In your official website, the manufacturer announced that Orion's third European Service Module (ESM-3) is leaving Orion's facilities. Airbus in Bremen and heading to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA. The module will be combined and tested with the Crew Module. This will be the third mission of the Artemis program and will mark the first return of humans to the lunar surface since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
Manufactured by Airbus for ESA (European Space Agency), ESM-3 will be instrumental in ing four astronauts during their three-week mission with the Orion spacecraft, from liftoff from Earth to safe return, including arrival in lunar orbit and docking on the Starship HLS lunar landing system. According to Ralf Zimmermann, Head of Space Exploration at Airbus, the delivery of ESM-3 marks the beginning of annual deliveries of the module and underlines the importance of European collaboration in the transatlantic partnership.
A Airbus Defense and Space has a contract to deliver up to ESM-6 and acquire items up to ESM-9.
Space is an extremely hostile environment, with temperatures that can reach -200°C. To protect and comfort astronauts, the Airbus developed advanced thermal control systems that maintain the crew module between 18 and 24°C, controlling heat and cold. The ESM also provides essential resources for the mission, including 90 kilograms of oxygen and 30 kilograms of nitrogen, as well as using nitrogen to pump drinking water.
Unlike the Apollo missions, which used fuel cells, Orion uses solar s to generate electricity, producing 11,2 kW per hour. Only 10% of this energy is allocated to the ESM, with the remainder powering the crew module's batteries and equipment. Batteries are vital to provide energy when solar s are not exposed to the Sun and to ensure safe return at the end of the mission.
To allow astronauts to focus on more important tasks, the avionics onboard the ESM provide a very high level of autonomy, such as temperature regulation and rotation of the solar wing to track the Sun. In principle, the entire spacecraft can fly the mission completely autonomous, but compared to the unmanned Artemis I mission, Artemis III will require astronauts to manually dock with the Starship landing system.
