N.S. astrophysicist weighs in on Artemis 1, future of space exploration

NASA’s Artemis 1 rocket was set to head to the moon on Monday from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, but the launch was scrapped after encountering a fuel leak and subsequent engine troubles.

The rocket was set to lift off on a flight to propel a crew capsule into orbit around the moon. The six-week mission was scheduled to end with the capsule returning to Earth in a splashdown in the Pacific in October.

The 98-metre spaceship is the most powerful rocket ever built by NASA.

During an interview with CTV News before the attempted launch, Saint Mary's University astrophysicist Rob Thacker said Artemis 1 is a “massive deal” for NASA as it’s been 50 years since the government agency has flown a large rocket.

Thracker says NASA really wanted the launch to work — citing more than a decade of development work on the rocket’s space launch system. 

“Everyone knows there’s a certain competitor called SpaceX come alongside and try and show what they can do to NASA, so there’s really a lot running on this right now and the engineers involved are very proud of what they’ve done thus far.”

Thacker also calls the Artemis program a “really different situation” from other moon exploration programs in the '60s and '70s.

“A lot of what was happening then was about showing technological capability and basically national supremacy in a funny kind of way,” he says. “Now, it’s very different. There’s a lot more focus on exploration side. How can humans survive long-term in low-gravity environments like the moon, and obviously the vacuum environment?”

Artemis 1 also has a Canadian connection. Felix & Paul, a Montreal-based virtual reality studio, was contracted to livestream the launch to planetariums around the world, including the Discovery Centre in Halifax.

Thacker adds that Canada is more involved in long-term space explorations. For example, a Canadian will be onboard Artemis 2 mission, which is set to launch in 2025.

“On top of that, there is the Lunar Gateway mission, which is to build literally a space station going around the moon, Canadarm3 is supposed to be on that, that’s looking a little later, maybe 2026-2028.” 

Although Artemis 1 is a big deal for NASA, the program’s first and second flights are not going to the surface of the moon.

“Getting down to the moon is obviously something we’ve done before, but SpaceX, Elon Musk, his crew have actually run the contract to build the land there, and this makes a really interesting situation,” says Thacker. “To get the vehicle that will do the landing to the moon, they have to make sure that their Starship super-heavy rocket is actually working.”

He adds there are a lot of questions surrounding the future of space exploration, now that SpaceX also has large rockets, like Starship, and different ideas when it comes to a space launch system.

“Very creative ideas I would say, but at the same time they don’t have quite the same level or engineering resources that NASA has,” says Thacker. “NASA has even helped them out, Elon Musk has been very clear about that. They’re very, very aggressive. They (have) sort of a build it, break it way of prototyping.”

SpaceX has discussed a Starship launch by 2023-2024.

“My personal opinion is -- if SpaceX really shows they can get this big Starship super-heavy rocket going then NASA is probably going to end up contracting to them to use it,” says Thacker.

The astrophysicist adds that the environmental impact of space exploration should also be discussed.

“People have done studies looking at, if the number of launches go from around the 100 a year that we’re seeing right now, up to a thousand a year, what kind of an impact would that have? And the answer looks like it could be fairly significant.”

According to Thacker, although there are thousands of aircraft flying around the world each day, a single rocket puts many pollutants high into the atmosphere.

“I think it’s safe to say this is getting a lot more attention and a number of different companies are looking carefully at the kind of emissions they have from the particular vehicles they have,” he says. “So I think this is something we’re going to hear quite a bit more about over the next few months and years.”

The next launch attempt for Artemis 1 will take place Friday.

With files from The Associated Press