NASA’s Artemis II mission to fly around the far side of the Moon

2 days ago 6

How can you help NASA astronauts land on the Moon?
You might not be able to fly on an Artemis mission, but you could help them navigate transitions across the gravity on Earth, in transit, and on the Moon. Navy researchers are seeking volunteers to help find out “how the brain and inner ear respond to motion and to space motion sickness mitigation techniques” using an Air Force centrifuge:
Participants will complete up to eight hours of testing across two days, including exposure to three times the force of Earth’s gravity acceleration profile inside the centrifuge, and a series of balance and vision assessments.
The European Service Module is guiding Artemis II back to Earth.
The module’s last correction burn will happen before it separates from the crew capsule ahead of a scheduled splashdown Friday night at 8:07PM ET off the coast of San Diego.
That’s no moon.
As Artemis II sends back some wallpaper-worthy photos of the Moon and a solar eclipse, it may have given Samsung some inspiration for its next generation of smartphone cameras.
Thegovier:
Hopefully Samsung will add this to their photography AI so we can all take perfect photos next time we’re on the other side of the moon.
Get the day’s best comment and more in my free newsletter, The Verge Daily.
OLED black levels from outer space.
I’ve been looking for a new desktop wallpaper for a while, and thanks to the Artemis II astronauts I’ve finally found one. NASA’s stunning images of the Earth and the Moon are great for OLED monitors in particular, providing out of this world black levels. Literally.
1/2This particular shot looks great on an OLED monitor. Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge
Artemis II crew is ‘homeward bound’ after swinging by the Moon.
First photos of solar eclipse from Artemis II crew look almost too good to be real
Image: NASA
NASA’s record breaking lunar flyby.
The crew of the Artemis II are now on a return trajectory to Earth, with an expected splash down off the coast of San Diego at approximately 8:07pm local time on Friday, April 10.
NASA’s Orion spacecraft has reached its maximum distance from Earth: 252,756 miles.
After setting a new distance record and going behind the Moon, the Artemis II crew has now gone as far away from Earth as they will during the mission.
The team reached the milestone during a planned communications blackout, but they’ve made contact again.
Artemis II astronauts break a record, name a crater
A few minutes before 2PM ET on Monday, the crew of Artemis II broke a record set 56 years ago by the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission — at over 248,655 miles, they have now traveled farther from Earth than any humans before them. They marked the occasion with a crater naming ceremony that left the whole crew embracing each other in lunar orbit.
The Artemis II crew proposed names for two craters on the Moon. The first they named after their spacecraft, Integrity. The second was more personal. “A number of years ago, we started this journey and our close-knit astronaut family, and we lost a loved one,” mission specialist Jeremy Hansen said during NASA’s livestream. “Her name was Carroll, the spouse of Reid, the mother of Katie and Ellie.”
Read Article >
Artemis II crew sets the distance record.
Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen have surpassed Apollo 13’s record for the greatest distance a human mission has traveled away from Earth at over 240,000 miles and counting, and they’ll continue stretching that out until about 7:07PM ET. Right now, they’re beginning to observe the Moon’s surface.
NASA Flight Director Brandon Lloyd, Capsule Communicator Amy Dill, and Command and Handling Data Officer Brandon Borter also marked a lighthearted milestone today by emailing the crew what is now assumed to be the longest person-to-person message ever sent in human history.
The Artemis II astronauts will set a new distance record from Earth today
On April 15th, 1970, Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert set a distance record when Apollo 13 traveled 248,655 miles from Earth. Nearly 56 years later, the crew of Artemis II is expected to break that record by several thousand miles when the Orion spacecraft reaches a maximum distance of 252,757 miles away from Earth later today as it completes its flight around the far side of the Moon.
NASA’s coverage of the lunar flyby begins at 1PM ET today if you want to follow along at home, while the astronauts are expected to set the new distance record from Earth at 1:56PM ET. The trip around the far side of the Moon will take about six hours and include observations of the lunar surface never before seen by humans, as well as surveys to identify possible landing locations for future missions.
Read Article >
Today’s Artemis II lunar flyby will be livestreamed on Netflix.
The far side of the Moon peeks out to say hi.
NASA shared this photo taken by the Artemis II crew today, showing the Orientale basin in its entirety for the first time. The far side is also becoming visible as the mission approaches its destination.
Image: NASA
You can’t doomscroll 230,000 miles from Earth.
Artemis II’s astronauts are carrying iPhones, but it’s not to post on Instagram or check email. They can’t even connect to the internet. They’re mostly there for taking photos and videos. According to the New York Times:
The mission is one of the first times that NASA has allowed astronauts to fly with smartphones. NASA gave each astronaut an iPhone during the crew’s quarantine, which started in March, the agency said. But there was no sneaking in a video call on FaceTime or a round of Candy Crush before entering orbit. The phones can’t connect to the internet or use Bluetooth, NASA said. They are primarily for taking photos and videos.
Artemis II is more than halfway to the Moon.
The crew is on track to fly by the Moon on Monday, April 6th, and posting updates along the way, including this stunning pair of photos of the astronauts looking back at Earth. If you want to follow along with every tiny detail, there is a livestream on YouTube.
Why the Artemis II crew is relying on decade old tech.
After liftoff, there was an issue with Outlook running on the mission’s Surface Pro. That left some wondering why NASA was still using such old tech. Well, devices need to be tested and certified. To save money, they went with tech that was already approved. Then the launch date got pushed back… repeatedly. Check out this thread from NASA’s Jason Hutt for the full breakdown.
NASA did eventually solve Artemis II’s Outlook glitch
On Thursday, during Artemis II’s journey to the Moon, commander Reid Wiseman ran into a tech issue some of us back on Earth can relate to: Microsoft Outlook wasn’t working. In a conversation captured in NASA’s Artemis livestream and shared on Bluesky, Wiseman reported to Mission Control: “I also see that I have two Microsoft Outlooks and neither one of those are working.”
To take care of the issue, Mission Control had to remotely access Wiseman’s personal computing device (PCD), a Microsoft Surface Pro. During a press conference on Thursday, Artemis flight director Judd Frieling said NASA had fixed the issue, stating, “This is not uncommon. We have this on-station all the time. You know, sometimes Outlook has issues getting configured, especially when you don’t have a network that’s directly connected. And so essentially we just had to reload his files on Outlook to get it working.”
Read Article >
Hey, that’s Earth!
Check out these incredible photos of our planet taken by Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman. Amazing.
1/2Image: NASA
“With this burn to the moon, we do not leave Earth, we choose it.”
The Orion spacecraft is now on a course to take four astronauts around the moon in four days time.
Artemis II tech support checking in.
While I’m pretty sure the ship’s computers aren’t running on Windows, the crew is equipped with iPhones, tablets, and laptops “to review procedures and load entertainment onto before launch.”
A stunning look at the Artemis II liftoff.
Alongside the beautiful shots I’m seeing across social media, NASA has a photo album for yesterday’s launch that’s well worth checking out even if you tuned into the livestream. The album is hosted on Flickr, making America’s mission to the moon feel even more nostalgic.
NASA launches four astronauts toward the Moon on the Artemis II mission
Getty Images
NASA’s Artemis II flight, which is set to take four astronauts toward the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years, successfully launched on Wednesday evening.
The Artemis II mission, part of NASA’s Artemis program that’s intended to bring humans back onto the Moon as early as 2028, will bring the four astronauts in orbit around the Moon on the first crewed flight of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The astronauts, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and Canadian Jeremy Hansen, will make the trip aboard the Orion crew capsule, and the full mission is expected to be a 10-day journey. The mission was delayed in February due to a helium supply issue.
Read Article >
The Artemis Moon base project is legally dubious
With NASA planning to launch four astronauts on Wednesday on its Artemis II mission, the race to return to the Moon is back on. The current mission will see astronauts aboard the Orion capsule travel around the Moon before returning to Earth in 10 days’ time. They’ll be testing out the hardware and systems that could soon see Americans standing on the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years in the Artemis IV mission scheduled for 2028. NASA isn’t ready to land people on the Moon just yet, but that’s the aim for the next five years: to not only get people onto the Moon but establish a lengthy human presence on its surface.
That’s NASA’s selling point of Artemis, compared to the Apollo missions of the 1960s and ’70s — we won’t just be visiting the Moon for a few days, but rather inhabiting it for a long period of time. Exactly how long is still unclear, but the idea is to build a Moon base that allows astronauts to live on the lunar surface for weeks or even months at a time.
Read Article >
NASA’s Moon mission delayed again.
Artemis 2, slated to launch four astronauts around the Moon in just a few weeks, has been delayed due to a helium supply issue in the SLS rocket’s upper stage. The mission, originally scheduled for 2023, has now been delayed to April, at the earliest.