NASA set to launch Artemis 1 Moon rocket today

For millennia, the Moon has been a matter of an attraction as well as a bright-mystery, allowing a number of speculations from different human perspectives. Even after the success of the Apollo-11 manned-mission in 1969, millions of people – especially propitious conspiracy theorists – weren’t satisfied with the evidence presented to the world by the Apollo-11 astronauts. As another attempt to solve the same mystery, NASA is launching the first of its Artemis Moon missions today, marking the first such attempt since the Apollo program 50 years ago.

After fixing fuel leaks and working around a bad engine sensor, which had caused NASA’s decision to halt Monday’s initial of the Artemis 1 rocket launch operation, the space agency has completed the final preparations to launch the Artemis Moon rocket on its debut test flight.

According to NASA officials, atop the rocket is a crew capsule with three test dummies that will fly around the Moon and back over the course of six weeks. NASA wants to try out the spacecraft before strapping in astronauts on the next planned flight in two years.

If the first two Artemis missions succeed, NASA is aiming to land astronauts back on the Moon, including the first woman to set foot on the lunar surface, as early as 2025. Many experts still believe that the time frame is likely to slip by a few years.

Twelve astronauts walked on the Moon during six Apollo missions from 1969 to 1972, the only space flights yet to place humans on the lunar surface.

Will questions of conspiracy theorists be answered by the Artemis Moon-mission?

Conspiracy theorists haven’t yet been satisfied with NASA’s answers on what they have claimed “The Moon landings were faked; Apollo 11 didn’t happen”.

Pointing to a photograph taken by Neil Armstrong during the Apollo 11 Moon landing, conspiracy theorists have questioned, “Why aren’t they parallel?”.

The image has been taken as proof by conspiracy theorists that the Moon landings were faked. Surely if the Sun were the only light source, then the shadows should be parallel. According to them, this proves that the whole scene was mocked up in a studio, with multiple light sources creating different shadow patterns.

Another argument of theirs lies in another photograph in which Buzz Aldrin carries experiment equipment during the Apollo 11 Moon landing.

If the image really was taken on the Moon, as conspiracy theorists suspect, shouldn’t the sky be filled with stars? After all, there is no atmosphere to distort the image, no clouds to interrupt that glorious view.

Before NASA’s second attempt at launching its Artemis I moon rocket today, astronaut Thomas Pesquet, a member of the European Union Space Agency who has traveled to space four times and has 1.4 million followers, has criticized those who think the first moon landing never actually occurred.

Pesquet attacked doubters who recently revisited claims that NASA astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin actually filmed their Apollo 11 moon landing in a movie studio in 1969 in a series of tweets on Wednesday.

Translated from French, news agencies have quoted him as saying, “But why do we have to waste precious time on this again: of course yes, humans went to the moon during the Apollo missions. And we’re going back”.

Related Story: Artemis 1 moon mission is ‘go’ for Saturday launch: NASA

Now, this uncrewed test mission – Artemis I – is designed to prove that the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion capsule can safely carry future astronauts to the Moon. NASA says the Artemis 1 will send an Orion capsule to lunar orbit and back and its main goal is to show that SLS and Orion are ready to start carrying astronauts, which they’ll start doing on 2024’s Artemis 2 mission around the moon, if all goes according to plan.

Scheduled its second attempt to launch the Artemis I rocket today, September 3, 2022 at 2:17pm Florida time, the duration of this mission is 37 days, 23 hours, 53 minutes. The mission will travel 1.3 million miles total distance, reaching the re-entry speed of 24,500 mph.

The cost of the Artemis program will have reached an estimated $93bn (£81bn) by 2025, with each of the first four launches alone costing an “unsustainable” $4.1bn, according to Nasa’s independent inspector general.

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It’s up to the future whether this attempt of NASA will be able to shut the mouths of conspiracy theorists or not. However, the Artemis Moon-Mission will undoubtedly be a landmark in space exploration, as it will be the first such mission in over half a century.

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