ＮＡＳＡの有人月面探査「アルテミス」計画、始動

【ヒューストンＡＦＰ＝時事】米航空宇宙局（ＮＡＳＡ）の有人月面探査計画「アルテミス（Ａｒｔｅｍｉｓ）」の第一弾として実施される無人試験飛行「アルテミス１（Ａｒｔｅｍｉｓ １）」ミッションの打ち上げが、今月末に予定されている。（写真は米テキサス州のジョンソン宇宙センター（ＪＳＣ）に設置されているカプセル型宇宙船「オリオン」の訓練用レプリカ）
　アルテミス計画では、アポロ月面探査が最後に実施された１９７２年以降で初めて、人を運べるカプセル型宇宙船を月に送り込む。
　最初のミッション、アルテミス１号は無人の試験飛行で、特に注目されるのは、新しい大型ロケット「スペース・ローンチ・システム（ＳＬＳ）」の初打ち上げだ。ＳＬＳは、世界最強のロケットとなる。
　ＳＬＳは、カプセル型有人宇宙船「オリオン」を月の周回軌道に投入する予定。オリオンは宇宙空間に４２日間滞在した後、地球に帰還する。
　２０２４年からは、宇宙飛行士が実際にオリオンに搭乗する予定で、早ければその翌年には米国人飛行士が再び月面に降り立つ見込みだ。

■月のプール
　米テキサス州ヒューストンのジョンソン宇宙センター（ＪＳＣ）には、宇宙飛行士訓練用の巨大な水槽がある。全長約６０メートル、幅約３０メートル、深さ約１２メートルのこの世界最大の屋内プールには現在、部分的に黒い幕が張られている。
　「無重量環境訓練施設（ＮＢＬ）」と呼ばれるこのプールの一方には、国際宇宙ステーション（ＩＳＳ）の実物大模型が沈められている。
　もう一方では、プールの底に月面環境を再現する作業が進められており、観賞用水槽のレイアウトを手掛ける企業が作製した巨大な模造岩が配置されている。
　ＡＦＰ取材班が施設を訪れた日は、技術者とダイバーが月面での台車の移動を試行していた。

■新たな黄金時代
　プール内での訓練は、最大６時間続く場合もある。
　仮想現実（ＶＲ）ヘッドセットを装着した宇宙飛行士は、アルテミス計画の着陸地点として予定されている月の南極域での暗闇を想定した歩行訓練を行っている。月の南極域では、太陽が地平線上に現れることがほとんどないため、常に暗い陰に入った状態で視界が悪い。
　施設ではまた、オリオン宇宙船のレプリカが使われている。オリオンは４人乗りで、居住部分の容積はわずか約９立方メートルだ。
　オリオン計画の副マネジャーを務めるデビー・コース氏は、ＡＦＰの取材に「宇宙飛行士らはここで、非常脱出訓練を何度も行います」と語る。
　１０年以上にわたりオリオンに取り組んできたコース氏は、センターの誰もが月への帰還とＮＡＳＡの未来に心を躍らせていると語る。
　「間違いなく、新たな黄金時代の到来を感じます」【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/08/29-11:46）

Rick LaBrode has worked at NASA for 37 years, but he says the American quest to return to the Moon is by far the crowning moment of his career.
LaBrode is the lead flight director for Artemis 1, set to take off later this month -- the first time a capsule that can carry humans will be sent to the Moon since the last Apollo mission in 1972.
This is more exciting than really anything I've ever been a part of, LaBrode told journalists at the US space agency's Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas.
The 60-year-old confided to AFP that the eve of the launch is likely to be a long night of anticipation -- and little rest.
I'm going to be so excited. I won't be able to sleep too much, I'm sure of that, he said, in front of Mission Control's iconic giant bank of screens.
Artemis 1, an uncrewed test flight, will feature the first blastoff of the massive Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which will be the most powerful in the world when it goes into operation.
It will propel the Orion crew capsule into orbit around the Moon. The spacecraft will remain in space for 42 days before returning to Earth.
From 2024, astronauts will travel aboard Orion for the same trip, and the following year, at the earliest, Americans will once again step foot on the Moon.
For the duration of Artemis 1, a team of about a dozen NASA personnel will remain in Mission Control 24 hours a day. The center has been renovated and updated for the occasion.
Teams have been rehearsing for this moment for three years.
This is a whole new deal -- a whole new rocket, a whole new spacecraft, a whole new control center, explained Brian Perry, the flight dynamics officer, who will be in charge of Orion's trajectory immediately following the launch.
I can tell you, my heart is going to be tum tum, tum tum. But I'll work hard to keep focused, Perry, who worked on numerous space shuttle flights over the years, told AFP, tapping his chest.
- Moon pool -
Beyond upgrades to Mission Control for the mission, the entire Johnson Space Center is a bit over the Moon about Artemis.
In the middle of the giant astronaut training tank -- the world's largest indoor swimming pool at more than 200 feet long, 100 feet wide and 40 feet deep -- a black curtain has been erected.
On one side of the so-called Neutral Buoyancy Lab is a mockup of the International Space Station, submerged.
On the other, the lunar environment is gradually being recreated at the bottom of the pool, with giant model rocks made by a company specializing in aquarium decorations.
It's only been in the last few months that we started to put the sand on the bottom of the pool. We just got that large rock in two weeks ago, said the lab's deputy chief Lisa Shore. It's all very new for us and very much in development.
In the water, astronauts can experience a sensation that approaches weightlessness. To train for eventual voyages to the Moon, simulations must replicate the Moon's one-sixth gravity.
From a room above the pool, the astronauts are guided remotely -- with the four-second communications delay they will experience on the lunar surface.
Six have already done training and six more will do so by the end of September. The latter group will wear the new spacesuits made by NASA for Artemis missions.
The heyday of this facility was when we were still flying the space shuttle and we were assembling the space station, explained the lab's office chief John Haas.
At that time, 400 training sessions with astronauts in full spacesuits took place every year, as compared with about 150 today. But the Artemis program has infused the lab with new urgency.
When AFP visited the facility, engineers and divers were testing how to pull a cart on the Moon.
- 'New golden age' -
Each session in the pool can last up to six hours.
It's like running a marathon twice, but on your hands, astronaut Victor Glover told AFP.
Glover returned to Earth last year after spending six months on the International Space Station. Now, he works in a building dedicated to simulators of all varieties.
He said his job is to help verify procedures and hardware so that when NASA finally names the Artemis astronauts who will take part in crewed missions to the Moon (Glover could be on that list himself), they can be ready to go.
Using virtual reality headsets, the astronauts can get used to walking in dark conditions at the Moon's South Pole, where the missions will land.
The Sun barely rises above the horizon there, meaning there are always long, dark shadows that impair visibility.
The astronauts must also get used to the new spacecraft like the Orion capsule, and the equipment on board.
In one of the simulators, seated in the commander's chair, personnel are trained to dock with the future lunar space station Gateway.
Elsewhere at the space center, a replica of the Orion capsule, which measures a mere 316 cubic feet (nine cubic meters) for four people, is in use.
They do a lot of emergency egress training here, Debbie Korth, deputy manager of the Orion program, told AFP.
Korth, who has worked on Orion for more than a decade, said everyone in Houston is excited for the return to the Moon and for NASA's future.
Definitely, I feel like it is like a new golden age, she said.