Federal agencies are among the nation’s largest facility owners and builders. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, in the business of going where no one has gone before, faces challenges and must innovate every day—to explore the solar system and beyond and to build the infrastructure on earth to support its missions. Those missions range from providing launch support for commercial space ventures to landing on Mars, where the plucky rover Perseverance continues to explore.

但是，目前捕捉到美国公众想象力的一系列任务是阿尔emi弥斯（Artemis），这是一项探索月球比以往更多的计划。在希腊神话中，阿尔emi弥斯（Artemis）是阿波罗（Apollo）的双胞胎姐妹，这是50年前将美国人登上月球的任务的同名。值得注意的是，NASA的Artemis计划将在月球上找到第一位女性和第一位有色人种。

NASA states as an Artemis goal collaborating with “commercial and international partners,” and two significant players among them are leading design firm Jacobs, and major design-constructor Bechtel. Lorna Kenna, vice president and general manager of Jacobs Space Operations Group, describes Artemis as a program that gives staff members the feeling that “I was part of this thing that mattered so much.” Jacobs is a solutions provider supporting NASA at eight of its 10 centers, she says, and “when we talk about Artemis, the job involves exploration, science, aeronautics—the full life cycle.” At Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on Merritt Island, Fla., the Jacobs team of 2,200 employees supports NASA’s “exploration ground systems including integration tests, checkout and processing of the Artemis missions,” she adds.

第一航班（下）将测试火箭系统和新的Orion航天器。美国宇航局正在与工业及其国际空间站合作伙伴合作，建造绕着月球的月亮哨所。
Graphic Courtesy of NASA
*Click on the graphic for a larger version

In October, the Jacobs team stacked the Orion spacecraft and launch abort system atop the Space Launch System (SLS), NASA’s new rocket, in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the space center, marking completion of the assembly of Artemis I.

“The excitement and dedication associated with knowing that you are processing the first of a decades-long program and realizing that it is the world's most powerful rocket with 8.8 million pounds of thrust—323 ft tall as it stands structurally stacked—it’s hard to share the enormity of this,” Kenna explains.

*单击更大版本的照片

NASA points to Artemis activities across the breadth of the agency without tallying a total cost, but an April status update from its Office of Inspector General projected the total through FY 2025 at $86 billion. “NASA’s development of a deep-space human exploration capability to reach the Moon as a precursor to Mars is the agency’s most ambitious and costliest ongoing activity,” it says.

NASA和Jacobs人员在肯尼迪航天中心的车辆组装大楼组装了坚实的火箭助推器（右上角），将有助于将Artemis 1推入太空。地面运营工人（左中央）将空间发射系统部分拟合在一起。
照片：NASA/Kim Shiflett

NASA的LUNAR Exploration计划概述解释说，SLS是第一个具有载宇航员在一个名为Orion的新航天器上的宇航员的力量和能力的火箭。第一次Artemis飞行将测试SLS火箭和猎户座航天器作为集成系统，它将绕月球绕并返回（请参见左图）。

The second Artemis flight will send humans to orbit the moon for the first time this century. That flight will be followed by three support missions that deliver parts of Gateway—a lunar orbital outpost NASA is developing with U.S. industry and its International Space Station partners. Gateway sections will include a solar electric propulsion system and a pressurized module.

The lightning protection towers (left) built at Pad 39B also added weather stations and cameras.
Photo: NASA/Jamie Peer

Bechtel已完成设计，并动员了NASA的移动发射器2的建筑工地，用于后来的Artemis航班 - 该发射平台将使该机构能够将宇航员和重型货物送到月球表面。Bechtel的核安全和国防全球业务部门国防和空间业务线总经理迈克尔·科斯塔斯（Michael Costas）表示，他的团队及其潜艇“正是计划于2022年1月开始建设。”
NASA报道，SLS和猎户座计划，包括佛罗里达州卡纳维拉尔角（Cape Canaveral）的Earthside Construction和Systems集成，涉及全国3,800名供应商和60,000名工人。

To understand the work that went into transforming Kennedy Space Center’s launch complex 39B to accommodate SLS rockets that take off from mobile launchers, one has to go back to its predecessor program, Constellation. In 2006, Jose Perez-Morales, the NASA senior project manager in ground systems development and operations responsible for design, construction and fabrication at 39B, was given the enormous task of removing everything that remained of the Space Shuttle and Apollo programs.

Larger-than-ever liquid-hydrogen sphere (center) provides 1.25 million gallons of LH2 for quicker turnarounds.
照片：NASA/Cory Huston

A Whole New Ground System

“We took out the fixed service structure and the rotating service structure for the space shuttle,” Perez-Morales says. “Every piece of electronics that was there, some going back to the time of Apollo, including about 1.3 million feet of 2-inch-thick and 3-inch-thick cables with big copper cores, they were all removed.”

所有铜线都被回收并用光纤代替，并且垫子接收了新的命令和控制系统。在2009年推出ARES 1-X并随后在2010年取消星座计划后，闪电控制系统由三个塔组成，每个塔楼高600英尺高，配有供链型电线系统，旨在保护Artemis 1的SLS火箭从照明罢工中安装。在航天飞机时代，卡纳维拉尔角（Cape Canaveral）的雷击可能会短短，否则会损坏固定结构和班车上的设备。雷电控制系统的工作于2011年由佛罗里达州梅里特岛（Merritt Island）的建设完成。

Perez-Morales said that in addition to protecting the SLS rockets, each tower has four levels of weather monitoring stations. The 12 weather stations and a system of cameras in all three towers provide 360° visibility of the SLS rocket and will help launch directors make decisions about conditions with up-to-date data at their fingertips.

另一个必不可少的补充是在39B垫上的12.5亿加仑液体氢罐，将支持所有Artemis任务。这是必要的，因为移动启动器任务需要更快的周转时间，以防万一SpaceX等私人公司需要比进一步扩大的NASA任务更快地从PAD上推出。

The final core stage of the Artemis 1 SLS rocket arrived at Kennedy Space Center in April and was transported to the Vehicle Assembly Building.
照片：NASA/Kim Shiflett

“The required usable capacity for liquid hydrogen is substantially larger than the existing spheres,” says Lori Jones, project manager for NASA in the construction of facilities division. The previous hydrogen tanks used perlite to insulate the space between the inner sphere and the outer sphere. Jones says the new liquid hydrogen tank uses glass microspheres, a more efficient insulation system that came out of the spaceport’s Cryogenics Testing Laboratory. A vaporizer, flare stack, fill manifold, piping and valves into the existing liquid hydrogen system were required as well.

Perez-Morales said a new flame deflector and emergency egress system have been built to service Artemis at pad 39B. The system allows crew members to evacuate the SLS rocket via baskets that operate like gondolas.

The work at the launch pad was already underway when the mission took shape for Artemis. A presidential space policy directive in 2017 called on NASA to lead humanity’s return to the moon and beyond by 2028. A second directive in 2019 accelerated the timeline to 2024 and added the goal of landing “the first woman and the next man on the moon.” The Biden administration's then Acting NASA administrator Steve Jurczyk added the charge to land a person of color on the moon to his fiscal 2022 funding request to Congress in April.

NASA的Mobile Launcher 1坐落在Crawlertransporter 2上，因为它开始跋涉到达39B。
照片：NASA/Ben Smegelsky

Cognitive Shift

In a recent policy statement on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, sworn in May 3, added context to the thinking about diversity on the mission. “Our astronauts have taught us about the Overview Effect—a cognitive shift in awareness achieved through a transcendent perspective in space—which helps us understand that all human beings are connected by the commonality of our existence and our interdependencies on a small and fragile planet.” The policy’s definitive commitment to diversity at the agency is echoed by KSC Director Janet Petro (see这里).

Both Jacobs and Bechtel leaders note that commitment and say it resonates. Costas says Bechtel drives accountability around being a diverse organization. “It does help us make high-quality decisions,” he adds. Kenna says, “Both NASA and Jacobs have embraced diversity and inclusion …. It’s an interesting fit.” Change started at the top at Jacobs and flowed down, she adds, and the “whole business followed along with that at Kennedy.”

Putting it all together in the VAB has consumed Kenna and her team for the last two years. She says they draw on their heritage of engineering to serve as a solutions provider and systems integrator. Artemis components are produced by a conglomerate of OEMs that are integrated by Jacobs. “You can do all the planning … but because this is the first ever of the world’s largest and most powerful rockets, when it finally comes together you always learn something,” she says.

SLS火箭的最后阶段是在四月进行测试后交付的，现在在大流行和相关供应链斗争中坚持不懈的团队正处于Artemis 1计划2月份发布之前的最后一段。

The daunting requirements of the mission demand rigorous testing. Future Artemis astronauts will spend three days traveling 240,000 miles to the moon. For lunar injection return—coming back from the moon—the Orion spacecraft will have to resist more than 5,000° F as it reenters Earth’s atmosphere. Getting the complexity of systems right on the ground is paramount, Kenna says.

Jacobs’ team includes the whole gamut of engineering. Kenna says, “We also have a large contingent of software developers. One thing in addition to ground systems that we support here at KSC is development of the launch control system software” (see这里).

Next Generation

Mobile launcher 1 and its crawler transport will put the Artemis 1 SLS rocket on Pad 39B for launch in February. Hensel Phelps built it for NASA a decade ago for the Constellation program. Bechtel is designing and building the replacement, ML2, which will have the peripherals, umbilical connections and a new integrated crawler transporter needed for later Artemis launches.

贝希特尔的Costas说：“在经历了超过10年的ML1建筑之后，所有的经验教训都从中学到了，我们花了很多时间在NASA上优化了ML2上的设计。”

贝克特尔报道cost-plus-award-fee来讲act for ML2 is worth roughly $402 million. Design attributes of ML2 relate to dealing with the heavier weight of SLS rockets and accommodating human factors in launchpad and flight operations—specifically how to safely protect the health and integrity of the mission and the astronauts who will fly to the moon.

从ML1中学到的数据和经验教训也有助于优化ML2上的安全性和可构建性。Costas补充说，石油和天然气部门采用的模块化技术和高级工作包装正在切割设计和施工时间。Bechtel正在动员ML2的建筑，该建筑位于VAB附近的停车场，就在SpaceX北部在肯尼迪航天中心的运营以北。他说，该地段包括一个外行院子和一个总部，用于建设有关重型设备和手工艺品进入该网站的计划。

The next step is building a module assembly yard—since most of the systems and structure are being delivered in sections from fab shops—and mobilizing the local supply chain using specialty contractors and suppliers with experience on projects at KSC. For example, Bechtel is working with steel fabricator JP Donovan, Rockledge, Fla., to fabricate and deliver large steel trusses that will be integrated into the base of the launch platform.

在与SpaceX这样的其他网站用户协调新利18备用网址的同时，同时从事SLS火箭，最终PAD改进和ML2等Artemis项目的工作是NASA的新现实。该机构现在是与私人探险家和许多行业合作伙伴一起工作的多用户太空港运营商。同时，KSC的Petro在NASA网站的故事中说，该中心的未来涉及“追求……对宇宙的更深入探索”。月球轨道的门户哨所将在月球表面进行广泛的科学研究，并为火星的人类任务做准备。

“We’ve considered what it would take to master plan a community on the moon,” Costas says. “We recently bid some work with academia around how we help NASA plan for those missions: How do you develop the capabilities to do construction work on another planet?”