“The Artemis I mission to the Moon has been postponed. Teams attempted to repair a leak in the structural component responsible for delivering fuel to the rocket, but failed,” NASA engineers wrote on Twitter.
The mission is to be the first step on the path to continued exploration of the lunar surface and flight to Mars. Artemis II must be a manned mission.
The basic plan for the first in a series of missions, named after the Greek moon goddess, is theoretically the simplest. The rocket is to take the Orion spacecraft out of orbit, which – with the dummy Moonikin Campos on board – will circle the Moon and return to Earth after traveling nearly 2 million km in 4 to 6 weeks. Along the way, he will also leave 10 satellites for the study of the Moon and other bodies near our planet.
This should pave the way for a similar flight already crewed in 2024 (Artemis II), until the astronauts finally touch down on the surface a year later (Artemis III). The next phase involves setting up a space station in the moon’s orbit with a housing module.
– Artemis will take us back to the moon, where we haven’t been for 50 years. The program takes the first steps in the conquest of Mars. If we colonize the moon, build bases there, we will go further and land on Mars – Mateusz Borkowicz of the Copernicus Science Center told Onet.
