Preparing for the trip to the Moon: NASA is doing its tests
NASA has accomplished technical milestones in the past two weeks at the Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Their mission: to get ready for the future missions to the moon. To do this, a heavy component weighing 103 tonnes was loaded on a simulator and added into it. The latter is a mock up of the intermediate part of the SLS, the space launch system on which the Orion spacecraft will travel during future Artemis missions.
The simulator is a very important part of the future missions in defending humanity against all kind of dangers.
The simulator is mounted on the Thad Cochran test bed and incorporates the intermediate part of the SLS. The purpose of this is to shield the rocket’s upper stage. Upon completion of the simulator system, all the piping, casing and electrical systems required for next tests were installed in the Viking simulator.
The available simulator and its efficiency
The intermediate component is supposed to shield the electrical and propulsion subsystems. It will support the EUS (Exploration Upper Stage) in organisation in the newest conception of the rocket called Block 1B. The latter will replace the current version – the Block 1, and provide 40% more payload. The EUS will feature four RL10 contractor engines from contractor L3Harris and will be able to carry 38 tons of cargo with a crew or 42 tons without a crew compared to the Block 1’s 27 tons.
Getting ready for the Artemis IV mission
The tests that occur in Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, are designed to develop the SLS for the Artemis IV mission. This mission is expected to launch an Orion spacecraft carrying four astronauts into space to the Lunar Gateway to add a new module.
