The Artemis missions will take humanity further into space than ever before. One crucial part is being built in a hangar in Germany.
Two hundred years ago, the Brothers Grimm told a story about four animals who decided to leave their tired life behind, become musicians, and travel to Bremen, Germany.
There is a twist, like with all fairytales. They never made it to the city. Today, however, a bronze statue of a rooster standing atop a cat, a dog, and a donkey serves as a reminder of both the country’s legendary storytellers and Bremen’s status as an ideal destination. Today is no exception, as the “aerospace city” houses Europe’s Moon mission factory.
Three European Service Modules (ESMs) are now being built within Airbus Bremen’s high-ceilinged cleanrooms. “This is the most recent model, the ESM-5,” says Hagen Witte, the head of the ESM assembly line. The ESMs are critical powerhouses for Nasa’s Artemis Moon missions. ESM-5, ESM-4, and – the star of the show – ESM-3 are all designed to provide propulsion, electrical power, and life support for astronauts. “This is the module that will bring the next humans to the Moon’s surface,” Witte explains.
Witte’s voice is filled with understandable pride, and not just for the engineering. It has been well over 50 years since a human footprint graced the lunar surface, and ESM-3 will allow the first woman and person of colour to set foot on the Moon.
However, when I first see ESM-3, I suddenly laugh. Because, while ESM-5 is a silver futuristic mass of mechanisms, ESM-3 at this early level reminds me of the insides of a 1970s stereo.
“Yes, you can see a lot of wires and tubes already integrated,” Witte explains. “At the moment, I’d say it’s about 70% finished.” The major components, like as modern electronic equipment and tanks, are missing. That’s why it doesn’t appear as impressive when compared to the other structures.”
“There are 22,000 parts per module,” says the author. It appears to be full, yet the number of parts remaining to arrive is astounding.”
Each ESM is 4m (13.2ft) broad and 4m high, will take 16 months to complete, and will weigh roughly 13 tonnes when it is launched. ESM-1 has already completed a successful flight. It launched as part of the Artemis I mission on November 16, 2022, and pushed an uncrewed Orion spacecraft into lunar orbit for a 25-day return journey.
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The first ESM employed four 7m-long (24ft) wings, each with three solar panels, to drive an uncrewed Orion spacecraft into lunar orbit for a 25-day return mission. The remaining ESMs are in various states of completion and are designed to provide propulsion, electrical power, and life support for astronauts.
“It’s like a factory, and this is what we are proud of,” says Ralph Zimmermann, Airbus’ Orion ESM project manager. “Right now, we have a contract for six ESMs. The first one has taken flight. The second one was shipped to Kennedy Space Centre (KSC) and is currently being tested before being integrated with the crew module. Then there are numbers three and four. four and five, which you can see at various stages of integration here in the clean room.”
ESM-4 is further along than ESM-5, which is now integrating with internal components such as mechanical and electrical subsystems. ESM-3 will be shipped to Nasa in October from the nearby airport, where it will be integrated with solar arrays, coupled with the Orion crew module, and ready for flight in 2025.
The decades of cooperation between Nasa and Esa are at the foundation of the expertise – William Hartwell
“It’s a really exciting time in this programme,” says Sian Cleaver, industrial manager for Airbus’ Orion European Service Module. “It’s always been a dream of ours to fly this one day.” Some of our engineers have been working on the initiative for five or ten years, and it may be demanding at times. It takes a lot of effort to construct something like this. So now that we’ve had the first launch and the mission has gone wonderfully well, better than we could have imagined, there’s a new sense of enthusiasm.”
The website has a proven track record. Its five Automated Transfer Vehicles (ATVs) carried supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) between 2008 and 2015. A mockup of an ATV with solar panels lies on the grass outside the structure, and it has a striking similarity to an ESM.
Philippe Deloo, ESM programme manager for the European Space Agency (Esa), which has a contract with Nasa to build the spacecraft, quickly corrects me. “No way, no how. It’s an entirely different design since it’s a completely different ship and mission.”
“They look very similar, but it’s a completely different technology,” admits Deloo. If you look closely, you’ll notice that the ATV didn’t have the Shuttle’s primary engine of 26 kilo Newtons. The solar arrays appear identical but are far more efficient than the ones on the ATV. Furthermore, the ESM is a
If anything fails to operate as well as predicted when tested, the ESMs will also evolve. “If there needs to be a correction, there will be a correction,” Deloo says.
“This is the first time Nasa has entrusted a core component of our flagship human-rated spacecraft to an international partner,” says William Hartwell, Nasa’s Orion programme liaison to Esa. “You don’t make a commitment to a partnership like that lightly.”
“The decades of cooperation between Nasa and Esa are at the foundation of the expertise,” Hartwell continues. “The technologies that Esa developed and implemented on the ATV were precise and of the highest quality.” As a result, we established trust.”
Around 15 million years ago, an asteroid smashed into this region leaving behind masses of extraterrestrial rocks
This trust has been extended to a variety of initiatives. “We built and assembled the spacelab that flew on the Shuttle,” Zimmermann explains. “We designed, built, and flew five ATVs.” We’ve also integrated the Columbus module, which is part of the International Space Station. Bremen is a true European hub for human spaceflight.”
Bremen is not the only German city with a connection to human spaceflight. In 2019, I visited Nordlingen, a mediaeval village in the heart of the 25km (15.5 mile) Nordlinger Ries, Europe’s best-preserved impact crater. The crater rim may be seen in the distance, capped by its own set of low-lying clouds.
An asteroid struck into this region around 15 million years ago, leaving behind massive amounts of extraterrestrial rock. Asteroid fragments have even been used to construct the walls of St George’s Church. Opposite the cathedral lies the Hotel Kaiser Sonn, where astronauts from Apollo 14 and 17 formerly stayed and whose photographs adorn the walls.
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