Sarah Donovan
| Special to Seacoastonline
DURHAM — Local New Hampshire and New England suppliers played a critical role in NASA’s Artemis I mission to the moon’s orbit, completed on Dec. 11, 2022, with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
To celebrate its success, NASA held an event at UNH on April 23 to honor industry partners who made the mission possible by supplying key components for the Orion space shuttle, which did not have a crew, and the Space Launch System rocket.
The event, titled “Artemis and New Hampshire: How New Hampshire is Helping NASA Return the USA to the Moon and Beyond,” was held in the Granite State Room in the Memorial Union Building.
A number of companies that specialize in aerospace components that comply with NASA’s standards are located here in New England. According to Harlan Spence, UNH’s director of the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space (EOS), New Hampshire is a leader in the aerospace and defense industry.
Defense and Homeland Security grants and contracting are responsible for more than 16,500 jobs and a total payroll of $1.1 billion across (New Hampshire), according to the UMass Economic & Public Policy Research.
Spence opened a panel discussion of aerospace experts and industry leaders at UNH reading from a letter Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-New Hampshire, wrote addressed to the leaders and attendees of the event.
“I’m proud that companies in the Granite State are contributing so much to this endeavor and writing the next chapter in this story of exploration and discovery. You all bolster New Hampshire’s long-held reputation as a space state,” Shaheen wrote.
UNH has been a long-time partner of NASA, said Spence, for research that covers “Earth’s oceans and space.” UNH’s EOS is proud to be one of the earliest universities to do so, said Spence.
“I think recognizing, kind of doubly the great partnership that UNH has had with NASA for the missions that we’re we have done and the ones we’re doing now and future ones we’re working on that will enable safe transit of humankind back to the moon and then on to Mars,” Spence said.
“Also recognizing the hidden gems that we have in the state of New Hampshire and in the region more broadly, in northern New England, of industry partners, many of them smaller businesses that are supporting NASA (by) building parts of the systems, whether it be launch systems or ground systems that support NASA’s mission, broadly in terms of science and exploration, both robotic and humankind,” said Spence.
Five panelists were featured, including Lee Morin, NASA astronaut and UNH alum.
Of the panelists, Mike Sarafin, NASA Artemis mission manager, provided some insight about his role in the Artemis I mission at NASA. He was chair of the Mission Management Team, serving as “leader of the team that decided when the launch would enter the moon’s orbit, when to bring the spacecraft home and where to splash the spacecraft down,” Sarafin said.
He came to New England to recognize contributions to the mission.
“So the purpose of last week’s visit to New England and our suppliers throughout New Hampshire, Massachusetts [and] Rhode Island was mainly to thank them for their contributions to the Artemis program and to help them understand where they fit in the big picture in terms of our shared success,” said Sarafin.
Sarafin and his colleagues visited Wyman-Gordon, Spincraft, RdF Corporation, Haigh Farr, Turbocam Inc. (of Barrington, New Hampshire) and Dewetron.
“NASA is a respected name, and having NASA come into their plant meant a lot to them,” said Sarafin.
Turbocam Inc. manufactures “the turbines that spin at over 20,000 revolutions per minute, and they are used within the RS 25 [rocket] engines on the Space Launch System,” Sarafin said.
Spincraft of Billerica, Massachusetts, specializes in the domes that fit onto the ends of the large fuel tanks on the Space Launch System rocket that holds over “730,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The temperatures are extremely cold, like -200 degrees (Fahrenheit),” Sarafin said.
Spincraft manufactures the domes out of one singular piece of metal, eliminating the need for welding which can expose the metal to slight weaknesses, he explained.
“That manufacturing technique that they have allows the material to essentially be defect-free, in the sense that it holds pressure, and it’s able to bear the load of launch,” Sarafin said.
Sarafin said that the Artemis program is distinctive.
“The Artemis program is unique in that it represents America’s workforce today. And it is partnered with our international partners. So you know, the Apollo program was a fantastic success over 50 years ago. But it didn’t fully represent the demographic that was contributing to the program. So yes, we are going to put the first woman, the first person of color on the surface of the moon. That is inherently part of the Artemis program’s goals is to send people who are representative of America today and of our workforce,” Sarafin said, explaining what is yet to come.
Spence said many kids attended the event, and it was awesome to “see the future” interested in space exploration.
“I think these kind of big projects inspire that child in all of us,” Spence said.
