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BeholdMyResponse t1_iwpcfhw wrote

Reply to comment by nem0near in is Artemis 1 going to the moon? by sci3ntisa132

It's a test flight. One of the most important tests will be of the heat shield which has to withstand thousands of degrees of heat when Orion re-enters Earth's atmosphere at 25,000mph (40,324kph), but of course it's also a test of the SLS rocket that sends Orion into Earth orbit, the OMS engine and maneuvering thrusters that it uses while it's in space, and all the other hardware and software that will eventually be used to send people to the moon.

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Free_Stick_ t1_iwpdiem wrote

I don’t understand the purpose of sending humans to the moon. What are they going to achieve that a robot can not?

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BeholdMyResponse t1_iwpdvdp wrote

They're going to build a space station near the moon and possibly also a base on the surface in order to establish a permanent human presence there. The two main purposes aside from pure science are to learn how to live in deep space and on other planets, and to figure out how to mine the vast amounts of frozen water and minerals on the moon in order to make further space exploration easier. E.g. water has oxygen for breathing and hydrogen which can be used as fuel. It will be very useful for deep space exploration in the future if we don't have to bring it up from Earth.

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Free_Stick_ t1_iwpf6tv wrote

Thanks for your detailed educational response. Much appreciated

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Treezszz t1_iwpfg57 wrote

There’s some mysterious goo we need to bring there and see how it reacts close to the lunar surface

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Free_Stick_ t1_iwphqtn wrote

Does this have anything to do with Decepticons?

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Treezszz t1_iwpjovp wrote

It was a reference to kerbal space program. You make rockets and go places and do “science” and one of the science is observing mysterious goo

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Icy-Conclusion-3500 t1_iwpdtzg wrote

Prove we can still do it, while we prepare to test our systems for planetary outposts.

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