OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Nebraska native and former astronaut Clayton Anderson is closely watching the Artemis II mission from his hometown of Ashland, but he has concerns about the Orion capsule's upcoming re-entry and splashdown.
WATCH KATRINA'S STORY BELOW
Anderson spent five months on the International Space Station in 2007 and two weeks on the Space Shuttle Discovery in 2010. He is now an aerospace engineering professor at Iowa State.
“I’m truly envious of what they’ve been able to do. Traveling 10 days, though, in a Volkswagen minibus would be a tough order for anybody,” he said.
Anderson said Friday's re-entry is one of the riskiest parts of the mission.
“These guys will be coming back a lot faster than the shuttle came in,” he said.
He is particularly nervous about the new heat shields on the Orion capsule, which he described as a "gumdrop with parachutes."
Anderson added, “They’re going to be screaming through the atmosphere and the heat will need to be ablated."
The shield material is called AVCOAT, which is designed to burn off as a gas in a controlled manner, but Anderson says there are experts concerned about the shields.
"...Apparently there were some issues that the gas was finding its way back inside the AVCOAT (as it burned off) and that it was causing some of the AVCOAT pieces to flake off," said Anderson, noting that NASA has since modified and re-tested the material.
The risks of re-entry are something he understands first-hand. Anderson was in the astronaut corps in 2003 when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon re-entry.
One of the goals of the Artemis II mission is to identify problems before later, longer space flights. That includes how people go to the bathroom.
“The toilet not working — that one baffles me because we’ve had a lot of experience building and designing toilets,” Anderson said.
Anderson hopes the mission inspires young people to dream big, just as the Apollo missions did for him as a child.
“I think all Americans should be proud and, we should always remember, that we should be the pre-eminent space faring nation in the entire world, always."
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
Download our apps today for all of our latest coverage.
Get the latest news and weather delivered straight to your inbox.
