NASA’s Artemis II crew flew past the moon Monday, traveling farther from Earth than any humans in history and becoming the first to see some sections of the moon’s far side in the sunlight with the naked eye.
The four astronauts, sitting in the dark of their capsule, described the far side in eloquent detail: Geometric patterns of browns, blues and greens amid the moon’s typical shades of gray. Scratches and steep canyon walls dotting the lunarscape. Some areas looking as if ponds of choppy water, invigorated by winds, had suddenly frozen. Others, as if they had been paved over.
Lunar scientists and geologists responded with nods, grins and lively discussion back in Mission Control.
“I just had an overwhelming sense of being moved by looking at the moon,” said NASA astronaut and Artemis II mission specialist Christina Koch. “The moon really is its own unique body in the universe. … When we have that perspective and we compare it to our home of the Earth, it just reminds us how much we have in common. Everything we need, the Earth provides, and that, in and of itself, is somewhat of a miracle.”
The crew, choking up, proposed naming one of the sunlit craters hidden from Earth’s view after NASA astronaut and Artemis II Cmdr. Reid Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll, who died in 2020 after a five-year battle with cancer.
Before the flyby, the crew awoke Monday morning to a message from Apollo 8 and 13 astronaut Jim Lovell, recorded shortly before he died last year: “Welcome to my old neighborhood.”
A few hours later, at 10:57 a.m. Pacific time, Artemis II passed 248,655 miles from our pale blue dot, breaking the record Lovell’s Apollo 13 crew set in 1970 for the farthest humans have ever traveled from our home planet.
“We do so in honoring the extraordinary efforts and feats of our predecessors in human space exploration,” said Canadian astronaut and Artemis II mission specialist Jeremy Hansen. “We will continue our journey even further into space before Mother Earth succeeds in pulling us back to everything that we hold dear. But we, most importantly, choose this moment to challenge this generation and the next to make sure this record is not long-lived.”
The Apollo 13 astronauts accidentally set the mark after an oxygen tank on their spacecraft exploded shortly after they reached space, forcing them to slingshot around the moon and back without landing on it.
The Artemis II crew members then began their more than six-hour flyby, making observations of the far side of the moon. With the near side of our natural satellite permanently locked facing Earth in an eternal staring contest, the far side has been viewed many times with space-based telescopes and sensors, but seldom with the naked human eye.
At 3:43 p.m. Pacific time, as Earth dipped behind the moon, the crew lost communication with Mission Control, as expected.
“To all of you down there on Earth and around Earth, we love you, from the moon,” said NASA astronaut and Artemis II pilot Victor Glover. “We will see you on the other side.”
During this eclipse of Earth, the crew members reached their closest point to the moon, estimated at 4,067 miles, with the moon appearing about the size of a basketball held at arm’s length. Shortly after, the crew members reached their farthest point from Earth, estimated at 252,756 miles.
Mission Control regained signal with the crew roughly 40 minutes later at 4:24 p.m. Pacific time as the astronauts experienced their very own Earthrise — the sight of our home planet rising above the moon’s horizon, as memorialized in a famous photo from the Apollo 8 crew.
At 5:35 p.m. Pacific time, it was the sun’s turn to get eclipsed by the moon. As the spacecraft plunged into the darkness of the moon’s shadow, the astronauts watched for flashes of light generated by small space rocks slamming into the lunar surface. Along the moon’s horizon, they looked for dust kicked up by the rocks, now backlit by the unseen sun.
The Artemis II mission is one in a series of international efforts spearheaded by NASA to return humans to the lunar surface for the first time in over half a century.
Artemis I in 2022 was an uncrewed flyby of the moon to test out the vehicle. Artemis II is primarily focused on assessing the life support systems. Artemis III, in Earth’s orbit, aims to test docking procedures with SpaceX’s and Blue Origin’s lunar landers next year, and Artemis IV, slated for 2028, hopes to put boots on the dusty lunar surface.
After a powerful liftoff Wednesday, Artemis II’s journey to the moon has been about as mundane as a deep space mission can get.
The crew spent some time troubleshooting the toilet, with Koch proudly embracing the title of “space plumber.” The team suspected that a vent had frozen over, so they gently turned the ship so that the vent faced the sun, warming it up.
At another point, Wiseman called down to Earth to NASA’s IT specialists on the ground to report that both versions of Microsoft’s email program Outlook installed on his computer were not working.
The crew’s back and forth with Mission Control also included a complaint that, after playing Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” to wake up the crew, Mission Control annoyingly cut off the song right before the chorus. The crew also called Mission Control to ask whether they could see the spacecraft wiggling as Wiseman rocked the ship while exercising on the flywheel (which both agreed was not an issue).
After the lunar flyby, the crew has another four days of (hopefully) mundane travel before a high-energy reentry and splashdown off the coast of San Diego on Friday.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.