When will mankind take the next "big step" to return to the moon?

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One small step taken by American astronaut Armstrong is a giant leap for mankind. 1On July 20th, 969, man set foot on the moon for the first time. Fifty years later, the national level of the United States announced and asked NASA to implement the plan to return to the moon. In 2024, two astronauts will be transported to the South Pole of the Moon, and a permanent lunar base will be established in 2028 to realize human settlement, research and even reconstruction of the Moon, and use it as a transit point to Mars or other Ad Astra.

This is the ambitious Al themis Plan.

Recently, NASA announced several key contents of Artemis project, which will make it possible to establish a permanent base on the surface of the moon and carry out research work.

Artemis project

In Greek mythology, themis, the goddess of the moon, is the daughter of Zeus and Leto and the twin sister of Apollo, the sun god. The "themis" project will also carry a female astronaut to the moon for the first time.

The plan was announced on July 20, 20 19, the 50th anniversary of Armstrong's landing on the moon.

According to the plan, this grand project includes three stages:

The first stage: the Orion spacecraft installed on the heavy rocket of the space launch system will return to Earth after three unmanned flights around the moon, which will be completed in the second half of 2020;

The second stage: the manned flight will be completed in 2023;

The third stage: In 2024, the first female astronaut and the second male astronaut landed on the moon.

On this basis, NASA plans to establish a lunar colony in 2028.

It is worth mentioning that the host of the American consumer news and business channel TV station in the United States interpreted this plan:

The long-term plan of NASA is to return to the moon, occupy the moon, establish a transit station, and then further March into Mars.

Three key elements

In early April 2020, NASA announced more details of this plan, described the core components of its infrastructure, and emphasized the concept of sustainable lunar exploration and development.

NASA's plan includes three key elements.

The first is the "moon off-road vehicle".

In fact, in order to better study the moon, an indispensable role is the "lunar patrol probe", which is what we often call a lunar rover-a special vehicle that can travel on the surface of the moon and complete complex tasks such as lunar exploration, investigation, collection and analysis, which can be divided into two types: unmanned and manned:

1 970165438+1In October, the unmanned lunar rover launched by the former Soviet Union1successfully landed on the moon and became the first lunar rover in the world;

197 1 In July, American Apollo 15 astronauts Davis -R- Scott and James -B- Owen rode on the lunar surface for the first time.

At 20131210: 30, China successfully put the Chang' e-3 probe into the scheduled orbit in xichang satellite launch center. At 4: 35 on February 5 of the same year, the Chang 'e III probe successfully released the unmanned lunar rover Yutu to reach the surface of the moon. Yutu worked on the moon for 972 days. As the first footprint left by China on the moon, it has far-reaching significance.

Scientists have analyzed and studied the valuable information brought back by the lunar rover after its field trip to the moon, which undoubtedly greatly deepened human understanding of the moon.

In addition, all kinds of lunar rovers have basic functions such as forward, backward, turning, climbing, grabbing, sampling and overturning, and even have the characteristics of primary artificial intelligence. These functions are similar to those of modern robots, so in a sense, the lunar rover belongs to robot technology.

The lunar off-road vehicle to be used in the "Artemis" project is actually a manned lunar rover. It is reported that the lunar off-road vehicle will not have a closed cockpit, so astronauts need to wear protective extravehicular activity spacesuits to drive the lunar off-road vehicle and make short trips to the moon.

The second is a "habitable mobile platform". In fact, this is a larger lunar rover, completely controlled by human beings, which can support a longer journey away from the landing site of the spacecraft and can support astronauts for 45 days of exploration.

The third is "the surface habitat of the lunar base". This is the permanent residence of astronauts. It can be said that it is the home for astronauts to stay on the surface of the moon for a short time, and it can accommodate four astronauts at the same time.

Space station gateway

It is worth noting that when NASA announced the relevant details of the "Al themis" plan, it also mentioned:

Like the International Space Station, Gateway will continue to expand over time, adding new modules, more living space, and additional working and experimental space.

According to NASA, the above improvement is very important, because it is not only the starting point of the lunar surface mission, but also a transit point for exploring Mars and other planets.

As far as Al themis's follow-up Mars program is concerned, a team of four astronauts may stay on the gateway for several months in the future to simulate the trip to Mars, which is also a key step to understand how the human trip to Mars is going on.

The gateway mentioned above is actually a small spacecraft designed and developed by NASA, which will run in the lunar orbit 400,000 kilometers away from the Earth.

Gateway concept map

In fact, we can understand Gateway as a space station where astronauts will land on the moon in 2024. Gateway has a living area and a scientific research laboratory, which will be the temporary residence and office of astronauts in the future. Astronauts can live and work for up to three months at a time. Moreover, even without crew, robots and computers can conduct experiments inside and outside the gateway and automatically send data back to Earth.

Configuration of components that gateway may involve.

So, what is a space station?

In fact, the space station is also called the space station, the space station. It is a spacecraft that runs in low-earth orbit for a long time, can be visited by many astronauts, works and lives for a long time, and does not have the ability to return to Earth.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the Apollo1/KLOC-0 spacecraft of the United States took the lead in landing on the moon. The former Soviet Union lost in the space race with the United States, so it turned to other fields, including the space station.

197 1 year, the world's first space station salute 1 came out and was launched by the former Soviet Union. Unfortunately, due to the abnormal opening of the balance valve on the return capsule, three astronauts died while returning to Earth aboard the Soyuz spacecraft.

1973, the United States followed closely and launched the skylab space station. Scientists used the space station to do many scientific experiments in medicine, geology and astronomy.

Since then, countries have been exploring the space station.

Today, the largest orbiting space station in the world is the International Space Station. After the formal completion of 1998, it was completed and put into full use on 20 10 after more than ten years of construction. The space station is mainly operated by NASA, Russian National Aerospace Group, European Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Canadian Space Agency.

China's Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2 belong to space laboratories and are manned spacecraft carrying out space experiments. They are smaller than the space station and can be said to be the prototype of the space station. It is estimated that around 2022, China will also complete the construction and start operation of the China Space Station, with a scale of about 100 tons and three people on board.

What prevented man from returning to the moon?

1969, the first human mission to the moon and the fifth manned mission of the American Apollo program were successfully completed. But why didn't anyone land on the moon in the next 50 years?

In fact, one of the biggest obstacles to landing on the moon is "moon dust", that is, the fine dust on the surface of the moon. Most experts believe that the lunar dust is formed by the impact of meteorites, most of which are glass.

Lunar dust attached to various surfaces of spacecraft may cause many faults, including mechanical structure jamming, sealing mechanism failure, optical system sensitivity decline, component wear and thermal control system failure.

Therefore, astronauts have to spend a lot of precious time to remove the lunar dust on various surfaces. However, it is not only very difficult to remove the moon dust with a brush, but also easy to scratch the surface of the equipment.

Of course, landing on the moon naturally needs a lot of money-it will cost 20-30 billion dollars to complete the Al themis project.

Among them, NASA ordered 6-to 12 sealed cabins for Orion spacecraft, with a total value of 2.7 billion US dollars. In FY 2022, three sealed cabins will be added to carry out the "Al themis 6-8" mission, with a total value of1900 million USD. SLS estimates that the launch cost is about $6,543.8+$0 billion; According to the draft presidential budget published by NASA, the appropriation for Gateway in 20 19 is198.92 million dollars.

But even so, the plan to return to the moon is still progressing steadily. We will wait and see when the next "big step" of mankind can be successfully taken.

If you want to know more, when will the next "big step" for human beings to return to the moon be taken? For more information, please continue to pay attention to the deep space science and technology information column. Deep space Bian Xiao will continue to update more science and technology news for you.

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