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The American lunar program "Artemis" envisages expeditions lasting from several days to long weeks and even months, but there is currently no moon for crew movement on the surface of the Earth's satellite. Therefore, the US space agency is thinking of a plan of action in case the astronauts are far from the base and one of them cannot go on their own. The first flight under the Artemis program with a crew is scheduled for September 2025. It will be a 10-day flyby of the moon. A year later, in September 2026, it is already planned to land on the surface with a stay there for about a week.
In 2033 and 2034, it is expected to conduct expeditions with a total duration of 60 days, and the Artemis-10 mission should take several months. We will remind you that during the Apollo program, astronauts spent a maximum of three days on the surface of the Moon (this record belongs to the crew of Apollo 17). Anything can happen during a short space mission. Of course, the Apollo astronauts practiced various freelance situations during their training. If suddenly one of the two crew members "failed" while working on the lunar surface, the second would have to assess his condition, report to Earth and try to deliver his colleague to the landing module.
It is interesting that, for example, during the Apollo 15 mission in 1971, David Scott and James Irwin were several kilometers away from their ship, but they were traveling on the moon. Even with a vehicle, an immobilized partner on the moon is a very extreme situation, and without a rover, the problem becomes even more complicated.
With the new Artemis program, the schedule is such that it will be necessary to go to the moon in the fall of 2026, and the rovers for astronauts have not yet been built. The winner will be chosen only in the spring of 2025. It is assumed that the machine will be ready no earlier than the Artemis-5 mission, that is, by 2030. Therefore, the crews of "Artemida-3" and "Artemida-4" will have to work without transport.
Therefore, NASA recently announced a new competition and promised 20 thousand dollars to the one who will develop a system for the rescue of an astronaut on foot on the moon. The task was to figure out how a person on the lunar surface in an "exit" spacesuit and with full equipment will be able to move his incapacitated friend (also "packaged") without a car for a distance of at least two kilometers up a slope with a slope of 20 degrees.
According to the open competition site where NASA's announcement was published, a person on Earth in the new Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Suit for the Artemis mission weighs 343 kilograms. On the Moon, due to its weak gravity, this weight turns into 57 kilograms.
It is worth mentioning that until now even the most powerful spacesuits ever planned did not exceed 175 kilograms. According to spacesuit designer Mykola Moiseyev, the mass of 175 kilograms is already dangerous for a natural satellite of our planet. In any case, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration has determined that the future system should weigh no more than 23 kilograms (on Earth) and an astronaut should handle it alone. At the same time, the developers were advised to take into account that Artemis is aimed at landing at the edge of the lunar permafrost - near the South Pole.
We will remind you that this place was chosen after the abundance of water ice deposits in the polar regions was found. The moon is harsh there: the temperature is down to minus 203 degrees Celsius. visibility is very difficult. and craters tens of meters wide.
