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El público nombra al “maniquí lunar” que volará alrededor de la Luna en la misión Artemis I
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By NASA
Este artículo es para estudiantes de 5.o a 8.o grado.
Cada vez que un astronauta sale de un vehículo espacial, se dice que hace una actividad extravehicular (EVA, por sus siglas en inglés). A esto también se le llama caminata espacial.
El astronauta ruso Alexei Leonov hizo la primera caminata espacial el 18 de marzo de 1965. La primera caminata espacial duró 10 minutos.
El astronauta Ed White hizo la primera caminata espacial de un estadounidense durante la misión Géminis 4, el 3 de junio de 1965. La caminata espacial de White duró 23 minutos.
Hoy en día, las caminatas espaciales se hacen en el exterior de la Estación Espacial Internacional (EEI). Las caminatas espaciales suelen durar entre cinco y ocho horas, según el trabajo a realizar.
El récord mundial de más caminatas espaciales lo tiene el cosmonauta ruso Anatoly Solovyev. Hizo 16 caminatas espaciales por un total de más de 82 horas en el espacio exterior. Cuatro astronautas de la NASA tienen un empate para la mayor cantidad de caminatas espaciales. Michael López-Alegría (Mike L.A.), Peggy Whitson, Bob Behnken y Chris Cassidy han hecho 10 caminatas espaciales cada uno. Mike L.A. tiene el récord de Estados Unidos para la mayor cantidad de tiempo en caminatas espaciales. Su total es de más de 67 horas.
¿Por qué los astronautas llevan a cabo caminatas espaciales?
Los astronautas hacen caminatas espaciales por muchas razones. Las caminatas espaciales permiten a los astronautas trabajar fuera de su nave espacial mientras aún están en el espacio. Un trabajo que hacen los astronautas en una caminata espacial son los experimentos científicos. Se pueden sujetar experimentos en el exterior de una nave espacial para ver cómo el entorno espacial afecta diferentes objetos. Los astronautas colocan los experimentos fuera de la nave espacial durante una caminata espacial. Vuelven a salir para recuperar los experimentos cuando terminan.
Los astronautas también pueden poner a prueba nuevos equipos y reparar los satélites o sus naves espaciales mientras están en órbita. Al hacer caminatas espaciales, los astronautas pueden reparar equipos que, de otro modo, tendrían que ser devueltos a la Tierra para su reparación.
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Palabras que debes saber
radiación: una forma de energía que se emite, o transmite, en forma de rayos, ondas electromagnéticas o partículas
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¿Cómo hacen los astronautas las caminatas espaciales?
Cuando los astronautas hacen caminatas espaciales, usan trajes espaciales. Los trajes espaciales los protegen del duro entorno del espacio. Protegen a los astronautas de las temperaturas extremas de calor y frío, del dañino polvo espacial y de la radiación. Los trajes espaciales también les dan a los astronautas oxígeno para respirar y agua para beber durante las caminatas espaciales.
Los astronautas se visten con sus trajes espaciales varias horas antes de hacer una caminata espacial. Los trajes están presurizados. Esto significa que los trajes están llenos de oxígeno. Los trajes espaciales están presurizados para mantener los fluidos del cuerpo en estado líquido.
Una vez que tienen puestos sus trajes, los astronautas respiran oxígeno al 100% durante varias horas hasta que todo el nitrógeno sale de su cuerpo. Tener nitrógeno en el cuerpo durante una caminata espacial puede hacer que se formen burbujas de gas en el cuerpo. Estas burbujas de gas pueden hacer que los astronautas sientan dolor en articulaciones como los hombros, los codos, las muñecas y las rodillas. Esta condición se llama “enfermedad de los buzos” o síndrome de descompresión. La misma condición puede afectar a los buceadores que usan tanques de oxígeno para respirar debajo del agua.
Los astronautas ahora están listos para salir de la nave espacial. Salen de la nave espacial a través de una puerta especial llamada compuerta de aire. La compuerta de aire tiene dos puertas. Cuando los astronautas están dentro de la nave espacial, la compuerta de aire es hermética, lo que significa que no puede salir el aire. Cuando los astronautas se preparan para salir a una caminata espacial, pasan por la primera puerta y la cierran herméticamente detrás de ellos. Luego pueden abrir la segunda puerta sin que el aire se escape de la nave espacial. Después de una caminata espacial, los astronautas regresan al interior a través de la compuerta de aire. Cuando un astronauta se quita el traje espacial, se dice que sale del traje.
Los astronautas usan pasamanos en la estación espacial para desplazarse de un lugar a otro. A veces, se usa un gran brazo robótico para mover a los astronautas en las caminatas espaciales. Los astronautas están sujetos al brazo robótico con una correa para los pies.
Los astronautas ahora están listos para salir de la nave espacial. Salen de la nave espacial por una puerta especial llamada compuerta de aire. La compuerta de aire tiene dos puertas. Cuando los astronautas están dentro de la nave espacial, la compuerta de aire es hermética, lo que significa que no puede salir el aire. Cuando los astronautas se preparan para salir a una caminata espacial, pasan por la primera puerta y la cierran herméticamente detrás de ellos. Luego pueden abrir la segunda puerta sin que el aire se salga de la nave espacial. Después de una caminata espacial, los astronautas regresan al interior a través de la compuerta de aire.
¿Cómo se mantienen seguros los astronautas durante las caminatas espaciales?
Cuando hacen una caminata espacial, los astronautas usan correas de seguridad para sujetarse a su nave espacial. Las correas son como cuerdas. Un extremo está enganchado al caminante espacial. El otro extremo está conectado al vehículo. Las correas de seguridad evitan que los astronautas se alejen flotando en el espacio. Los astronautas también usan correas para evitar que las herramientas se alejen flotando. Atan las herramientas a sus trajes espaciales con correas.
Otra forma en que los astronautas se mantienen seguros durante las caminatas espaciales es usando una mochila llamada SAFER. SAFER son las siglas en inglés de Ayuda Simplificada para Rescate en Actividad Extravehicular. El SAFER se usa como una mochila. Utiliza pequeños propulsores a reacción para permitir que el astronauta se desplace por el espacio. Si un astronauta se soltara y se alejara flotando, SAFER le ayudaría a volar de regreso a la nave espacial. Los astronautas controlan SAFER con una pequeña palanca de mando.
¿Cómo entrenan los astronautas para las caminatas espaciales?
Una forma en que los astronautas se entrenan para las caminatas espaciales es nadando. Flotar en el espacio es muy parecido a flotar en el agua. Los astronautas practican las caminatas espaciales debajo del agua en una gran piscina cerca del Centro Espacial Johnson de la NASA en Houston, Texas.
La piscina se llama Laboratorio de Flotabilidad Neutral (NBL, por sus siglas en inglés). La piscina tiene capacidad para unos 23,5 millones de litros (6,2 millones de galones) de agua. Por cada hora que pasen en una caminata espacial, los astronautas deben entrenar siete horas en la piscina del NBL.
Otra forma en que los astronautas practican para una caminata espacial es utilizando la realidad virtual. Los astronautas usan un casco que tiene una pantalla de video dentro y guantes especiales. En la pantalla dentro del casco se muestra un video de la simulación. Los guantes especiales permiten mostrar los movimientos de los astronautas con el video. La simulación de realidad virtual se ve y se siente como una caminata espacial.
Read this article in English here: What Is a Spacewalk? (Grades 5-8)
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By NASA
Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 captured an image March 6, 2025, after landing in a crater from the Moon’s South Pole. The lunar lander is on its side near the intended landing site, Mons Mouton. In the center of the image between the two lander legs is the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment 1 suite, which shows the drill deployed.Intuitive Machines NASA’s PRIME-1 (Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment 1) mission was designed to demonstrate technologies to help scientists better understand lunar resources ahead of crewed Artemis missions to the Moon. During the short-lived mission on the Moon, the performance of PRIME-1’s technology gave NASA teams reason to celebrate.
“The PRIME-1 mission proved that our hardware works in the harshest environment we’ve ever tested it in,” said Janine Captain, PRIME-1 co-principal investigator and research chemist at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. “While it may not have gone exactly to plan, this is a huge step forward as we prepare to send astronauts back to the Moon and build a sustainable future there.”
Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission launched to the Moon on Feb. 26, 2025, from NASA Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A, as part of the company’s second Moon delivery for NASA under the agency’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign. The IM-2 Nova-C lunar lander, named Athena, carried PRIME-1 and its suite of two instruments: a drill known as TRIDENT (The Regolith and Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain), designed to bring lunar soil to the surface; and a mass spectrometer, Mass Spectrometer Observing Lunar Operations (MSOLO), to study TRIDENT’s drill cuttings for the presence of gases that could one day help provide propellant or breathable oxygen to future Artemis explorers.
The IM-2 mission touched down on the lunar surface on March 6, just around 1,300 feet (400 meters) from its intended landing site of Mons Mouton, a lunar plateau near the Moon’s South Pole. The Athena lander was resting on its side inside a crater preventing it from recharging its solar cells, resulting in an end of the mission.
“We were supposed to have 10 days of operation on the Moon, and what we got was closer to 10 hours,” said Julie Kleinhenz, NASA’s lead systems engineer for PRIME-1, as well as the in-situ resource utilization system capability lead deputy for the agency. “It was 10 hours more than most people get so I am thrilled to have been a part of it.”
Kleinhenz has spent nearly 20 years working on how to use lunar resources for sustained operations. In-situ resource utilization harnesses local natural resources at mission destinations. This enables fewer launches and resupply missions and significantly reduces the mass, cost, and risk of space exploration. With NASA poised to send humans back to the Moon and on to Mars, generating products for life support, propellants, construction, and energy from local materials will become increasingly important to future mission success.
“In-situ resource utilization is the key to unlocking long-term exploration, and PRIME-1 is helping us lay this foundation for future travelers.” Captain said.
The PRIME-1 technology also set out to answer questions about the properties of lunar regolith, such as soil strength. This data could help inform the design of in-situ resource utilization systems that would use local resources to create everything from landing pads to rocket fuel during Artemis and later missions.
“Once we got to the lunar surface, TRIDENT and MSOLO both started right up, and performed perfectly. From a technology demonstrations standpoint, 100% of the instruments worked.” Kleinhenz said.
The lightweight, low-power augering drill built by Honeybee Robotics, known as TRIDENT, is 1 meter long and features rotary and percussive actuators that convert energy into the force needed to drill. The drill was designed to stop at any depth as commanded from the ground and deposit its sample on the surface for analysis by MSOLO, a commercial off-the-shelf mass spectrometer modified by engineers and technicians at NASA Kennedy to withstand the harsh lunar environment. Designed to measure the composition of gases in the vicinity of the lunar lander, both from the lander and from the ambient exosphere, MSOLO can help NASA analyze the chemical makeup of the lunar soil and study water on the surface of the Moon.
Once on the Moon, the actuators on the drill performed as designed, completing multiple stages of movement necessary to drill into the lunar surface. Prompted by commands from technicians on Earth, the auger rotated, the drill extended to its full range, the percussion system performed a hammering motion, and the PRIME-1 team turned on an embedded core heater in the drill and used internal thermal sensors to monitor the temperature change.
While MSOLO was able to perform several scans to detect gases, researchers believe from the initial data that the gases detected were all anthropogenic, or human in origin, such as gases vented from spacecraft propellants and traces of Earth water. Data from PRIME-1 accounted for some of the approximately 7.5 gigabytes of data collected during the IM-2 mission, and researchers will continue to analyze the data in the coming months and publish the results.
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By NASA
The Mass Spectrometer Observing Lunar Operations (MSolo) for NASA’s Volatile Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) mission is prepared for packing inside a laboratory in the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Feb. 21, 2023. MSolo is a commercial off-the-shelf mass spectrometer modified to work in space and it will help analyze the chemical makeup of landing sites on the Moon, as well as study water on the lunar surface.NASA/Kim Shiflett A NASA-developed technology that recently proved its capabilities in the harsh environment of space will soon head back to the Moon to search for gases trapped under the lunar surface thanks to a new Cooperative Research and Development Agreement between NASA and commercial company Magna Petra Corp.
The Mass Spectrometer Observing Lunar Operations (MSOLO) successfully demonstrated the full range of its hardware in lunar conditions during the Intuitive Machines 2 mission earlier this year. Under the new agreement, a second MSOLO, mounted on a commercial rover, will launch to the Moon no earlier than 2026. Once on the lunar surface, it will measure low molecular weight volatiles in hopes of inferring the presence of rare isotopes, such as Helium-3, which is theorized to exist, trapped in the regolith, or lunar dust, of the Moon.
“This new mission opportunity will help us determine what volatiles are present in the lunar surface, while also providing scientific insight for Magna Petra’s goals,” said Roberto Aguilar Ayala, research physicist at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. “Learning more about the lunar volatiles and their isotopes supports NASA’s goal of sustaining long-term human space exploration. We will need to extract resources locally to enhance the capabilities of our astronauts to further exploration opportunities on the lunar surface.”
The MSOLO instrument will be integrated on a commercial rover, selected by Magna Petra. The rover will allow MSOLO to gather the data needed for researchers to understand which low-molecular weight gases reside within the Moon’s surface.
NASA will work with the partner to integrate MSOLO so that it will function properly with the rover, and the partner will analyze and share data in real time with NASA to understand the location of these volatiles on the Moon and their ability to be extracted in the future.
Magna Petra hopes to understand the presence of Helium-3 isotope within the Moon’s surface, with the ultimate goal of collecting it and bringing it back to Earth for use in a variety of industries, including energy production through nuclear fusion, quantum computing, health care, and specialized laboratory equipment.
The MSOLO instrument began as a commercial off-the-shelf mass spectrometer designed to analyze volatiles used in the manufacturing of semi-conductors, which helped keep NASA’s development costs down. NASA modified the device to withstand the rigors of spaceflight and the Moon’s harsh conditions. On its first journey to the Moon, MSOLO was part of the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment 1.
Signed on April 2, the reimbursable agreement is the first of its kind established at NASA Kennedy. Under the agreement, Magna Petra will reimburse NASA for costs such as supporting MSOLO integration and testing with the rover, pre-mission preparation and mission operations of the instruments, and expertise in system engineering, avionics, and software.
“This innovative agreement promises to provide valuable data to both partners,” said Jonathan Baker, chief of Spaceport Development at NASA Kennedy. “This approach demonstrates NASA’s commitment to finding unique ways to work with commercial industry to help advance technology in a fiscally responsible way and enabling innovation for the benefit of humankind.”
Throughout the mission, NASA will retain ownership of MSOLO. Once the mission is complete, the instrument will no longer have access to power and communications and will remain on the surface of the Moon. The valuable data gathered during the mission will be submitted to the Planetary Data System for public dissemination.
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By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Gateway’s HALO module at Northrop Grumman’s facility in Gilbert, Arizona, on April 4, 2025, shortly after its arrival from Thales Alenia Space in Turin, Italy. NASA/Josh Valcarcel NASA continues to mark progress on plans to work with commercial and international partners as part of the Gateway program. The primary structure of HALO (Habitation and Logistics Outpost) arrived at Northrop Grumman’s facility in Gilbert, Arizona, where it will undergo final outfitting and verification testing.
HALO will provide Artemis astronauts with space to live, work, and conduct scientific research. The habitation module will be equipped with essential systems including command and control, data handling, energy storage, power distribution, and thermal regulation.
Following HALO’s arrival on April 1 from Thales Alenia Space in Turin, Italy, where it was assembled, NASA and Northrop Grumman hosted an April 24 event to acknowledge the milestone, and the module’s significance to lunar exploration. The event opened with remarks by representatives from Northrop Grumman and NASA, including NASA’s Acting Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems Development Lori Glaze, Gateway Program Manager Jon Olansen, and NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik. Event attendees, including Senior Advisor to the NASA Administrator Todd Ericson, elected officials, and local industry and academic leaders, viewed HALO and virtual reality demonstrations during a tour of the facilities.
Dr. Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, and Dr. Jon B. Olansen, Gateway Program manager, on stage during an April 24, 2025, event at Northrop Grumman’s facility in Gilbert, Arizona, commemorating HALO’s arrival in the United States. Northrop Grumman While the module is in Arizona, HALO engineers and technicians will install propellant lines for fluid transfer and electrical lines for power and data transfer. Radiators will be attached for the thermal control system, as well as racks to house life support hardware, power equipment, flight computers, and avionics systems. Several mechanisms will be mounted to enable docking of the Orion spacecraft, lunar landers, and visiting spacecraft.
Launching on top of HALO is the ESA (European Space Agency)-provided Lunar Link system which will enable communication between crewed and robotic systems on the Moon and to mission control on Earth. Once these systems are installed, the components will be tested as an integrated spacecraft and subjected to thermal vacuum, acoustics, vibration, and shock testing to ensure the spacecraft is ready to perform in the harsh conditions of deep space.
In tandem with HALO’s outfitting at Northrop Grumman, the Power and Propulsion Element – a powerful solar electric propulsion system – is being assembled at Maxar Space Systems in Palo Alto, California. Solar electric propulsion uses energy collected from solar panels converted to electricity to create xenon ions, then accelerates them to more than 50,000 miles per hour to create thrust that propels the spacecraft.
The element’s central cylinder, which resembles a large barrel, is being attached to the propulsion tanks, and avionics shelves are being installed. The first of three 12-kilowatt thrusters has been delivered to NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland for acceptance testing before delivery to Maxar and integration with the Power and Propulsion Element later this year.
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Last Updated Apr 25, 2025 ContactLaura RochonLocationJohnson Space Center Related Terms
Artemis Artemis 4 Earth's Moon Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate Gateway Space Station General Humans in Space Explore More
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By NASA
NASA/JPL-Caltech A NASA spacesuit glove designed for use during spacewalks on the International Space Station is prepared for thermal vacuum testing inside a one-of-a-kind chamber called CITADEL (Cryogenic Ice Testing, Acquisition Development, and Excavation Laboratory) at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California on Nov. 1, 2023.
Part of a NASA spacesuit design called the Extravehicular Mobility Unit, the glove was tested at vacuum and minus 352 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 213 degrees Celsius) — temperatures as frigid as those Artemis III astronauts could experience on the Moon’s South Pole. A team from NASA JPL, NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, and the NASA Engineering and Safety Center have collaborated on testing gloves and boots in CITADEL. Elbow joints are slated for testing next. In addition to spotting vulnerabilities with existing NASA suit designs, the experiments will help the agency prepare criteria for test methods for the next-generation lunar suit — being built by Axiom Space — which NASA astronauts will wear during the Artemis III mission.
Read more about the testing needed for Artemis III.
Text credit: Melissa Pamer
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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