It’s been a long time since a human voice bellowed from the lunar surface. This year marks half a century since Apollo astronaut Gene Cernan left the last footprints on the Moon in 1972, and a lot has changed since then. That year the first scientific handheld calculator was released; today we carry more computing power in our pocket than that which safely guided the Apollo astronauts to the Moon and back.
It takes a lot of power to send 26 tonnes worth of cargo to the Moon
1 FOUR RS-25 ENGINES
NASA claims they’re the most efficient engines ever built.
2 SOLID ROCKET BOOSTERS
Each one is the height of a 17-storey building.
3 CORE STAGE
Contains almost 3 million litres of propellant, enough to power the engines for eight minutes.
4 ORION STAGE ADAPTER
Where small satellites are stored ahead of delivery to deep space.
5 ORION SPACECRAFT
The living quarters for the astronauts that will fly on future Artemis missions.
6 INTERIM CRYOGENIC PROPULSION STAGE
The juice needed for the final push towards the Moon once Artemis 1 leaves Earth orbit.
This story is from the Issue 126 edition of All About Space.
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This story is from the Issue 126 edition of All About Space.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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