moon in a flyby<\/a>, during which the crew will spend more than six hours analysing and documenting lunar surface features. The Orion capsule will then head back to Earth in a \u201cfree-return trajectory\u201d, a return trip that will take about four days.<\/p>\nThe astronauts began their landmark day with a message from the late Jim Lovell, who took part in the Apollo 8 and 13 missions and recorded the message shortly before his death.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a historic day, and I know how busy you\u2019ll be, but don\u2019t forget to enjoy the view,\u201d Lovell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWelcome to my old neighbourhood. I\u2019m proud to pass that torch on to you as you swing around the moon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Travelling around its far side, the astronauts will witness previously hidden lunar territory.<\/p>\n
One image sent back by the crew showed the moon\u2019s Orientale basin, a massive crater that before had only been viewed by orbiting cameras on uncrewed missions. Despite the technological advancements since the Apollo era, NASA still relies on the eyesight of its astronauts to learn more about the moon.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe human eye is basically the best camera that could ever or will ever exist,\u201d Kelsey Young, the lead scientist for the Artemis II mission, told the AFP news agency. \u201cThe number of receptors in the human eye far outweighs what a camera is able to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taking notes<\/p>\n
A team of dozens of lunar scientists positioned in the Science Evaluation Room at NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, will be taking notes as the astronauts, who studied an array of lunar phenomena as part of mission training, describe their view in real time.<\/p>\n
Adding to the historic nature of the mission, led by commander Reid Wiseman, the Artemis II crew includes several firsts. Victor Glover will be the first person of colour to fly around the moon. Christina Koch will be the first woman, and Canadian Jeremy Hansen the first non-American.<\/p>\n
For about 40 minutes during the flyby, all communication with Artemis II will be cut off as the astronauts pass behind the moon.<\/p>\n
The moon will appear to the astronauts \u201cabout the size of a basketball held at arm\u2019s length,\u201d Noah Petro, head of the US space agency\u2019s planetary geology lab, told AFP.<\/p>\n
While the Orion crew will still be quite far from the moon, their flyby is key to preparing for subsequent missions like Artemis III in 2027 and a lunar landing as part of the Artemis IV mission in 2028, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told CNN on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mission\u2019s four astronauts break record set in 1970 by Apollo 13, which flew 400,171km from the planet. NASA\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[3,79,193],"class_list":["post-568941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-news","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}