Artemis

[Dakota Tebaldi]

I don't think there's any difference in the behavior of the life support system in low Earth orbit and in Lunar flyby.

To be clear, by "life support systems" we're not just talking about like, the oxygen. We're talking about stuff like climate control, food and water, waste handling, and rest and recreation.

Arguably, the oxygen and climate controls would work exactly the same just orbiting Earth. A big part of how all that other stuff works though depends on exactly how the humans interact with it, and I'll bet people's behavior and habits and rhythms can be different enough between like a translunar flight and just hanging out in Earth orbit to have an effect on how those systems perform over time. The light/dark cycle will be different and we already know that has an impact on things like sleep cycles; and there also HAS to be at least some psychological effect watching the world get smaller in the window and the Moon get bigger. Not to mention *passing* the Moon and still going for a while. I think there's enough of a possibility for it to change things like consumption and living habits that it deserves an actual live trial and not just a simulated guess.

 

[Casey Pelous]

To be clear, by "life support systems" we're not just talking about like, the oxygen. We're talking about stuff like climate control, food and water, waste handling, and rest and recreation.

Arguably, the oxygen and climate controls would work exactly the same just orbiting Earth. A big part of how all that other stuff works though depends on exactly how the humans interact with it, and I'll bet people's behavior and habits and rhythms can be different enough between like a translunar flight and just hanging out in Earth orbit to have an effect on how those systems perform over time. The light/dark cycle will be different and we already know that has an impact on things like sleep cycles; and there also HAS to be at least some psychological effect watching the world get smaller in the window and the Moon get bigger. Not to mention *passing* the Moon and still going for a while. I think there's enough of a possibility for it to change things like consumption and living habits that it deserves an actual live trial and not just a simulated guess.

Even more arguments in favor of robots 'n' rovers vs. live meat. Imagine what sorts of remote exploration we could already be doing if remote exploration had the budget for Artemis.

And, while we're here, I want to make very clear to all of you people that calling this moon shot Fartemis is sophomoric and verges on being an insult to the leadership of this great land. Let's not have any of that!

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

I don't think there's any difference in the behavior of the life support system in low Earth orbit and in Lunar flyby.

There is a big difference: in LEO the atmosphere is still shielding a lot of radiation away, which could affect the function of technology.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

And while we know that the individual systems work, it is always good practice to put all of them together in the target environment.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Even more arguments in favor of robots 'n' rovers vs. live meat. Imagine what sorts of remote exploration we could already be doing if remote exploration had the budget for Artemis.

No argument here on that! Automated would do any space exploration job better and cheaper and that's been proven over and over. I'm only saying, IF you decide to send humans, you MUST test with humans at some point and you must test all the way with them, there's no way of getting around that.

I am unreasonably fond of Artemis because of vibes, because Elon Musk doesn't like it (and his fanboys abdolutely HATE it), and because it is a pre-Trump NASA program that survived Trump's attempt to kill it. As expensive and inefficient as it is, to me it'll be a symbolic victory when that thing lights up and shakes the world for a couple of minutes. I don't expect that argument to convince anyone btw, it's just how I feel about it.

 

[Free]

If the car industry would follow your argument we would have stopped doing crash tests decades ago. We didn't for good reason.

Uh...you don't crash test cars in Riyadh to see if they crash any differently than when driven in Detroit.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Uh...you don't crash test cars in Riyadh to see if they crash any differently than when driven in Detroit.

I refuse to believe that you are as dumb as you are pretending to be, so stop derailing this thread because you are bored.

 

[Free]

I refuse to believe that you are as dumb as you are pretending to be, so stop derailing this thread because you are bored.

So, apparently you do crash test cars in Riyadh to see if they crash any differently than when driven in Detroit. Enjoy your long trip back from the desert.

 

[Casey Pelous]

Everything is not A-OK, Houston.

NASA Artemis rocket booster suffers anomaly during test | Watch

 

[Anya Ristow]

I am unreasonably fond of Artemis because of vibes, because Elon Musk doesn't like it (and his fanboys abdolutely HATE it), and because it is a pre-Trump NASA program that survived Trump's attempt to kill it. As expensive and inefficient as it is, to me it'll be a symbolic victory when that thing lights up and shakes the world for a couple of minutes. I don't expect that argument to convince anyone btw, it's just how I feel about it.

We have to stop thinking about the space travels of billionaires as progress for all of humanity. Have "we" advanced if Musk sends someone to Mars? Or is that just the exploitation of the whole solar system at the shared expense of taxpayers?

Is Artemis really a public good, shared technology benefit? I don't know, but I prefer it to giving all that business to SpaceX and Musk.

 

[Khamon]

Even more arguments in favor of robots 'n' rovers vs. live meat. Imagine what sorts of remote exploration we could already be doing if remote exploration had the budget for Artemis.

And, while we're here, I want to make very clear to all of you people that calling this moon shot Fartemis is sophomoric and verges on being an insult to the leadership of this great land. Let's not have any of that!

Didn't know whether to laugh or agree so did both with a boop.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Artemis 2's wet-dress rehearsal - and by extension, the eventual launch - has been delayed because it's extremely cold in Florida right now. The rescheduled WDR is now February 2nd.

A wet-dress rehearsal is when the crew boards the rocket, the tanks are filled with cryogenic fuel, and the entire pre-launch program is conducted as if the rocket is really going to be launched, all the way up until (IIRC) the final T-minus-10-minute hold. Then the rocket is safed and de-fueled and put back into standby mode. It's an opportunity to find significant problems and get a chance to fix them before the launch.

Artemis 1 found a couple of problems during its WDR that were fixed, but additional issues with small leaks in fuel-delivery pipelines caused that launch to be delayed for weeks. Hopefully that doesn't happen this time.

 

[Noodles]

We have to stop thinking about the space travels of billionaires as progress for all of humanity. Have "we" advanced if Musk sends someone to Mars?

I mean, if Musk himself goes, that is an absolute win for humanity.

 

[Noodles]

According to my boss at work, we are only doing this mission so we can see what the Chinese are doing on the far side of the moon.

 

[Casey Pelous]

According to my boss at work, we are only doing this mission so we can see what the Chinese are doing on the far side of the moon.

I imagine your boss would be rather disappointed to learn we already have several satellites in lunar orbit and have for quite some time. One of the main reasons they're there is to let us see and survey the far side of the moon. Plus, landing a moon mission on the far side would put them out of radio contact -- a bonehead move not even the current Reich is likely to make.

Maybe better not be the one to break the news to your boss.*

*"Woman who hasn't worked for anyone but herself for 40 years gives employment advice."

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Artemis 2's first and upper stage liquid O2 and H2 tanks are full and in replenish mode. Filling of the first stage's hydrogen tank had to be paused for a while when a leak in the umbilical piping was detected, but the leak was resolved and the tank was able to resume fast-fill, and everything is now stable at working pressure. "Replenish mode" means a small amount of hydrogen and oxygen continuously trickles into the rocket's tanks just to replace what naturally boils off, to keep the tanks topped.

After a few instrumentation tests they'll be ready to enter the terminal countdown. There's still 2 hours and 40 minutes on the mission clock and the count did not stop during that pause with the hydrogen fill, so even with that hiccup the rocket is well ahead of schedule at this moment at least.

I'm not sure yet how they solved the umbilical leak or exactly what the nature of the leak was. Liquid hydrogen brings the system down to less than -400 C, so needless to say the pipes and all their fittings contract a whole lot, and sometimes if they contract a little unevenly a tiny gap opening between components can allow a leak. On Artemis 1 there was a similar umbilical leak that they were able to resolve by stopping the fuel flow, allowing the pipe to warm up, and then re-chilling it a little more slowly so that all of the piping and connections could re-seat themselves. Might be what happened this time too, we'll find out during the post-op press conference.

No other problems so far that I'm aware of.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

According to the most recent NASA update, the closeout crew is in the White Room.

No word on whether it has black curtains.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

According to the most recent NASA update, the closeout crew is in the White Room.

No word on whether it has black curtains.

Chilling out to KLF before the big launch. Good move.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Both of Orion's hatches are closed. They're pressure and environment testing the capsule now.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

They got all the way down to T-minus 5 minutes or so, before they stopped the countdown. They detected another hydrogen leak at the service umbilical. So the test run has been ended early and now the tanks are going to be drained.

If it weren't for the hydrogen leak popping back up, they would have taken the countdown all the way to T-minus 30 seconds and that would've been a successful test. Unfortunately, they're going to have to figure out this hydrogen leak. This isn't a problem with the rocket itself by the way, it's a problem with the external equipment that fills the tanks.