NASA Reveals Potential Communications Weakness on Artemis 1 Moon Mission

NASA admits that some of its expedition missions reveal a communications weakness in space.

The Artemis 1 marks NASA's first spaceflight in the Artemis program, an exploration program that humans and robots will lead, and the first flight of the agency's Space Launch System and Orion.

The space agency plans to get astronauts back on the moon after the Apollo era, with a new mission to prove that the Space Launch System works and Orion is safe to carry humans to the moon for future explorations and even potential rehoming.

The Artemis recently launched on Nov. 16, and its latest update reports that it has already successfully entered a retrograde from the moon. However, recent development reveals that the space shuttle may be encountering some communication hurdles while in space.

NASA Admits Communication Weakness With Artemis 1 and James Webb Telescope

Essentially, space expeditions need ongoing communication with Earth to provide updates. All of NASA's far-reaching spacecraft, including the Orion spacecraft, the James Webb Space Telescope (Webb or JWST), and Voyager 1, are connected to the Deep Space Network, a group of 14 antennas spread across three locations in California, Spain, and Australia.

However, Space reports that the communication network is crowded, making it challenging to guarantee that every mission beyond Earth orbit has the communications time required. The Artemis 1 mission has made this problem worse.

"We were told over the summer that when the Artemis space mission launched, the Deep Space Network was going to be basically fully taken by Artemis because they needed to keep track of the spaceship," According to Astrophysicist Mercedes López-Morales. "The big issue is that you cannot download data for that long."

However, the James Webb Space Telescope and other missions have suffered due to Orion's near-constant contact with the Deep Space Network while in flight and outside of low Earth orbit. NASA planned upgrades to some antennas and added two new ones in January 2021 and March 2022 in anticipation of Artemis's strain on the Deep Space Network. Amidst the communication struggles with the spacecraft, time for communication is still limited.

Not NASA's First Communication Hurdle With Artemis 1

While the news may be alarming for followers of the space expedition, the reveal may not come as a surprise to some, as Fox News recently reported a similar occurrence with Artemis 1 in November.

The Orion shuttle produced spectacular images of Earth and the moon along its voyage, and the anomaly appeared after it left the moon's gravitational field. However, while rearranging enormous radio antennas, NASA's Mission Control Center at the Johnson Space Center in Houston reported losing contact with the spaceship.

Despite the brief loss of communication, the spacecraft is still in good condition, according to NASA, whose engineers are still looking into the matter.