The astronauts of NASA’s Artemis 2 mission continue their journey to the Moon on Sunday, catching glimpses of areas never before seen directly by humans. The Artemis 2 mission has reached “two-thirds” of the way to the Moon, NASA announced on network X.
“We were able to see for the first time the hidden face of the Moon, and it was simply spectacular,” American Christina Koch reported in an interview televised from their spacecraft Orion. She described the moon appearing “different” and noted that she becomes the woman who has traveled the farthest into space on this flight.
“The Grand Canyon of the Moon”
“It wasn’t the Moon we are used to. So we took out our lunar sighting data, matched the images, and said to ourselves: ‘here is the hidden face. It’s something we have never seen before,’ ” she enthused about observing the geologic formation sometimes referred to as the “Grand Canyon of the Moon.” “No human eye had really seen this crater until today when we had the privilege to see it,” explained Christina Koch during a video exchange organized on Sunday by the Canadian Space Agency. “We can’t wait to show more as we get closer to the Moon,” she added.
The four astronauts – three Americans and one Canadian – directly observed the hemisphere of the Moon that is constantly opposite to the Earth, with a panoramic view that provides better visibility than their predecessors from the Apollo program over fifty years ago. On this occasion, they were able to capture “lunar reliefs that the human eye had never seen before,” according to John Honeycutt, a senior NASA official speaking at a press conference. “Only images taken by robots had shown this region of the Moon,” giving a preview of what the crew will experience in the coming days.
Moon flyby scheduled for Monday
The Apollo flights passed at an altitude of 110 kilometers above the lunar surface, while Artemis 2 will maintain an altitude of about 6,400 kilometers, allowing the astronauts to have a broader view of the Moon’s surface, including the polar regions.
After a successful launch from Florida on Wednesday, the mission set its course for the Moon, located about 400,000 km from Earth, 1,000 times farther than the International Space Station (ISS). The mission is expected to fly over the Moon on Monday, a first in over half a century. “This morning, we saw the Earth halfway, then we saw it in its entirety, and then it disappeared,” while “the Moon grew,” described Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen. “It’s thrilling,” he added. “It’s our destination.”
The crew will not land on the Moon but will orbit it, passing behind its hidden face before returning to Earth, with a scheduled return on April 10. During this several-hour flyby, which will be the highlight of their mission, the team is expected to observe other unseen parts of the Moon and make valuable naked-eye observations. They have been trained for over two years to study and describe geological formations, with their notes and photographs expected to reveal more about the geology and history of our natural satellite.
Technological Miracle
The flyby will be broadcast live except for 40 minutes when communications will be cut-off as the spacecraft will be behind the Moon and unable to communicate with Earth. Through live YouTube feeds, photos taken with iPhones, and televised interviews from space, NASA aims to involve the public in this new lunar odyssey. The world has been able to observe from a distance the astronauts’ email and toilet problems, as well as their sports activities, wake-up music, and shared meals.
A technological miracle that amazes even the astronauts, as explained by Commander Reid Wiseman, who was able to speak with his daughters last Saturday, whom he has been raising alone since his wife’s passing in 2020: “We are up here, so far away, and yet for a moment, I reunited with my family, and it was the most beautiful moment of my life,” he emotionally shared.
During this test flight, the crew’s mission is to ensure that everything is in order to allow Americans to return to the lunar surface in the coming years to establish a lunar base and prepare for future missions to Mars. NASA aims for a landing in 2028, before the end of Donald Trump’s term and the date set by their Chinese rivals for a Moon landing. However, experts anticipate delays, as the lunar landers developed by billionaire companies Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are still not ready.
