The Artemis II capsule will be a ‘ball of fire’ upon re-entry. David Saint-Jacques knows what it’s like
Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques will be tracking the Artemis II crew’s return to Earth tonight — and he’s one of a handful of people on the planet who knows exactly what they’ll be doing.
Saint-Jacques, who previously spent 204 days in space, said, “Right now they’re literally coming back to Earth… accelerating the whole way, and when they hit the atmosphere their maximum speed will be at a peak, about 10 kilometers per second.” Return to Earth in June 2019.
“And then they’ll turn into balls of fire because the atmosphere will slow them down.”
After being catapulted around the moon earlier this week, the Artemis II mission is It is expected to fall into the Pacific Ocean on Friday night.. Their capsule will reach a speed of 38,405 km/h Just before entering Earth’s atmosphere, and a temperature of about 2,700 C.
During re-entry, the crew will lose contact with Earth for six minutes.
Saint-Jacques knows the astronauts aboard: Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Jeremy Hansen. he talked of present Matt Galloway about what they’ll experience, and what those six minutes of silence will be like for everyone watching on Earth. Here is an excerpt from that conversation.
How was it for you to see this lunar mission?
On many levels, it has been mesmerizing. Obviously, being a Canadian, I’m very proud of how far our country has come. It’s a testament to decades of good work by our engineers, our technicians, our space companies, our space program. When you become an astronaut and join the NASA space program, it is very intimidating. But as a Canadian, you are welcome because we stand on the shoulders of all those giants.
But all these are my friends there. So this is my friends’ mission… Once Jeremy’s kids took care of my kids, our families were connected. Yesterday, I was looking at the moon and I was looking outside, trying to see where they were in the sky at this time.
Right now, they’re literally falling back to Earth, they’ve been falling for four days, accelerating the whole way, and when they hit the atmosphere they’ll reach their maximum speed, about 10 kilometers per second.
And then they will turn into balls of fire as the atmosphere slows them down. We will lose communication (communication) with them for about six minutes. Ultimately, at an altitude of about six kilometers, they would open their parachute. We can talk to them again. That’s when I think we’ll all breathe a sigh of relief, “Wow, they made it back to motherhood.”
What’s it like when you’re in that ball of fire?
When you’re traveling in space, you’re going so fast, you don’t really notice it. I mean, you don’t really feel the speed, right? You feel the change in momentum. And right now they are in free fall.
(When you) jump off the biggest diving board in a falling swimming pool, you feel a kind of light. He has been feeling like this for the last 10 days.
On their last full day in space, the Artemis II astronauts packed up equipment and reviewed procedures for reentry into Earth’s atmosphere before splashdown on Friday.
But when they enter the atmosphere they will be in their spacesuits, in any case their helmets will be off. They’re kind of backwards…like the child seats we use to keep kids safe in the car. They’re tied up, all curled up in the fetal position with their backs to the earth… and then someone’s applying the brakes. So they sit in their seats forced by the air pressure as it slows the spacecraft from more than 10 kilometers per second to a more manageable speed, such as about 300 kilometers per hour, where they can safely open their parachutes. And so it feels like suddenly you get to meet your good friend gravity again, and you feel stunned.
So they’re spending the day securing everything in the spacecraft, making sure everything is bundled up in a box or put away, configuring the spacecraft, testing their suits, looking at all the possible bad things that could happen and what they will do and reviewing procedures. And then finally, a little pause, enjoying the last views before coming into this operational mode. The action starts about an hour before splashdown. Only then are they disconnected from the service module, such as the technical part of their capsule along with its fuel tank.
And then we’ll all keep our fingers crossed.
They actually need to hit the atmosphere at a very precise angle. Because if they’re too steep, it’ll be too hot. That would be a very brutal limit for them physically…right now, they’re trying to limit it to about 2,700 degrees.
They’ll dive in, burn some momentum. Bounce a little, slow down, and then finally adjust their trajectory, and then they will turn into a fireball.
It’s quite a ride. That’s when you realize, “Oh, we were going really fast this whole time. Now we’re braking really hard.” And when the parachutes opened, high five in the cabin! Wow!
You’ve talked about how you changed when you saw Earth from a distance. How do you think these four astronauts, including Jeremy Hansen, would be different given what they’ve seen?
I think in two ways. First, this perspective of Earth. The Earth is beautiful, graceful, truly the only kind of living thing. But the fascinating thing is how we are in the middle of nowhere. And it rekindles your love for the planet and makes it clear that at the end of the day we are all earthlings. And I think that’s very important psychologically: this is where I belong to Mother Earth.
The other part of this is for you that it’s a demonstration that when humans work together for a common goal, there’s nothing we can’t do. And in this day and age, I think it’s a very strong message that yes, we have differences, but when we choose to focus on what we have in common, we can do supernatural things.
It’s like a message of hope. For me, as a father, as a citizen, perhaps this is everything.
Roberta Bondar was Canada’s first female astronaut. She joined CBC News to talk about what may have been going through the minds of Artemis II crew members as they descended to Earth — and how the mission has advanced science.
