Audit Report: Is NASA Ready for Artemis II?

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The NASA Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued an audit report earlier this week, NASA’s Readiness for the Artemis II Crewed Mission to Lunar Orbit, that expressed concerns about problems with the Artemis I test flight mission in late 2022. For example, the report noted:

…the Artemis I test flight revealed critical issues that need to be addressed before placing crew on the Artemis II mission. In particular, the test flight revealed anomalies with the Orion heat shield, separation bolts, and power distribution that pose significant risks to the safety of the crew…Specifically, NASA identified more than 100 locations where ablative thermal protective material from Orion’s heat shield wore away differently than expected during reentry into Earth’s atmosphere…Beyond the Orion anomalies, the Artemis I launch-induced environment caused greater than expected damage to ML-1 elevators, electrical equipment, enclosure panel doors, and pneumatic tubing, requiring extensive repairs that will cost more than $26 million, roughly 5 times more than the $5 million the EGS Program had originally set aside for postArtemis I launch repairs.

While NASA is already working on repairs and improvements in each of these areas, it still puts a bit of a damper on NASA’s earlier video about all of the successes of Artemis I. NASA has already lost too many astronauts to heat shield issues in the past, so this is a serious matter that needs to be resolved before putting humans in the Orion capsule.

The OIG auditors made six recommendations to NASA management. NASA concurred with these recommendations, but noted that the audit was conducted at a difficult time, stating:

Being audited in the middle of a development process presents several challenges including disruptions to ongoing workflow and priorities due to the reallocation of resources and the coordination challenges associated with audit activities.

Of course, auditors are never really welcome at any point in the process. If they come too late, they are accused of shooting the dead.

NASA conducted the test flight to learn about such issues, so in that sense it was a success. Hopefully, the space agency can make the necessary improvements while keeping the Artemis II mission on track given that it has already been delayed.

NASA Experiences Early Success with its Solar Sail

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Image (Credit): Artist’s rendering of NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System spacecraft in Earth Orbit. (NASA/Aero Animation/Ben Schweighart)

On Tuesday, NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System was launched from New Zealand aboard a Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket. The successful launch was followed shortly thereafter by the deployment of an 80 square meter experimental solar sail.

In describing the mission, NASA noted:

Like a sailboat turning to capture the wind, the solar sail can adjust its orbit by angling its sail. After evaluating the boom deployment, the mission will test a series of maneuvers to change the spacecraft’s orbit and gather data for potential future missions with even larger sails.

If all goes well, larger sails will be developed to potentially replace large rocket engines and accompanying fuel tanks for future trips to the Moon, Mars, other parts of the solar system, and even interstellar locations.

You might be able to see the solar sail in the night sky as it orbits the Earth, so keep looking up.

Pic of the Week: New Crew Launched to the Tiangong Space Station

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Image (Credit): April 25, 2024 launch of the Shenzhou 18 mission to the Tiangong space station. (CMSA)

This week’s image shows today’s launch of three astronauts to China’s Tiangong space station on the Shenzhou 18 mission aboard a Long March 2F rocket. The crew successfully reached the space station 6.5 hours after launch.

One of the new crew members has already spent 182 days in orbit aboard the Tiangong space station. The Tiangong space station has been continuously crewed since June 2022.

Image (Credit): Shenzhou 18 crew members Li Cong, commander Ye Guangfu and Li Guangsu. Guangfu has logged 182 days in orbit during a stay aboard the Tiangong space station in 2021-22. (CMSA)

A Day in Astronomy: First Spaceflight Fatality

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Image (Credit): Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov. (RIA Novosti)

On this day in 1967, the Soviet Union’s Vladimir Komarov became the first spaceflight fatality when his Soyuz 1 spacecraft crashed during reentry as the result of a failed parachute. The accident occurred during what was his second trip to space, his first being aboard the Voskhod 1. Yuri Gagarin served as the backup cosmonaut on the Soyuz 1 flight.

The Soyuz 1 mission was already experiencing problems before reentry, particularly with its solar panels. These problems were enough to end the mission early and delay the launch of a second Soyuz spacecraft that would have met up with the orbiting Soyuz 1. The spacecraft was not up to the mission. Before the crash, Komarov could be heard stating, “This devil ship! Nothing I lay my hands on works properly.”

This fellow cosmonauts had this to say via Pravda:

For the forerunners it is always more difficult. They tread the unknown paths and these paths are not straight, they have sharp turns, surprises and dangers. But anyone who takes the pathway into orbit never wants to leave it. And no matter what difficulties or obstacles there are, they are never strong enough to deflect such a man from his chosen path. While his heart beats in his chest, a cosmonaut will always continue to challenge the universe. Vladimir Komarov was one of the first on this treacherous path.

Image (Credit): Burkina Faso stamps commemorating cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov. (stamps-world.eu)

Juno Views Lava Lake on Io

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Image (Credit): View of Jupiter’s moon Io as seen by the Juno spacecraft on April 9. It was the first-ever image of the moon’s south polar region. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS. Image processing: Gerald Eichstädt/Thomas Thomopoulos (CC BY))

The Juno spacecraft is still hard a work in the vicinity of Jupiter, with its latest mission being a flyby of the moon Io earlier this month (shown above).

Two recent flybys of the moon were also combined to create an image of a lake of cooling lava (shown below and via the video here). Juno’s principal investigator Scott Bolton explained the new image:

Io is simply littered with volcanoes, and we caught a few of them in action. We also got some great close-ups and other data on a 200-kilometer-long (127-mile-long) lava lake called Loki Patera. There is amazing detail showing these crazy islands embedded in the middle of a potentially magma lake rimmed with hot lava. The specular reflection our instruments recorded of the lake suggests parts of Io’s surface are as smooth as glass, reminiscent of volcanically created obsidian glass on Earth.

Juno has been zipping around Jupiter’s neighborhood since 2016. It’s main task is to study the origin and evolution of Jupiter, believed to be the first planet to have formed in our solar system. By doing so, NASA hopes to learn more about the solar system and the Earth as well.

Image (Credit): An artist’s rendering of Loki Patera, a lava lake on Jupiter’s moon Io, created using data from the JunoCam imager aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS)