Artemis I: All three 'passengers' installed inside Orion spacecraft bound for the Moon

The Artemis I mission has passed a crucial stage – the installment of three ‘passengers’ inside the Orion spacecraft. These passengers are basically three mannequins that have been strapped to their seats and will be used to gather data on spaceflight and outer space radiation during Artemis I targeted for August 29. 

It is the first mission of NASA’s Artemis Program which intends to send humans back to the Moon and establish a sustainable presence on the lunar surface this time.  

On Tuesday, the German Space Agency (DLR) informed about the development via Twitter and shared pictures of the mannequins fitted inside the Orion at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, US. Notably, no astronaut will board Orion, hence the dummies are being used to collect crucial information which would help NASA and its partners to prepare for crewed missions. 

The first ‘passenger’ to be installed inside Orion was Commander Moonikin Campos, a replica of the human body which was named after Arturo Campos, a key player in bringing Apollo 13 safely back to Earth. The other two are named Helga and Zohar, which are part of a joint experiment between DLR and the Israel Space Agency. 

Purpose of the mannequins

The Moonikin Campos will occupy the commander’s seat inside and wear an Orion Crew Survival System suit– the same spacesuit that Artemis astronauts will use during launch, entry, and other dynamic phases of their missions. Equipped with two radiation sensors along with some additional sensors under its headrest and behind its seat, it will record acceleration and vibration data throughout the mission.

Helga and Zohar, on the other hand, will don a special vest called AstroRad to measure the amount of space radiation that astronauts may experience inside Orion during their journey to and from the Moon under the Matroshka AstroRad Radiation Experiment (MARE).

Meanwhile, NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is set to roll out to the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center on August 18. This new class of rocket will liftoff for the first time and would become the most powerful rocket to have ever launched from Earth. Although the targeted launch date is August 29, NASA has also reserved the backup dates on September 2 and September 6. 

Image: Twitter/@DLR_en