Artemis II approaches the far side of the Moon

3 hours ago

Pallab Ghosh,Science Correspondent, Cape Canaveral,

Alison François,Senior science journalist,

Kevin ChurchAnd

Emily Selvadurai

The Orion spacecraft leaves Earth’s orbit and heads towards the Moon (artwork)

Getty A white, cone-shaped spacecraft hangs above the bright blue curve of the Earth. Its rounded nose faces right, with a dark circular window and small gold-tinted panes. Four black solar panels, long and narrow, stick out like the arms of a windmill. Below, Earth is covered in thick white clouds that swirl above the deep blue ocean, blending into the darkness of space. The top half of the image is almost completely black, making the spacecraft and the glowing planet stand out sharply, like a small artificial beacon orbiting a vast, sunlit world. — The Orion spacecraft leaves Earth’s orbit and heads towards the Moon (artwork)

The four astronauts of the Artemis II mission have now left Earth’s orbit, after their Orion spacecraft fired its main engine for a final push towards the Moon.

The five-minute, 55-second engine burn, known as translunar injection (TLI), went “perfectly,” NASA’s Dr. Lori Glaze said afterward.

And from the Orion capsule, Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen said the crew “felt pretty good here on the way to the Moon.”

Artemis II is now on a looping path that will transport the crew around the far side of the Moon and back. This is the first time since 1972 that humans have traveled outside Earth’s orbit.

On Orion’s livestream, the Earth is slowly shrinking, as the capsule moves farther and farther through space.

Hansen, who is the first non-American to go to the Moon, told NASA’s control center that the crew “strongly felt the power” of those who persevered and worked so hard on this mission.

“Humanity has once again shown what it is capable of,” he said. “It is your hopes for the future that now carry us on this journey around the Moon.”

After spending about a day in “high Earth orbit,” Orion’s engines, navigation and life support systems were checked as the capsule made a loop around our planet.

Finally, final approval was given and engine combustion could begin – the final, big step in the mission to the Moon.

Behind the crew seats, the service module fired its single main engine in a long, steady thrust that added thousands of miles per hour to Orion’s speed.

This large graphic explains the path of the Artemis II mission from Earth to the Moon and back. At the top, the white title reads “Artemis II Mission to the Moon.” Below, two numbered lists describe the eight main steps, from liftoff in Florida, rise to high Earth orbit and launch of the main engine to the Moon, through lunar flyby, return, crew module separation and splashdown in the Pacific. The center shows a bright Earth with several purple arcs around it for the first few orbits, then a long looping path to the Moon and back. Outgoing segments are drawn in purple, incoming segments in orange. Small numbered circles are placed along the track to correspond to each step. A small Orion-type spacecraft appears on the outward journey; a capsule suspended from a parachute reappears on Earth. At the bottom, a gray Moon sits in space and a note reads:

The TLI propelled the spacecraft on a journey that is expected to take the crew farther from Earth than anyone before — more than 4,700 miles (7,600 km) beyond the Moon — before gravity pulls them back.

NASA estimates this could surpass the record set by Apollo 13 in 1970, depending on timing and trajectory details.

TLI is not a point of no return for Orion: Even after the Moon’s Great Fire, controllers can still perform the equivalent of a handbrake in space and bring the crew back to Earth if something goes wrong.

In an emergency, turning around is the quickest way to return home within 36 hours of TLI. After that, it can be just as quick, and often simpler, to stay on course around the Moon and fall back to Earth, Orion program manager Howard Hu said before the launch.

He added that the team has “executed hundreds of thousands of [simulations] to ensure we are able to get the crew home safely. »

At a briefing after the successful engine burn, he was all smiles, telling reporters: “What great days!”

The Artemis II mission plans to take astronauts farther into space than humans have gone before, more than 4,700 miles beyond the Moon.

NASA A slightly grainy image of Orion showing a planet - possibly the moon, as a sliver with most of it in darkness, and part of Orion in the corner. — The Artemis II mission plans to take astronauts farther into space than humans have gone before, more than 4,700 miles beyond the Moon.

As Orion soars into deep space, the views through its windows will become more and more inspiring: the Earth shrinking to a small blue and white marble behind them, while the Moon grows from a bright disk to a heavily cratered world filling the frame.

Around the sixth day of the mission, as Orion sails past the Moon, astronauts will be able to witness a total solar eclipse.

The Moon will slide directly in front of the Sun, so that its bright side is completely covered to reveal its normally hidden shimmering halo, with Earth hanging to one side.

There is a lot of astrological jargon involved in space missions, and TLI is the latest space jargon that many of those who have followed this mission have come to know. Hopefully this will be remembered as the giant breakthrough that took humanity one small step closer to walking on the lunar surface again.