We Are Going! Destination Deep Space!

Ardishir Rashidi-Kalhur | Exclusive to iKurd.net
President of RDI Engineering, Upland, California.

Come along! Witness trailblazing achievements made by NASA as they seek to traverse this next frontier of human exploration in an effort to make history again! NASA is on the verge of sending humans back to the moon, with a goal to then go on to Mars and deep space. This time, on board the Artemis spacecraft with its unmatched and awe-inspiring size, power, and technological sophistication. NASA is pulling out all the stops!

This article is written purely for purposes of edification, the viewpoints and the data presented herein are based upon an admixture of personal observations and information that is publicly available from sources within the public domain. For the latest news and technical facts regarding the Artemis Program please visit the Artemis program found on NASA’s website.

In Greek mythology, Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo. It was the Greek god Apollo in whose honor NASA named and launched the Apollo moon program in the 1960s by order of President John F. Kennedy. This achievement was the first landing of humankind on the Moon which occurred on July 20, 1969. It is now Apollo’s twin sister in whose honor the new program is named.

This time Apollo’s sister, Artemis, is carrying on an even bolder mission back to the moon, Mars, and beyond. In fact, NASA seeks to travel as far as humans can feasibly reach, even distant planets out there deep into space. This series of missions will start with the flight of the Artemis I, to be followed by subsequent Artemis II, Artemis III and more. With the launch of the Artemis III, NASA plans to land the first women on the surface of the Moon, giving equal footing to all humanity, allowing us to venture and explore the vastness of deep space for many, many generations to come.

Ardishir Rashidi-Kalhur, the President of RDI Engineering, visiting NASA, February 22, 2022. Photo: Rashidi-Kalhur/handout to iKurd.net

On Tuesday, February 22, 2022, at the Kennedy Space Center, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, NASA and Jacobs Engineering hosted a team of suppliers working with the Prime Contractors who are the industry leaders responsible for the design, construction, integration and qualification of the Artemis I space flight system. As a grateful member of the supplier team, the author of this article represented RDI Engineering and had the distinct privilege of witnessing the Artemis I in its pre-flight stage, and also the capsule being all buttoned up to make its maiden flight to the Moon in spring or summer of 2022.

This rendezvous on the ground between the many engineers, scientists, industry leaders and NASA was magnificent, and their creation of the Artemis I spacecraft, standing tall inside of NASA’s utterly gigantic VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building). The marvelous spectacle was truly a proud moment for our team, and one that should be commemorated as a one of a kind historic first event.

By volume, the VAB at the Kennedy Space Center can fully hold three and half Empire State Buildings inside the space of its frame. It is without a doubt massive and undeniably impressive, structural steel lattice tower constructed from 45000 steel beams joined together by over one million bolts and rivets, complete with elevators and cranes and catwalks where the Artemis I is incrementally and painstakingly integrated in order to complete its final assembly. Next to the VAB is the Launch Control Center (LCC), a building where the Launching of the Artemis I is to be managed using the latest innovations in control instrumentation and communication for the famous go-no-go countdown to begin prior to firing up the powerful SLS rockets required for liftoff.

Artemis I Final Assembly inside NASA’s VAB, 2022. Photo: Nasa.org

From the very tip top to its very bottom, the Artemis stands an imposing 322 feet tall (almost 100 meters), and with totally full fuel tanks at the time of lift off, it will weigh a whopping 5.75 million pounds (2608156 Kg.). In its fully assembled condition inside the VAB, its rocket engines will clear the ground floor by several feet. A prodigious transport vehicle called ‘The Crawler’ is positioned entirely under the Artemis system and meticulously positioned making it ultra secure and able to be slowly transferred to launch pad 39B which is waiting for its big day three and half miles down the road from the VAB.

The entire Artemis program, is the result of coming together of many national and international partners who design, build, test and launch the Artemis Flight System, all under NASA’s management. First among the team is the Exploration Ground System (EGS), operating under Jacobs Engineering management who are responsible for receiving all the Artemis Systems, sub-systems and components from various suppliers for inspection, assembly and checkout tests of the entire system in its fully integrated configuration. The major components that make up the entire Artemis Flight System consist of the following:

1- The SLS Core Stage Rocket, designed and manufactured by the Boeing Company.
2- The SLS Solid Booster Rockets (SBR), designed and manufactured by Northrop Grumman.
3- Launch Abort System (LAS), Assembled by Lockheed Martin Technical Team.
4- The SLS Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) is the upper stage rocket, built by United Launch Alliance.
5- The Orion Crew Module, designed and manufactured by the Lockheed Martin Space Flight System.
6- The Orion Service Module, designed and manufactured by the European Space Agency (ESA). 7) Interconnection adapters join and separate all the above segments both to and apart from each other.

The following is a brief description of each segmental component that starts with the question of what makes a rocket?

Imagine having a piece of rock in your hand, and you have the strongest arm to throw it upward, or rocket it as far as you can in horizontal or vertical direction. Obviously, the stronger the arm the further the rock can be thrown. However, the rules of Earth’s gravity says that when a person throws a rock upward, it always falls back to the ground. Imagine now that human has made a rocket, that can propel 8.8 million pounds of weight on earth surface (that’s a big rock!) and rocket it up to 280,000 miles above the surface of the Earth. That is the magic of NASA’s rocket science. NASA is sending the Orion Crew Module with enough force to escape the Earth’s gravity out far in to the deep reaches of the Universe using the SLS-Orion called the Artemis, the elements of which are briefly described below:

1- Segment 1, is the 212 feet tall and 27.6 feet in diameter in the shape of an insulated tubular cylinder. Segment 1 is orange in color and called the Core Stage Rocket and contains two separate elongated fuel tanks inside. One tank holds liquid hydrogen as a primary fuel and one holds liquid oxygen as an oxidizer which allows the fuel to burn. The fuels which are normally gases are liquified and kept at cryogenic temperatures below their boiling points to keep them in liquid state. Mounted to the bottom section of the Core Stage (Thrust Section), are four powerful RS-25 Liquid fuel burning rocket engines manufactured by AerojetRocketdyne. When fired up, each engine uses the molar ratio of 2H2 + O2, or two parts hydrogen to one part oxygen, to produce nearly 500,000 pounds of thrust each, for the total of close to two million pounds of lift power. This process produces the characteristic white cloud of water vapor pluming out as exhaust upon ignition at launch. These four engines use almost two million pounds of liquid fuel in less than 500 seconds into the flight of the Artemis, before they are disposed of and allowed separation and plunge, falling headlong into the Atlantic Ocean below.

2- Two Solid Rocket Boosters (SRB) on each side of segment 1, shouldering the Core Stage, burns close to 1.4 million pounds of solid fuel within the first two minutes immediately followed by the release prior to separation of segment 1. The two solid booster rockets ignite to propel the Artemis out of Earth’s weakened gravitational field, and send it speedily on its way to the moon. The SRBs provide 75% of the lift power and, after two minutes burn off, and then they separate and fall into the Atlantic Ocean waiting below.

3- The Launch Abort System (LAS), is an emergency rocket connected to the Crew Module that will jettison off the main rockets in (1) and (2) in case of an emergency. Once the Booster Rockets in (2) are separated safely, the LAS too, gets safely detached from the Orion Crew Module, falling into the Atlantic Ocean.

4- The Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS), known as the upper stage rocket, kicks in after the first stage rockets in (1), (2) and (3), are separated all within about eight minutes in to the flight, where by then, the Orion is positioned in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), by the ICPS rockets. After orbiting the earth, the ICPS rockets will provide additional thrust to send the Orion Spacecraft on its way to the moon. This rocket will also separate from the Orion and the Service Module after about two hours into the ascent some 2400 miles away from earth.

5- The Orion Crew Module is designed to carry four astronauts to the moon and deep into space. It is built by Lockheed Martin with the most advanced safety, life support system, sensors and communication network. Once positioned on the moon orbit, it will study the moon where a permanent moon base can be built as the stepping stone to facilitate human journey to far planets.

6- The Service Module is manufactured by the European Space Agency (ESA), which will stay with the Orion Capsule until the Reentry phase of the Orion, where it will separate to burn off during the reentry. The Service Module carries the needed supplies for about 25 days duration of the Astronauts trip over the moon and back, including Oxygen to breath, food to eat, fuel and solar panels to power the Orion, instrumentation and rockets to initiate orbital transfer from moon back toward the earth. At reentry back into earth’s atmosphere the Orion will have gained a speed near twenty-five thousand miles per hour. At this speed, the air friction passing by the Orion heatshield, will raise the temperature of the heatshield to near five thousand degrees Fahrenheit. As the Crew Module approaches near earth surface a series of parachutes are deployed to slow its descent for a safe splash into the Pacific Ocean near San Diego, California.

7- Interconnecting mechanisms are components that keep the entire Artemis Flight System connected together from ascent to descent stages, and are actuated at appropriate times during the journey, to separate one segment from another, until what is left will be the Orion Capsule in (6) returning safely to earth.

Before the liftoff, the entire Artemis Flight System, from individual components to its final stand at the launch pad, will have gone through several million points of rigorous inspection and go-nogo tests before NASA gives the final green light with thumbs up! That: “We Are Going” Destination Deep Space!

Ardishir Rashidi-Kalhur
President
RDI Engineering,
Upland, California.
Date: 7 March 2022
For more information about Artemis Program, visit NASA website.

Ardishir Rashidi-Kalhur, the President of Kurdish American Education Society, Los Angeles, U.S.

The opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of iKurd.net or its editors.