Inside the Orion, the cosmic ‘minivan’ the Artemis II crew will spend 10 days inside
If the Orion were ever put up on Airbnb, ‘cosy’ might be the best way to describe it.
The Orion is a spacecraft four astronauts are currently sitting inside after the Artemis II successfully launched yesterday from Florida.
The Nasa mission will see commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen do a lap around the moon.
They’ll live inside the 330-cubic-foot capsule for the next 10 days before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of San Diego.
Here’s what their life will be like.
What is the Orion spacecraft?
The capsule will be humanity’s home away from Earth – what it lacks in interior space it makes up for with, well, literal outer space.
It was built by Lockheed Martin, a US defence and aerospace manufacturer, and was christened Integrity by the crew for this mission.
The Orion sits atop the rocket and will separate after launch, throwing the capsule towards the moon before it loops around and flies back.
‘The Orion spacecraft is about the size of a small minivan, and there are four of them, and they can’t get out of 10 days, so it’s very cramped,’ Libby Jackson, who worked in Mission Control for a module on the International Space Station, tells Metro.
‘In the future, they might have a lander with them and a bit more space. But these people are in a confined space for 10 days.’
The Orion spacecraft, which can sustain passengers for 21 days, has two main sections – the crew module and the service module.
During the 10-day mission, the Koch, Wiseman, Glover and Hansen will remain inside the crew module.
Once the launch phase ends, Koch and Hansen will set up a water dispenser, food warmer and the five-cubic-feet toilet.
This is under the floor near the main hatch, with astronauts having the option to install a curtain for privacy.
Hansen might need it, given he’s 6’2″, gigantic by astronaut standards.
Accidents do happen and if one does happen in the Orion’s toilet, the crew will need to rely on urine collection bags and fling their waste into space via a chute.
The Orion has… some five-star amenities, such as bags strapped to the wall where they can sleep with no gravity.
They will use water from the lower service module to rehydrate their vacuum-packed shrimp, macaroni and cheese and tortillas.
It even has a personal gym – kind of – in the form of a flywheel near the hatch, which allows the crew to row, squat and deadlift.
Exercise is important in the cosmos to prevent bodies from weakening, says Jackson, the head of space at the Science Museum in London.
‘When you go into space, your body instantly starts adapting.
‘Your fluid shifts around your body. Your bones get weaker, your muscles get weaker. You might feel sick when you first go into space because of the fluid balance.
‘But the 10 day mission, when you come back to Earth, your sense of balance and muscles won’t have significantly weakened, so you’d still be strong.’
What could go wrong?
The big thing the astronauts will face in the heavens is radiation.
The Earth has an invisible force field called the magnetic field, caused by all the molten metals churning inside our planet.
‘Our compasses pointing North is what protects everybody here on Earth from the radiation that is emitted by the sun,’ Jackson says.
‘Radiation is dangerous and damaging. When you go to the moon, you leave the protection that our Earth offers us.’
If a radiation event erupts, such as a solar flare lashing the capsule, the astronauts can shelter in the storage lockers under the seats.
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Beneath where the team are staying is the service module, a cylindrical piece provided by the European Space Agency.
Inside it houses the propulsion, power and life-support systems – these will be watched during the mission as Artemis II is mainly to test them.
The life-support system manages the air, pressure, water and waste of the capsule, according to a fact sheet from Nasa.
‘A regenerable air system efficiently removes carbon dioxide and humidity, conserving mass and volume,’ the document says.
‘Systems also continuously monitor temperature, humidity, and pressure to detect and respond to unsafe conditions.’
Lockheed Martin explains that the craft also has a launch abort system, which looks like a need sticking out from the top of the capsule.
This features three solid rocket motors that ignite a propellant, such as helium, to shove the capsule away from stellar dangers.
Nasa’s mobile app will let people track the capsule as it zips towards the moon. It can also be tracked with this website made by the space agency.
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