Artemis I, the first test flight for the Space
Launch System megarocket and the Orion spacecraft.
On board is Commander Moonikin Campos, a mannequin
wearing a next generation spacesuit called the Orion Crew Survival System.
Moonikin Campos, is outfitted with sensors that will provide data
to help protect astronauts on future Artemis missions.
But why is this mannequin called Moonikin Campos?
The mannequin is named after Mexican-American electrical engineer
Arturo Campos, a key player in the Apollo 13 astronauts’
safe return to Earth.
It was April 13th, 1970,
when Campos got a phone call in the middle of the night.
Okay, Houston, we’ve had a problem here.
It was night.
We got a phone call, or dad got a phone call.
We heard our parents talking, so we went downstairs.
And we asked our mom what was happening.
And she said that NASA called
and they were having problems with the spacecraft.
That's the day that
my dad saved the astronauts.
When Campos arrived at the Space Center in Houston, he learned that an oxygen tank
in the Apollo 13 service module had ruptured.
The service module's normal supply of electricity, light and water
had been lost, leaving astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise
stuck in a damaged spacecraft about 200,000 miles away from Earth.
The main challenge was to find a way to divert enough power
from the lunar module to the command and service module's equipment system
so that the astronauts could safely return to Earth.
Fortunately, Campos had already written this procedure
since he dreamed about it a year earlier.
Campos, born in Laredo, Texas, in 1943,
showed an early interest in tinkering.
He was a mechanic by nature. Yeah.
He worked on automobiles.
His father taught at
at the college auto mechanics.
And so he learned mechanicking from his father.
He received
a grant to go
to the University of Texas in Austin.
Eventually Campos graduated from the University of Texas
in electrical engineering and began working for NASA in the early 1960s,
becoming one of the people in charge
of the electrical systems in the Apollo program.
When the problem surfaced during the Apollo 13 mission, Campos immediately
began reconstructing his plan to provide sufficient power to the command module.
He came up with the solution to give the batteries
enough power to get those astronauts back here.
And so they
they used it and thank God it got them back home.
Campos and other members of the Apollo 13 mission
received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1970.
This means a whole lot.
The president of the
United States signed it.
Not a lot of civilians got it.
And my dad did.
And we couldn't be any prouder of dad.
We could not be any prouder of my father.
Campos passed away in 2001 at age 66,
and his name has left an everlasting mark at NASA.
Very proud of my dad.
Absolutely.
Apollo 13 is his legacy.
We are very proud.