Artemis 2: what is Europa’s role in the space mission back to the Moon?

After detaching itself from the ‘Space Launch System’ – the most powerful rocket built so far by NASA – the Orion spacecraft – with the European Service Module – has to circle the Earth several times before embarking on a four-day trip to the Moon, fly over the satellite and return, a mission that will last for ten days, during which the astronauts will take manual control of the spacecraft on several occasions to carry out various checks and demonstrations and will use the engines of the European module to do so.

This ESA module will also be the one that gives the spacecraft the final ‘push’ to enter lunar orbit, which will allow it to fly some 7,500 kilometers beyond the satellite before turning and undertaking the return journey to Earth.

Together with ESA, numerous European and Spanish companies are involved in the Artemis program and its second mission, including the multinationals Airbus, Alter, GMV and HV Sistemas, responsible for the design and construction of many of the essential components of the ‘European Service Module’ that guarantees the safety of the astronauts and provides the propulsion that the ship needs in all its maneuvers.

Artemis Program versus Apollo Program

Guillermo González, head of Production of the European Service Modules of the Orion spacecraft, highlighted the differences between the Apollo Program and the Artemis: “We are returning to the Moon, but we are returning to stay,” he stated, and he stressed that the program is going to build a permanent infrastructure on the satellite that will be inhabited for several months a year.

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From the European Space Research and Technology Center (ESTEC) of the European Space Agency (in Noordwijk, Netherlands), Guillermo González valued the importance of the program for “learning to live in another world”, for learning to exploit local resources (rocks, water, etc.) ‘in situ’, for the combination for the first time in history of astronauts and robots (rovers) or for the lessons it can provide for future missions to Mars.

To delve into the differences with the Apollo program, he focused on the composition of the crew that will orbit the Moon in the Orion ship on the next mission (which includes a man of color, a woman and a non-American astronaut) and described as “gigantic” the international component of this space program, in which more than fifty countries are involved, or the “very important” role played by ESA and European companies.

Guillermo González downplayed the problems that arose yesterday and that have postponed the launch, and assured that the tests that were carried out for almost two days can be considered “a spectacular success” despite these failures. “If humanity has taken more than fifty years to return to the Moon, it can wait three more weeks,” he added.