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The dwarf was strapped into his Orion chair and in launch position. Photo: NASA
If all goes according to plan, NASA’s new Space Launch System rocket will finally leave Earth in November, on a journey that will take the Orion capsule to the moon and back. No human will fly in this inaugural Artemis mission, but the manakin will soon be released with a pair of simulation trunks.
NASA’s Space Launch System comes in pretty well, so it’s only natural that you start thinking about a crew, or at least a reserve for the real crew (the actual Artemis team has already been picked, in case you were wondering). A flesh-and-blood human involvement in the inaugural rocket launch would be indescribably reckless, which is why NASA is preparing a midget for the mission.
But this is no ordinary mannequin for a storefront, because this doll will be fitted with two radiation sensors to record data during the Artemis I flight and will wear NASA’s Next Generation flight suit, also known as the Orion suit. A pair of sensors will also be installed in the midget’s seat – the commander’s seat, no less – to track the spacecraft’s vibration and acceleration during flight. The seat also features a power humidification system, called the Crew Impact Mitigation System. This safety feature is currently undergoing qualification testing in anticipation of a manned mission to the Moon.
In fact, Artemis’ first mission will pack a big punch. In addition to launching the SLS for the first time, NASA will send an unmanned Orion capsule — with all due respect to the dwarf — on a 280,000-mile (450,000 km) journey to the moon and back. If any astronauts were on board, they would experience 2.5 times the force of gravity during ascent and endure high levels of radiation as they passed through the Van Allen belts – clouds of high-energy particles found between Earth and the Moon (before the Apollo missions, NASA was concerned that the Van Allen belts Allen Belts may be fatal to astronauts, which didn’t turn out to be the case).
The Orion spacecraft will also re-enter Earth’s atmosphere at speeds of up to 6.8 miles per second (11 km/s), which will ultimately be the fastest re-entry ever for a manned space capsule. The outer part of Orion will also see temperatures of 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius), which will be hotter than what the spacecraft experienced during its 2014 test flight.
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So sending a dummy aboard this first flight is a smart idea, as the exercise can reveal potentially dangerous conditions for the astronauts. Furthermore, data collected during Artemis I will be used “to simulate the Orion crew and to verify crew safety by comparing flight vibration and acceleration against pre-flight predictions, then making improvements to the model as necessary,” Mark Baldwin, Orion passenger protection specialist At Lockheed Martin explained in a statement. Success in the mission will pave the way for Artemis II, where the exact mission will be repeated, save for an actual crew.
To be clear, an Artemis dwarf is not a crash test dummy, a separate class of human stature, as NASA explains:
Similar to the midget, NASA uses anthropometric test devices, or “crash test dummies,” equipped with various instruments to assess other crew safety. The dummies are being used in tests dropping a test version of Orion from a plane, with the final set of tests due later this year, to verify that the Artemis II seat and suit can reduce the risk of head and neck injury during the most intense accelerations. Environments – abortion and prolapse. During Langley’s water-impact drop tests, the dolls also occupied crew capsule prototypes to help engineers better understand what Orion and his crew might encounter when landing in the ocean after flights to the moon.
Artemis I would also include a pair of replica stems named Helga and Zohar. The pair will be strapped into Orion’s two lower seats and recorded for radiation exposure during the mission. One stem will be used to test a radiation-protective jacket, called AstroRad, designed to reduce exposure.
The two test torsos, one of them with a new radiation protection jacket. Photo: NASA
These limbless stems have names, but dwarfs have no names. At least not yet. NASA has launched a contest to name the dummy, but those hoping to submit Manny McManikinvis will be deeply disappointed, as the space agency, likely in anticipation of such bottlenecks, has submitted a predetermined set of candidates (annotations provided by NASA):
ACE: Direct and practical. stands for Artemis Crew Explorer.CAMPOS: resourceful and problem-solver. Dedication to Arturo Campos, the key player in bringing the Apollo 13 home. Delos: Nostalgic, romantic. The island where Apollo and Artemis were born, according to Greek myth. Dedication to Erin Dohart Long, chief medical officer of the Kennedy Space Center. Montgomery: Pioneer and Innovator. Dedication to Julius Montgomery, the first African American to work at the Cape Canaveral Space Facility as a technical professional. Rigel: Bright, inspiring. The giant star in the constellation Orion. HACKLETON: Secret, plentiful. A crater at the Moon’s south pole and a reference to the famous Antarctic explorer. WARGO: Enthusiastic and passionate. Dedication to Michael Wargo, the agency’s first exploration scientist.
Starting today, NASA will ask people on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to choose between one of two names. Ultimately, the naming brackets will be reduced to two finalists, and the winner will be announced on June 28.
I’m a fan of both ACE and SHACKLETON, but MONTGOMERY is great too. Sending Monty on a very important mission to the moon has a nice episode.
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