Although the United States leads the world in manned spaceflight. The Voyager 1 they launched has flown 23.3 billion kilometers away from the earth, making it the farthest spacecraft launched by mankind so far. However, in many cases, the United States seems to It's a bit out of its depth, and one can't help but wonder if American technology has regressed.
One of the typical examples is that in the few years after the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011, American astronauts who went to the International Space Station or returned to the Earth from the International Space Station had no choice but to buy the Russian Soyuz spacecraft at a high price. . It was not until the emergence of the manned Dragon spacecraft of SpaceX that the situation changed. Now the United States can get rid of its dependence on the Russian Soyuz manned spacecraft and rely on its own manned spacecraft to go to the International Space Station. In addition, there is another issue that everyone is paying close attention to, and that is NASA's Artemis manned return to the moon program. What makes people wonder is that the United States was able to send astronauts to the moon more than 50 years ago, but why can't it even launch a moon landing rocket now?
Moon landing rocket delayed launch
html More than 150 years ago, the manned moon landing was inseparable from the heavy-duty launch vehicle . This is still the case today. Without a powerful rocket, it is impossible to send a manned spacecraft to the lunar surface. In order to achieve the goal of manned return to the moon, NASA developed the most powerful rocket in history, which is the well-known Space Launch System rocket (ie SLS).
According to the plan, this 98-meter-high Space Launch System rocket is scheduled to be launched on the evening of August 29, 2022, sending a Orion manned spacecraft carrying three mannequins equipped with instruments into space. Start a 42-day journey to the moon. Although this mission did not carry astronauts, there were still many highlights. For example, it used a newly developed rocket, the spacecraft , and the journey to the moon lasted more than a month, which was far longer than the and Apollo spacecraft . A trip to the moon is longer. In addition, there will be 10 cube satellites accompanying the mission. These cube satellites are relatively small, about the size of a briefcase, and can be used to detect the moon, asteroids and deep space radiation environments.
However, things went counterproductive. As the rocket launch time got closer and closer, various problems continued to arise. One of them is that these CubeSats have been stagnant in the rocket for more than a year. The battery energy of some satellites is about to run out, so the staff are worried that half of the satellites may not have enough energy to complete the mission, and may even be connected to solar energy. The battery board cannot be started or expanded.
After entering the 48-hour countdown before launch, thunderstorms also occurred at launch site , and the launch pad was struck by lightning three times. Not only that, the new generation of manned lunar landing rocket was originally planned to be launched on August 29, 2022, local time, starting the first step of the United States' return to the moon plan. However, the launch mission was stopped about 40 minutes into the countdown to launch, and the rocket There was a fuel leak problem. At that time, it could be said that it was "on the line", but the launch had to be postponed due to problems. NASA said that the next launch window is September 2, 2022 local time. If there is still bad weather or other conditions in the next window, It may be postponed to September 5th.
technology has regressed?
According to CNN (CNN), the rocket has discovered several technical faults since it began to be refueled, so engineers had to carry out emergency repair work. This is not the first time that the Space Launch System rocket has had a fuel leakage problem. The rocket had already had a leakage problem during the test at the beginning of this year, and the fuel leakage point now is the same as the leakage point at the beginning of this year. At the beginning of the year, NASA also carried out "large-scale repair work" on the leaked area, but now the problem of fuel leakage still exists.
This makes many people worry about the safety of the space launch system. After all, if this rocket is used to launch a manned spacecraft to the moon, and the rocket still has these technical faults, can it really complete the manned return to the moon plan as scheduled? In comparison, the Saturn V, which was used to implement the Apollo manned moon landing program , seems to be more reliable and safe. The development of the Saturn V began in 1962. It took just over five years to complete the development and manufacturing work. It completed its first launch on November 9, 1969. By May 1973, the last flight mission of the United States was completed. The first space station "Space Laboratory" was sent into low-Earth orbit. The Saturn V was launched a total of 17 times, with a success rate of 100%. The Saturn V rocket went so smoothly back then, but now there are many difficulties in launching the newly developed Space Launch System rocket in the United States. Has the United States really experienced technological regression? Can
still return to the moon in 2025? We will not discuss whether there is any technical regression in
. Now the launch of the rocket has been postponed again. Although this mission did not carry astronauts, it is very important for the return to the moon plan , because the "Artemis 1" mission is the United States' return to the moon plan. The first step, if this unmanned mission goes smoothly, then the next step NASA will implement the "Artemis 2" manned mission around the moon. At that time, it will launch a manned Orion spacecraft to fly around the moon and then return to the earth, and finally launch the "Artemis 3" mission. "The lunar landing mission will send astronauts to the lunar surface and achieve the goal of returning to the moon.
According to the original plan, NASA originally planned to realize the manned return to the moon plan before 2024. However, due to insufficient funds, unsatisfactory rocket development and other reasons, in 2021, NASA announced that the time for manned return to the moon has been postponed. 2025. This may still be the most ideal time point. Only if the "Artemis 1" unmanned mission and the "Artemis 2" manned mission around the moon go smoothly will the "Artemis 1" mission be implemented. Miss 3" mission. If there were problems with the previous two missions, it would obviously not be possible to implement the "Artemis 3" mission so quickly. Instead, it would take time to solve these technical problems. NASA's inspector general once said that the research and development technology required for manned moon landing cannot be ready before 2026 at the earliest.
Even if the technical problems can be solved, many people are worried that returning to the moon in 2025 will be difficult to achieve. According to the assumption, the development cost of the Space Launch System rocket is about 6 billion US dollars, and the cost of each rocket launch is 500 million US dollars. However, the development of the rocket has now seriously exceeded the budget, and has cost more than 20 billion US dollars. Calculated, every rocket launch costs The cost of the launch will be as high as $4.1 billion.
In the face of technical problems, cost overruns, etc., can the United States still complete the plan of manned return to the moon as scheduled and in accordance with the "timetable"? It's really hard to say. If the United States fails to complete its plan to return manned people to the moon as scheduled, China may land on the moon first. Because our country also has plans for manned landing on the moon and building a lunar scientific research station, it is possible that we will achieve manned landing on the moon around 2030. Therefore, the pressure in the United States is estimated to be relatively high now.
