BERLIN — A yr after the launch of the Artemis 1 mission, NASA is continuous to check the performance of the warmth shield on the Orion spacecraft, a review which will take several more months to finish.
Jim Free, NASA associate administrator for exploration systems development, said at a Nov. 17 meeting of the NASA Advisory Council’s human exploration and operations committee that Artemis 2 remained on schedule for launch on the Orion spacecraft’s first crewed mission late next yr, but that NASA wouldn’t proceed until it was sure it understood the issue and made any changes.
Within the months after Artemis 1, which splashed down last December after three and a half weeks in cislunar space, NASA managers said that they noted more erosion of the fabric on the warmth shield than expected during reentry. They emphasized on the time that the erosion didn’t jeopardize the spacecraft since the heat shield still had a “significant amount of margin” of the ablative material, often called Avcoat.
Free said the warmth shield was “the one thing that we’re still working through” from Artemis 1. He didn’t elaborate in his presentation what NASA was still studying with the warmth shield and its performance on last yr’s flight.
Lakiesha Hawkins, assistant deputy associate administrator in NASA’s Moon to Mars Program Office, said later within the meeting that NASA expected to get a “tentative root cause resolution” on the warmth shield erosion late next spring. “We are going to be sure that that every one of us are comfortable with where they’re with root cause before we start talking about flight rationale.”
She said engineers are among the aspects that might have caused the lack of the Avcoat material during reentry. That included the “skip” reentry trajectory performed by Orion and material properties of Avcoat. Ground testing, she said, has been capable of mimic the conditions seen on the warmth shield during reentry.
NASA and its contractors are continuing to process the assorted elements of the Artemis 2 mission, including Orion, to maintain the mission heading in the right direction for a launch in late 2024. “We’re still pressing forward with the hardware because we don’t see a reason to stop right away,” Free said. “If we discover a reason to stop, we are going to stop.”
“There’s continued processing of the vehicle for Artemis 2, but we’re just doing that to try to administer schedule,” Hawkins said. “If we do need to return, if we do must undo things as much as and including replacing heat shield components, we’re entirely open to that.”
Neither Free nor Hawkins said what impact there could be on the schedule for Artemis 2 if the Orion heat shield must be modified or replaced. Hawkins said that other elements of the mission, including the Space Launch System rocket and ground systems, were heading in the right direction with SLS specifically having “great margin” on its schedule.
Free said one query is when staff should start stacking booster segments, starting the mixing of the SLS on the Kennedy Space Center. “We would like to stack in order that our limited life items are properly protected,” he said.
“We will not be going to fly until we’re able to fly, until we understand the whole lot from Artemis 1,” Free emphasized.