NASA recently released a photo of a mannequin nicknamed "Moonikin". This first (false) passenger will fly aboard the Artemis I mission to prepare for the return of humans to the Moon.
If all goes as planned, NASA will kick off its Artemis program next November with the launch of Artemis 1, the first phase of its new manned lunar project. During this highly anticipated mission, an Orion capsule (supposed to carry astronauts later) will be capped on a first SLS heavy launcher to be sent to the Moon.
Once there, the ship will circle our satellite twice at low altitude before returning to Earth. The trajectory will be similar to that of the Apollo 8 mission in 1968, during which astronauts Borman, Lovell and Anders flew over the Moon, preparing for the famous Apollo 11 mission a year later. The Artemis I mission should last about 26 days .
The Orion capsule will not be completely empty for this mission. Indeed, NASA plans to install a dummy nicknamed "Moonikin" on one of the seats of the spacecraft (that of future mission commanders). He will be wearing an Orion Crew Survival System suit. This is the spacesuit that astronauts will wear during launch, entry and other dynamic phases of their future missions.
Using sensors, Moonikin will help scientists analyze the forces that real astronauts will experience when NASA's massive rocket, the most powerful ever built, is launched on the following missions. The MARE (MATROSHKA AstroRad Radiation Experiment) experiment will also aim to measure the level of radiation exposure of the crew outside the regions protected by the Earth's magnetosphere.
NASA will also install two models of torsos manufactured at from materials that mimic human bones, soft tissues and organs with the aim of evaluating the response of these structures to launch.
Regarding the rocket, members of NASA's Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) Integrated Operations Team assembled the SLS Core Stage (the central stage of the rocket) with its boosters on June 13th. The engineers will thus be able to begin several months of tests and verifications while continuing to stack the rest of the launcher, and finally the Orion spacecraft.
