Featured Post from Florida Tech

Expert Q & A: Florida Tech faculty experts discuss the Artemis mission and why it matters

Nov 28, 2022

4 min

Don Platt, Ph.D.

Artemis 1 Launch Starts New Lunar Exploration and Research


The Artemis 1 mission has hit its halfway point. The uncrewed capsule Orion is orbiting the moon in the first spaceflight of NASA’s Artemis program. Over the entire Artemis program, NASA plans to establish the first long-term lunar presence via a base camp on the moon, then will use what was learned from the moon development for a mission to send the first astronauts to Mars.


Founded as a school providing classes for the pioneering space technicians at what would become NASA, Florida Tech has been closely associated with the space program since its inception. The Artemis mission is no different, as over 25 Florida Tech alumni are working on the mission as part of the Exploration Ground Systems crew.



We spoke with Florida Tech aerospace, physics and space sciences assistant professor Paula do Vale Pereira, Ph.D., and Don Platt, Ph.D., associate professor of space systems, about the Artemis mission, what it could mean for future missions and more.


Q: What makes the Artemis rocket and mission significant?


Pereira: The Space Launch System (or SLS for short) is the rocket that is central to the Artemis mission. The SLS will be the third rocket in history to be capable of launching humans to the Moon. Previously, the American Saturn V and Soviet N1 had that capability – none of the four N1 launch attempts were successful, though. Thus, the SLS could become the second rocket to ever fly humans to the Moon.

The SLS has been under development for over a decade and one of its key technological differences from Saturn V is the focus on long-term, sustained access to the lunar surface. The SLS will power the Orion capsule to lunar orbit, where it will dock to the Lunar Gateway (currently under development). The Gateway will be a small space station orbiting the Moon and will have docking ports for the Orion capsule and different lander modules, such as SpaceX’s Starship. This coordinated infrastructure means that the SLS needs to carry only the Orion capsule and the crew, instead of having the carry the lander, command and service modules, as the Saturn V did.

Because they don’t need to bring all these other modules with them, a larger quantity of useful equipment and extra crew members can be brought along, opening doors for a longer and even more productive human presence on the Moon. The SLS rocket also has other architectures which, instead of carrying humans, can carry large amounts of cargo to the Gateway, which can then be transferred to the lunar surface. This cargo capacity will be fundamental in building the infrastructure necessary for humans to strive on the Moon.



Platt: Indeed, the SLS will be the largest launch vehicle ever flown and will put on a spectacular show on the Space Coast. This Artemis I mission will also test out the Orion capsule in deep space for an extended mission. The capability for the capsule to support human life in deep space will be demonstrated. As well, there are mannequins onboard Orion with radiation sensors in them. They will measure the radiation exposure in deep space and around the Moon to help verify how much radiation human astronauts may be exposed to. And I would add, much like the shuttle opened up Low Earth Orbit for all of humanity, Artemis will do the same for lunar exploration.


Q: What is the significance of Artemis to NASA-sponsored space exploration?


Platt: Artemis is the next major NASA human space program. It is also NASA’s first program to go back to the Moon since Apollo. It is designed to be the first in multiple efforts to expand human presence in space beyond Low Earth Orbit. It is also significant in that it has a goal to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon. So, this is an inclusive program to hopefully involve all of humanity in future human space exploration and one day settlement.



Q: How can moon-orbiting mission of Artemis help future space exploration?


Platt: We need to demonstrate modern capabilities to get large spacecraft that can support human exploration to the Moon. The first step is to place them in orbit to test them out and soon to get astronauts experience in that environment as well. Much like Apollo 8 first orbited the Moon before humans landed on the Moon in Apollo 11 we are now testing and demonstrating new technology and capabilities first in lunar orbit.


Pereira: I personally think the most important development in the Artemis mission is the coordination between different providers, especially the commercial partnership with companies such as SpaceX, Blue Origin and Lockheed Martin. The commercial partners will provide the lander systems which will take the astronauts from the Lunar Gateway to the lunar surface, a level of dependable trust that has only recently started to be common in NASA’s history.


If you're a reporter looking to know more about this topic, let us help.


Dr. Platt is available to speak with media regarding this and related topics. Simply click on his icon now to arrange an interview today. Contact Director of Media Communications Adam Lowenstein at adam@fit.edu to schedule an interview with Dr. do Vale Pereira.

Connect with:
Don Platt, Ph.D.

Don Platt, Ph.D.

Associate Professor | Director of the Spaceport Education Center

Dr. Platt's work has involved developing, testing and flying different types of avionics, communications and rocket propulsion systems.

Space SystemsRocket Propulsion SystemsDeep Space ExplorationSatellite DesignAstrodynamics

You might also like...

Check out some other posts from Florida Tech

3 min

Global Technology Outage Raises Concerns About Ease of Future Cybersecurity Attacks

The world came to a standstill after a technology outage reported Thursday evening grounded airplanes, disconnected hospitals and shut down banks across the globe. A faulty software update was to blame, not cybercriminals, but Florida Tech assistant professor TJ O’Connor said the outage’s cascading effect points to larger concerns about our society’s reliance on the internet. The outage, which affected users’ ability to access Microsoft 365 applications, was traced back to a defect found in a software update from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike. CrowdStrike quickly released a statement confirming that the outage was “not a security incident or cyberattack.” The outage was nonetheless damaging, kicking institutions offline. Issues remained more than a day later. “Once those services go down, there’s this massive cascading effect,” O’Conner said. “If bank processing doesn’t work, then aviation doesn’t work. If aviation doesn’t work, shipping doesn’t work.” Ultimately, O’Connor explained, the biggest concern isn’t the glitch in the system; it’s the number of systems that broke because CrowdStrike wasn’t working. “I think what we’ll see a lot of people learn from this CrowdStrike incident is…that if they want to take the internet down in the future, all they have to do is hit one target,” O’Connor said. “It makes the threat landscape a lot smaller to attack for an adversary.” Over the course of several hours, a blue Microsoft error screen taunted companies worldwide. Airlines including Delta, American and Frontier grounded all flights. Several television news outlets, including the United Kingdom’s Sky News, were unable to hold live broadcasts. Some of the biggest concerns lie in the hospital industry, where planning, evaluation and continuous monitoring are essential, O’Connor noted. “[Hospitals] are constantly processing so much data, and for them to go out for a couple of hours means that decisions aren’t being made on an automated basis,” O’Connor said. “We’ve kicked over so much of our decision making to automated systems that we can’t let those networks fail.” According to the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS), the outage disrupted its appointment and patient record system. Mass General Brigham in Boston, Massachusetts was also one of several U.S. hospitals that cancelled non-urgent surgeries, procedures, and medical visits because of the disruption. 911 outages were also reported in several states, including Phoenix, Arizona, whose computerized dispatch center was affected, the police department posted on social media. In Portland, Oregon, Mayor Ted Wheeler issued a citywide state of emergency due to the outage’s impact on city servers, computers and emergency communications. Although CrowdStrike confirmed the incident was not malicious, O’Connor said it raises questions about overall reliance on the internet to make decisions, as well as ineffectiveness in securing it. “We continually have these wake-up moments where something happens, it’s large scale, it’s a news blip, and then we forget about it… but our adversaries don’t,” O’Connor said. “Unfortunately, the attack infrastructure and the ability to attack is getting easier and easier.” O’Connor also expects future network attacks to get worse, calling the unstable global environment a “national-level issue to address.” While large-scale attacks and outages are mostly out the individuals’ control, O’Connor said, people can take action to protect themselves from personal cybersecurity attacks by using multi-factor authentication as much as possible. Looking to know more?  Dr. TJ O’Connor’s research is focused on cybersecurity education, wireless protocols, software-defined radio and machine learning. If you're looking to connect with Dr. O'Connor - simply click on his icon now to arrange an interview today.

1 min

New Images from Euclid Telescope Offer Powerful Complement to Hubble, JWST

Five new images from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Euclid space telescope mission continue to further our exploration of the “Dark Universe,” according to Florida Tech observational astrophysicist Eric Perlman. With help from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Euclid’s mission is to grow our understanding of “dark matter” so scientists can precisely chart its presence in the universe. Photo Credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA Euclid returned its first five images in November 2023 after launching from Cape Canaveral, Florida – just minutes from the Florida Tech campus – that summer. Now astronomers and scientists are examining a new batch released in late May. The five new images feature a star-forming region in the Milky Way galaxy, clusters of hundreds of galaxies and more stunning sights. “These are magnificent images which showcase the power of the Euclid telescope,” said Perlman, who is a professor at Florida Tech’s Department of Aerospace, Physics and Space Sciences. “The view they show of these objects is strikingly different from what other observatories, in particular Hubble and JWST, show.” NASA predicts that by 2030, Euclid will create a cosmic map that covers almost a third of the sky, thanks to the field of view that is wider than both the Hubble Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Photo Credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA Dr. Perlman is available to discuss the new images, how and why they differ from previous images, and what this means for our understanding of dark matter.

2 min

Ready for takeoff! The Starliner is set for its first mission to the ISS

Since 2011, any American astronaut looking to get to or from the International Space Station (ISS) had to lift off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, a spaceport operated by Russia within Kazakhstan. It was the only way to get up into space - for now. It's why almost a decade ago private sector companies Boeing and SpaceX were engaged by NASA to develop a new way to get to the ISS from American soil.  All of that is about to change, and all eyes have been on Boeing's Starliner as it readies to take flight with a crew for the first time. Florida's Tech's Don Platt , the Director of the Spaceport Education Center, has also been busy as the media coverage has been intense. “In this case, NASA is truly buying a service and it’s up to the company to get it all right. With just some oversight," said Don Platt, of Florida Tech. Starliner rolled out to Launch Complex 41 in the early morning on Tuesday. It will be positioned atop a ULA Atlas 5 rocket for the planned liftoff on May 6 from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. As Platt explained, Starliner is a critical second option for NASA. “With all the success of SpaceX has had recently, we can’t simply rely on SpaceX to provide all services to the American space program," Platt said. This is the first flight of Starliner with a crew onboard so it’ll be the first time for it to fly in this configuration. During these test missions, there are always lessons to be learned. “We are all aware of some of the issues the Boeing company has experienced in the last couple of years. And to have a successful test flight here with astronauts onboard is a definite plus from PR aspect,” Platt said. Two seasoned NASA astronauts will be the first to take a ride in Starliner up to the ISS; Suni Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore. They’ll be up there for eight days on this test mission and if all goes well, the first Starliner mission on NASA crew rotation up to the ISS will come next spring. -- April 16 - NBC News Getting to the ISS, Moon and even Mars are getting a lot of attention lately. If you're a journalist look to cover the topic, let us help. Dr. Don Platt's work has involved developing, testing and flying different types of avionics, communications, rocket propulsion systems as well as astrobiology/biotechnology systems and human deep space exploration tools. Don is available to speak with media anytime. Simply click on the icon below to arrange an interview today.

View all posts
Powered by