With its Service Module ESM for the US Artemis mission, the European Space Agency (ESA) has for the first time been entrusted by NASA with responsibility for a system critical to the success of a future manned mission to the Moon. BTA reports.

The European Service Module (ESM) is placed under the empty Orion capsule for the first Artemis mission, which is scheduled to launch on Monday.

The cylinder, about four meters in diameter and height and weighing more than 13 tons, will carry the capsule to and around the moon after the main stage of the SLS launch vehicle separates about eight minutes after launch.

NASA's lunar rocket has arrived at the launch pad for its first test flight

The unpressurized European Service Module (ESM) will also provide electricity to the Orion capsule using four solar panels, water, oxygen and temperature control.

They are essential to the lives of the astronauts who will travel to the moon on the second Artemis mission.

The module will perform Orion's orbital maneuvers and orientation control, and may even later be used to carry additional payloads to the future Gateway lunar orbital station.

The European Service Module (ESM) was built by Airbus' Airbus Defense and Space division in Bremen, Germany, with contributions from ten European countries.

The company used its experience as the prime contractor for the ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle), a European space cargo ship that supplied crews to the International Space Station (ISS) between 2008 and 2015.

The proper functioning of the ECM module during this test flight is a "huge responsibility," said Jean-Marc Nasr, head of space systems at Airbus, stressing that "the days of going into space alone are over."

For the Artemis 1 mission, the service module will be "slightly busier in its work to gather the maximum amount of information," ESA ESM program manager Philippe Deloux explained during the press briefing.

This will allow the system to be tested for "future phases of flight" with the capsule in various configurations.

For the fourth Artemis mission, for example, Orion, with its ESM, will serve as a tug to attach a habitable housing module to the future Gateway Lunar Orbital Station.

The first Artemis mission will last 42 days - well beyond the "nominal duration of about twenty days" planned for future manned missions.

The value of the development and construction of the first EMC amounted to 650 million euros.

The total budget for the first six modules ordered by NASA is 2.1 billion euros, ESA said.

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