首頁
This article was originally published at The slot Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
Curtis Ho, Lecturer in Chemistry, University of Tasmania
Many around the world will watch eagerly this Saturday as NASA launches Artemis 1, the agency's first moon exploration mission since the 1970s.
The spectacle involves the most powerful rocket in the world: the Space Launch System (SLS). Standing at nearly 330 feet (100 meters) tall and weighing more than 2,900 tons (2,600 tonnes), the SLS produces a massive 8.8 million pounds of thrust — (more than 31 times the thrust of a Boeing 747 jet).
But it's not just amazing engineering that's behind rocket science and space exploration. Hidden within, there's clever chemistry that powers these fantastic feats and sustains our fragile life in space.