NASA will also need to test some improvements made to the capsule after Artemis II. “The things that we’re going to have to improve upon for Artemis III are relatively small and incremental in nature, as opposed to wholesale redesigns of spacecraft subsystems,” said Rick Henfling, entry flight director for Artemis II, at a press conference on April 7. These tweaks include changes to the wastewater valve that caused some of the infamous toilet problems on Artemis II, as well a possible redesign of some components of the propulsion system for the European service module. NASA will also fly a new docking system on Artemis III to attach Orion to the landers.
Testing the Orion capsule closer to Earth also presents some opportunities to conduct some scientific tests aimed at teeing up future Artemis missions. The flight will gather data on Earth’s atmosphere, how the Orion spacecraft reacts to it, and the influence of a phenomenon called space weather (an umbrella term for high-energy particles from the sun and other hazardous radiation from space that interact with our planet’s protective atmosphere). These observations may guide future science instruments that could be attached to the outside of the capsule in Artemis IV.
Nicky Fox, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, likened the science goals for Artemis III to preparation for a roadtrip. “You need to know before you go ahead of time and prepare with a game plan, not just for your destination but for driving through all of the states in between,” she said at the announcement. “Will there be bad weather? Is your car ready for the trip? What do you need to pack for maximum comfort? And most importantly, will it all actually fit?”
The mission is also another opportunity to get practice fueling and launching the massive SLS rocket, which has been prone to leaks during fueling in the past. If NASA wants to realize its goal of multiple lunar launches a year, it will have to reduce delays in this part of the process.
And of course, there’s the heat shield. After the uncrewed Artemis I returned, NASA noticed the heat shield material breaking off in chunks instead of melting away. After a full investigation, NASA determined that the heat shield wasn’t porous enough, which led to a redesign. However those modifications weren’t flown on Artemis II; NASA instead went with a tweaked reentry profile to reduce strain on the craft. Now, Artemis III will be the first time the fully redesigned, more permeable heat shield flies.