphere.
These photos were, of course, snapped by the crew of the Artemis 2 mission, which recently returned to Earth after looping around the moon. This is another photo taken from the far side of the moon, about 400,000 km or 250,000 mi away. It is the furthest humans have ever traveled from Earth.
Most people just don't realize how far that is. To put this distance into perspective, this is the International Space Station. It travels around the Earth in low orbit about 400 km or 250 mi above Earth.
And this is how far the moon is in comparison. The International Space Station flies in low Earth orbit, and the last time humans left low Earth orbit was all the way back in 1972. That's all well and good, but what was the point of the Artemis 2 mission?
Well, it wasn't just a dangerous sightseeing tour. It's actually part of a long-term vision for the future of space flight. The plan is to have regular moon landings every 6 months by 2028 and eventually build a permanent base on the moon and Mars beyond that.
Funnily enough, Toyota has a part to play here, and you'll love the name of their Luna rover. So, yes, these are all very lofty goals for sure, but Artemus 2 was a crucial step to get there. And in doing so, the mission carried a huge risk.
The four astronauts were traveling on a spacecraft that had never carried humans before. Even during its test flight, there was unexpected damage to the heat shield, and the design was never fixed. >> And the uh inspector general actually says, "In our judgment, the unexpected behavior of the heat shield poses a significant risk to the safety of future crude missions.
" Regardless, NASA and the crew still managed to carry out a grand human achievement by any measure. In this episode, we'll see what the point of Artemis 2 was, the mission's objectives, what's in store for the future, and we'll also take a look at the messy way that this mission came to be. Because rather than a well-thoughtout mission to explore the stars, it was more of a mission that was shoehorned into existence to create jobs at the behest of US Congress.
Despite its hurdles, I'm glad this mission existed. as much as is going on in the world today. Missions like Artemis 2 are one of those rare moments that get us to stop for a second and collectively appreciate the core ingenuity of humanity and have a fresh appreciation of the planet we all live on.
Because regardless of how messy the road was to get here, what this crew pulled off was extraordinary. >> You are watching Toll Fusion TV. Arteimus 2 is the second out of four missions that NASA had planned.
Arteimus 1, the first mission, was an unmanned version of the rocket and crew capsule launched in 2022. Its purpose was to test the systems before putting humans out into space. We covered that story here.
And it's a good thing that they did test it first because there was a problem with the heat shield on the crew capsule. The very heat shield that protected the crew as they returned to Earth. It suffered more damage than expected.
When Artemis 1 splashed down, the mission was hailed as a great success. But in reality, there were problems with the capsule. >> During the 2022 Aremis 1 UN uncrrewed test flight, Orion's heat shield chipped and cracked when it re-entered the atmosphere.
>> So, of course, NASA would fix it before putting humans on it, right? Well, no. They left the design as is and sent the crew up anyway.
We'll come back to what happened here later. Arteimus 2 is made of two separate vehicles. The SLS booster, which is the most powerful humanrated rocket ever made, and the Orion spacecraft.
Each side booster is about the height of a 17story building. So, yeah, they're pretty big. No matter how many space launches you have seen, you've never seen one like this because the space launch system is a vessel unto itself.
This is a beast. Taller than the Statue of Liberty from the base to the tip of the torch, well over 300 ft. It weighs around 6 million pounds, but that's okay because it can produce about 8 million pounds of thrust.
So, where are the astronauts in all of this? They're up here. That's where you'll find the Orion crew module.
One more thing, you'll see that upside down ice cream cone up there. That is a escape module in a sense, a way for the crew to get out. Even when this rocket is going thousands of miles an hour, it could bring them safely back down to Earth.
Of course, everybody hopes that this doesn't get used, that everything falls off as it should properly. The names of the astronauts are Reed Wisman, Victor Glover, Christina Cook, and Jeremy Hansen. The crew didn't land on the moon, but instead flew around it.
We'll talk about the mission objectives in a little bit, but this trajectory made it the furthest humans have ever been from Earth, beating the record set by the emergency swing around the moon carried out by the ill- fated Apollo 13 mission that I previously covered. The crew spent about 10 days in space in total. The time to travel to the moon was about 6 days at a speed of 40,000 km an hour.
When they reached the far side of the moon, they spent 6 hours observing the lunar surface. And that includes parts of the far side that has never been seen by humans in person before. A touching moment occurred during those 6 hours when Commander Reed Wiseman requested that a feature on the far side of the moon be named Carol after his late wife, who he sadly lost in 2020.
and our crew would like to propose a couple of potential names for those items or those areas. And we spent a bit of time uh this morning looking out the window and we're able to see them now both with our naked eye and through the long lens. And so we feel this is a good time to uh send this down.
And especially meaningful for this crew is a number of years ago we started this journey and our close-knit astronaut family and we lost a loved one and there's a there's a feature in a really neat place on the moon and it is on the near side far side boundary. In fact, it's just on the near side of that boundary. And so at certain times of the uh moon's transit around Earth, you can we will be able to see this from Earth.
And so we lost a loved one. Her name was Carol, the spouse of Reed, the mother of Katie and Ellie. And we would like to call her Carol.
As the crew looped around the moon, they used its gravity to pull them back towards Earth. And once this was done, the gravity from Earth could take over. The re-entry was no normal return.
Though, because they traveled so far, the return velocity was immense, way more than a normal space mission. They entered the atmosphere at Mark 32, which is 32 times the speed of sound, 40,000 km an hour or 11 km/s. The crew had traveled so rapidly that over the 10 days, everyone on Earth had aged 10 to 50 micro seconds more than the astronauts in the time they were away.
And that's due to time dilation. As the Orion spacecraft entered the atmosphere, the air molecules hitting the surface of the spacecraft became so compressed with so much friction that it formed a bubble of hot plasma reaching about 2,800° for minutes at a time. To give you an idea, just take a look at how intense atmospheric re-entry looks like.
This footage is from a Sawyer's re-entry, and they're traveling about 50% slower than the Artemis mission. After breaching the atmosphere, the crew parachuted back to Earth and touched down on the Pacific Ocean. And with that, the journey of 1.
1 million kilometers or 700,000 miles was over. >> Houston, splashdown, sending post landing command now. >> Splashdown confirmed.
>> The crew of Arteimus 2 safely home after traveling further from it than anyone who's ever lived. Though they' tested, trained, and planned for each step of the mission, this day was the most dangerous. re-entry of a new spacecraft with a heat shield that nearly failed in a previous test flight and had never carried humans before.
>> Okay, so what was the actual point of the mission? Well, it wasn't just a risky sightseeing tour. There was actual work and experiments to be done.
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Thanks to Raycon for supporting Cold Fusion. Now, back to the story. Let's take a look at those mission objectives.
There were a few objectives for this specific mission, but the main ones were as follows. Number one, study the moon's surface and photograph its features. The crew even had training from geologists to know what to look for.
Number two, test the human body in space. The testing included the effects of zero gravity and radiation on a mission so remote. >> Comparing information gathered from astronauts before, during, and after space flight provides a window into what happens to the human body in space.
But Artemis 2 will be the first to provide these measurements in deep space. >> In order to do the biological testing, there were small human cell chips with integrated circuits to mimic tissue function. For the experiment, they used the astronaut's bone marrow.
They'll compare the effect of cosmic radiation on these cells versus a control. >> Lots of experiments conducted. One of them is really fascinating, and it includes computer chips that contain the astronaut's bone marrow.
And there is hope that evidence collected from this particular experiment could reshape the practice of medicine here on Earth and tell us more about what it would be like to live for a long period of time in deep space. The astronauts also tested a new kind of lithium-ion battery and also a radiation shelter which is used in cases of emergency like a solar flare. And number three, testing maneuverability.
While near Earth, crew member Victor Glover carried out a simulated docking maneuver to see how well the craft performed for future missions. We're going to see what the plan is for future missions near the end of the episode. But for now, let's come back to that damaged heat shield.
CBA reports what happened during the testing phase. Quote, "During the Artemis 1 mission in 2022, the first test flight of the Orion capsule had no humans on board. Engineers were shocked to see large cracks and chunks missing from the protective heat shield that lines the bottom of the capsule.
" End quote. Basically, the heat shield is actually designed to burn away slightly to take away some of that thermal energy. NASA used the same material during the Apollo missions, so they opted to use it again.
But on testing the Artemis 1, it was coming in so fast that the heat shield sustained unexpected damage. There were unpredicted cracks and way too much of the surface was missing. In fact, entire chunks were gone.
Over a hundred locations were affected. >> The material is ablative, so it sort of burns away slowly and you expect that, but you didn't expect chunks of it to fall away. >> There was a subsequent investigation to find out what happened.
The suspected cause was from hot gas bubbles being trapped in the heat shield material. The pressure from the bubbles eventually damaged the heat shield. Remember, these guys are traveling at 11 km/s, facing temperatures of almost 3,000° C, or half the surface temperature of the sun.
So, why were the bubbles forming? It was later discovered that it may have been caused from the way NASA decided to enter the atmosphere during the Artemis 1 test flight. The plan was to enter the atmosphere twice.
Once just skimming it to slow the craft down, and the second at a steeper angle to actually enter and land. The bubbles formed through the skimming stage, then heated and exploded during the final re-entry. For Arteimus 2, NASA decided to go with a single re-entry approach.
After intense testing, including breaking off even more of the heat shield to see what happened, they were convinced that the heat shield would perform as designed with the new approach. >> Some former NASA personnel say the trajectory changes may not be enough, while other engineers and NASA leaders say the analysis, testing, and adjustments do mitigate the risk. NASA also decided that since there was a new shield coming for the Artemis 3 mission, the delays and extra cost wouldn't be worth it in the long term.
>> And Artemis 2 will use the same heat shield design as Artemis 1. >> So, as the Orion crew was barreling towards Earth, there was a slight air of worry among some of the public that was paying attention. >> Some former astronauts have concerns over safety for this mission.
>> Fortunately, all did go well in the end, so a sigh of relief could be felt. Looking at it from a historical stance, Artemis 2 is significant, although it manages to be despite its beginnings and not because of them. The SLS rocket, the one that launched Artemis 2, is officially called the Space Launch System, but some people jokingly call it the Senate launch system, and that's because it wasn't built to meet NASA's needs, but it was built to meet Congress's needs.
Frankly, a big part of the motivation was because it would make a good jobs program. The publication, The Conversation, has a great piece written by space historian Emily A. Margolus.
Basically, the story goes like this. In 2004, President George W. Bush pitched a new vision for space exploration centered around a spacecraft called the Crew Exploration Vehicle.
>> Is to develop and test a new spacecraft, the Crew Exploration Vehicle. >> He wanted to see it fly by 2008, human missions by 2014, and astronauts on the moon by 2020. by 2008 and to conduct the first man mission no later than 2014.
>> George Bush's vision would become the constellation program. But in 2008, the economy imploded. I detailed exactly why in this episode, but the fact of the matter was that there was no money for NASA.
It's time to save what we can, spend what we must, and live within our means. Once again, >> for NASA, that means scrapping a $100 billion program proposed by the previous administration of President George W. Bush, >> especially since the first prototype rocket of the constellation program called Aries 1 was already $3.
1 billion over budget. The program was axed, but Congress wasn't happy about that. As it turns out, NASA provides work for aerospace contractors, which preserve jobs in numerous congressional districts.
There was a vested interest in increasing NASA's budget. So, Congress demanded that NASA find something that could be shoehorned into a shuttle. Now, building a space shuttle because he wanted to create jobs is fine, but that meant that the incentives weren't in the right place from a mission point of view.
And because of that, Congress's rocket was vague. It didn't matter what it did. It just needed to be able to carry stuff into space.
There was no clear reasoning for it. There wasn't even any specifications of what had to be built. The result was the SLS.
In 2017, NASA was directed by the government to do a moon landing. But they couldn't build a moonlander with just 0. 47% of the federal budget.
So, they had to sift through what they already had. The Orion capsule was chosen, even though it was built back in 2012. Now, Orion couldn't land on the moon, but it could fly around it, so that was good enough.
So, there you go. Both the SLS and Orion capsule were picked without a clear goal. Their missions ended up being retroactively figured out based on what they could do.
And to add to all of this, there's some concerns about NASA's ambitious goals and internal operations. Susan Helms of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel has said that NASA is stacking too many simultaneous innovations on top of each other. She called Artemis 3 high- risk.
The recommendation was for NASA to re-evaluate its mission objectives for the future. Speaking of which, let's see what could be in store for future missions. So now with Artemis 2 done, what's next?
Arteimus 3 in 2027 is planned as a low Earth orbit docking test rather than landing on the moon itself. It will test docking with a commercial lunar lander currently being developed by either SpaceX or Blue Origin. Both firms are currently battling to see which company wins the contract.
Then in 2028 with Artemis 4, NASA plans to finally land on the moon again, kicking off regular moon landings every 6 to 12 months. Now that sounds wild, but NASA had a similar frequency of moon landings in the late60s and early '7s era. Later in 2028 for Artemis 5, the early stages of building a permanent moon base will begin.
Beyond this, NASA plans to develop Luna infrastructure, including Luna communication satellites, rovers like the Luna terrain vehicle, the Viper, which will explore for resources, and a Japanese rover built by Toyota and the Japanese Aerospace Space Exploration, which will be used for missions up to 45 days. The name of the rover is unironically called the Toyota Luna Cruiser. I just love that.
Other goals include solar and nuclear power. So, I have to be honest, the goals are so lofty that this is one of those I'll see it when I believe it situations. But the new head of NASA, Jared Isaacman, has shaken things up at the government organization.
So, we'll have to watch this space to see if the historic organization can turn a corner. So, in conclusion, although Artemis 2 was just a stepping stone into a space exploration future, it was still very cool to witness, especially for a mission created out of canceled space projects. So, there you go.
That is the whole story of the Artemis 2 mission. And even though it was messy, it still is inspiring. Today, with wars, rogue tech overlords, economic issues, and social division running rampant, missions like Artemis 2 is something to be encouraged by.
We humans are still capable of a lot when we put our minds to something positive. Even if you don't care about that, we now have some of the most beautiful imagery ever seen for our history books. And you can't be mad at that.
Anyway, that's about it from me. Thanks for watching. My name is Dogo and you've been watching Cold Fusion and I'll catch you again soon for the next episode.
Cheers guys. Have a good one. Cold Fusion.
It's new thinking.
