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NASA's Artemis I Moon Mission: Science Experiments
When Artemis I launches to the Moon and back there will be a great amount of science hitching a ride! From CubeSats designed to hunt for water deposits on the lunar surface to experiments on how life responds to space—and so much more.
The Artemis I mission consists of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket that will send the uncrewed Orion spacecraft around the Moon and back to Earth to check out spacecraft systems before crew fly aboard on Artemis II. The Artemis I mission is one more step toward taking the next giant leap—sending the first astronauts to Mars. Launch of the uncrewed flight test is targeted for no earlier than Aug. 29, 2022.
NASA's Artemis I Moon Rocket Mission: Communications with Earth Explained
NASA’s Artemis I mission will need communications and navigation services during its journey to the lunar region. NASA’s Deep Space Network and Near Space Network will be there to support all phases of the mission, using direct-to-Earth and space relay capabilities. Launch of the uncrewed flight test is targeted for no earlier than Aug. 29.
NASA's Artemis I Moon Rocket: European Service Module Perspective | ESA
The Orion spacecraft with the European Service Module (ESM) will fly farther from Earth than any human-rated vehicle has ever flown before. This video gives an overview of the first mission—without astronauts—for Artemis I, focusing on the European Space Agency’s European Service Module that powers the spacecraft.
The spacecraft will perform a flyby of the Moon, using lunar gravity to gain speed and propel itself 70,000 km beyond the Moon, almost half a million km from Earth—further than any human has ever travelled, where it will inject itself in a Distant Retrograde Orbit around the Moon.
On its return journey, Orion will do another flyby of the Moon before heading back to Earth.
The total trip will take around 20 days, ending with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean without the European Service Module—it separates and burns up harmlessly in the atmosphere.
The second Artemis mission will have a simplified flight plan with only a flyby of the Moon but with four astronauts. The third Artemis mission will see astronauts taken to the lunar surface.
The European Service Module is the European Space Agency’s contribution to NASA's Orion spacecraft that will send astronauts to the Moon and beyond. It provides electricity, water, oxygen and nitrogen as well as keeping the spacecraft at the right temperature and on course.
The European Service Module has 33 thrusters, 11 km of electrical wiring, four propellant and two pressure tanks that all work together to supply propulsion and everything needed to keep astronauts alive far from Earth—there is no room for error.
NASA Artemis I Moon Rocket Rollout: August 2022 | Kennedy Space Center
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard is seen atop the mobile launcher as it moves up the ramp at Launch Pad 39B, Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2022, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s Artemis I mission is the first integrated test of the agency’s deep space exploration systems: the Orion spacecraft, SLS rocket, and supporting ground systems. Launch of the uncrewed flight test is targeted for no earlier than Aug. 29.
The first in a series of increasingly complex missions, Artemis I will be an uncrewed flight test that will provide a foundation for human deep space exploration, and demonstrate NASA's commitment and capability to extend human existence to the Moon and beyond. It will travel 280,000 miles from Earth, thousands of miles beyond the Moon over the course of about a three-week mission. Orion will stay in space longer than any ship for astronauts has done without docking to a space station and return home faster and hotter than ever before.
Nebulas NGC 2014 & NGC 2020 in Large Magellanic Cloud: Wide-field View | ESO
This wide-field view captures the pair of nebulae NGC 2014 and NGC 2020 in the constellation of Dorado (The Swordfish). These two glowing clouds of gas, in the center of the frame, are located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the Milky Way’s satellite galaxies. Both are sculpted by powerful winds from hot young stars.
This view was created from images forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2.
Credit: European Space Agency/Hubble, Digitized Sky Survey 2
Glowing Nebulas NGC 2014 & NGC 2020 in the Large Magellanic Cloud | ESO
The European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) has captured a detailed view of a star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud—one of the Milky Way's satellite galaxies. This sharp image reveals two glowing clouds of gas. NGC 2014 (right) is irregularly shaped and red and its neighbor, NGC 2020, is round and blue. These odd and very different forms were both sculpted by powerful stellar winds from extremely hot newborn stars that also radiate into the gas, causing it to glow brightly.
This science visualization presents the dramatic landscape of two nebulas in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The video, based on images by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, takes viewers on a close-up tour of the nebulas' three-dimensional structures, as envisioned by scientists and artists.
The video begins with the Hubble view of NGC 2014 (lower left) and NGC 2020 (upper right). The region has been nicknamed the "Cosmic Reef," because of its resemblance to an undersea world. The camera then flies past myriad stars for a close-up look at NGC 2014. The first stop is the bubble of hot gas on the left that has a coral-like appearance. Energetic ultraviolet light from the system's most massive stars has heated the gas, while strong stellar winds (streams of charged particles) help create its bubble structure.
The journey continues into the heart of the nebula, home to extraordinarily massive and bright stars. The glowing gas in this region is bathed in the stars' intense luminosity. In contrast, the dark, denser gas is resisting that radiation, and is blown back to form craggy, mountainous shapes. The virtual flight moves past ridges, valleys, and pockets of new star formation.
The camera then rises up and over a ridge of NGC 2014, revealing the three-dimensional structure of neighboring NGC 2020. The Wolf-Rayet star at its core is the mammoth, intensely hot source of this nebula. Episodes of outbursts from the young star have produced cloudy rings and clumps in the bright blue gas. While Hubble views NGC 2020 looking down the axis of the stellar outflows, the visualization finishes with a side view that illustrates the nebula's double-lobed structure.
Credit: NASA, European Space Agency, G. Bacon, J. DePasquale, L. Hustak, J. Olmstead, A. Pagan, D. Player, and F. Summers (STScI)
This video pans across a diverse landscape of colorful, iridescent gases, streamers of dust, and a plethora of brilliant newborn stars in the nebula NGC 2014, located 163,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. The camera then sweeps toward a blue ring of glowing oxygen in neighboring nebula NGC 2020. The blue gas is formed by a torrential gaseous outflow from a lone, massive, super-hot star at its center.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Pagan (Space Telescope Science Institute)
This video begins by zooming into the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way, located 163,000 light-years away. The small galaxy is ablaze with new star formation. The camera zooms up on one such region, called NGC 2014, which is full of colorful, glowing gases energized by a central cluster of newborn stars. The blue, ring-like feature at lower left (NGC 2020) is formed by a torrential gaseous outflow from a lone, massive, super-hot star at its center.
Credit: NASA, European Space Agency, and A. Pagan (Space Telescope Science Institute)
Acknowledgement: A. Fujii and Digitized Sky Survey
A Tapestry of Blazing Starbirth: Nebulas NGC 2014 & NGC 2020 | Hubble
This image is one of the most photogenic examples of the many turbulent stellar nurseries the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope has observed during its 32-year lifetime. The portrait features the giant nebula NGC 2014 and its neighbor NGC 2020 which together form part of a vast star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, approximately 163,000 light-years away.
Credit: NASA, European Space Agency, and the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)
Zoom into The Fornax Galaxy Cluster & Galaxy NGC 1365 | ESO
The Fornax Galaxy Cluster is one of the closest of such groupings beyond our Local Group of galaxies. This pan sequence, based on a new VLT Survey Telescope image, shows the central part of the cluster in great detail. The field includes the elegant barred-spiral galaxy NGC 1365 and the big elliptical galaxy NGC 1399.
Panning Across The Fornax Galaxy Cluster & Galaxy NGC 1365 | ESO
The Fornax Galaxy Cluster is one of the closest of such groupings beyond our Local Group of galaxies. This pan sequence, based on a Very Large Telescope (VLT) survey image, shows the central part of the cluster in great detail. The field includes the elegant barred-spiral galaxy NGC 1365 and the big elliptical galaxy NGC 1399.
At the lower-right is the elegant barred-spiral galaxy NGC 1365 and to the left the big elliptical NGC 1399. The Fornax Galaxy Cluster is one of the closest of such groupings beyond our Local Group of galaxies. This new VLT Survey Telescope image shows the central part of the cluster in great detail.
Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 1365: Infrared View | ESO’s HAWK-I
This striking new image, taken with the powerful HAWK-I infrared camera on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) at Paranal Observatory in Chile, shows NGC 1365. This beautiful barred spiral galaxy is part of the Fornax cluster of galaxies, and lies about 60 million light-years from Earth.
The picture was created from images taken through Y, J, H and K filters and the exposure times were 4, 4, 7 and 12 minutes respectively.
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/P. Grosbøl
At around 60 million light-years from Earth, the Great Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 1365 is captured beautifully in this image by the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope. Located in the constellation of Fornax (The Furnace), the blue and fiery orange swirls show us where stars have just formed and the dusty sites of future stellar nurseries.
At the outer edge of the image, enormous star-forming regions within NGC 1365 can be seen. The bright, light-blue regions indicate the presence of hundreds of baby stars that formed from coalescing gas and dust within the galaxy's outer arms.
This Hubble image was captured as part of a joint survey with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile. The survey will help scientists understand how the diversity of galaxy environments observed in the nearby Universe influence the formation of stars and star clusters. Expected to image over 100,000 gas clouds and star-forming regions beyond our Milky Way, the PHANGS survey is expected to uncover and clarify many of the links between cold gas clouds, star formation and the overall shape and morphology of galaxies.
Credit: European Space Agency /Hubble & NASA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team
Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 1365 | James Webb Space Telescope
Judy Schmidt: "Dusty, barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365. Interestingly, the dust bar is not nearly as prominent as it is in visible light. In the center is a modest active galactic nucleus (AGN). The circumnuclear dust is also quite striking. This time, I was happy to receive the PHANGS team's reduction of the data. Makes it much easier because their mosaic was much better matched and aligned."
Distance: about 56 million light-years
Technical details:
Red (screen layer mode): MIRI F2100W
Orange: MIRI F1130W
Cyan: MIRI F770W
Extra overall brightness in grayscale: MIRI F1000W
North is not up.
Credit: NASA/European Space Agency (ESA)/Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)/Canadian Space Agency (CSA)/J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team
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