The last time astronauts had their eyes on the moon’s far side there were no digital cameras, no real time dialogue with scientists on the ground and no internet to send their conversations live around the globe. On Monday, the Artemis II mission offered something entirely new: planetary science as live theatre.
For about six hours, astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Jeremy Hansen provided detailed descriptions of what they were seeing as their space capsule, dubbed Integrity, made a flyby around the back of the moon.
The astronauts’ observing campaign, which was broadcast online, was the scientific climax of a mission intended to lay the groundwork for future moon landings and far more ambitious research projects to come.
After travelling deeper into space than any other humans, the Artemis II astronauts pointed their moonship toward home Monday night, wrapping up a lunar cruise that revealed views of the far side never beheld by eyes until now.
The Associated Press
Unlike lunar missions of old, the Artemis program has set things up so that, while the mission is under way, scientists are on hand in a newly designed facility called the Science Evaluation Room, adjacent to mission control. There researchers can take on board what they are hearing and help consult with and guide explorations.
“It’s so gratifying to see this operation structure come to fruition,” said Kelsey Young, the lunar science lead for Artemis II who was on the console from Houston for much of the observing.
How the Artemis II mission is rekindling humanity’s long love affair with the moon
By the time the lunar flyby was in progress, the crew was well into their fourth day in space after a Wednesday evening launch and an engine burn one day later that put them on course for the encounter.
Artemis II is a test flight, the first for the Orion crew capsule with people on board. The craft was designed to ferry humans to lunar space and also allow future crew to dock with landers, yet to be tested, that can take astronauts down to moon’s the surface.
But Monday was all about getting the most out a rare opportunity: the first time in more than 53 years that humans have seen the moon’s far side, including some areas that human eyes have never witnessed.
The four astronauts on board the Artemis II spoke with President Donald Trump on after their record-breaking trip around the moon.
The Associated Press
The point of the exercise was clear nearly as soon as mission’s observing campaign of lunar features began shortly after 2:30 p.m. ET on Monday.
While the moon has been mapped up close by orbiting satellites, planetary scientists still have many questions about its history. Astronaut observations can help address many of these because human eyes are responsive to subtle differences in colour and brightness that cameras can’t always see. In those differences may lie answers – as well as new questions – about lunar evolution.
The previous title was held by the Apollo 13 crew, who logged a maximum distance of 248,655 miles from Earth.
The Associated Press
Once observations were under way, the Artemis II astronauts took turns at the windows in pairs, working their way through a detailed list of targets. They took photos but also described aloud what they were seeing and conferred with scientists at the same time.
At one point, Ms. Koch could be heard describing the startling brightness of fresh craters seen against the dark lunar landscape.
“What it really looks like is like a lampshade with tiny pinprick holes and the light shining through. They are so bright compared to the rest of the moon,” she said.
Capt. Glover was also quite descriptive in his account, prompting Dr. Young to praise his evocative language.
A close-up view of the Vavilov Crater on the rim of the older and larger Hertzsprung basin of the Moon.Supplied/AFP/Getty Images
During the flyby interval, the crew spent about 40 minutes out of contact with mission control when the moon was blocking their radio signal.
It was also during this time that Integrity reached its nearest point to the moon, estimated at 6,545 kilometres from the moon’s surface.
The crew also set a new record for how far humans have travelled from Earth, with an expected maximum distance of 406,771 kilometres.
“We choose this moment to challenge this generation and the next to make sure this record is not long lived,” said Col. Hansen once Integrity has exceeded the previous distance record set by Apollo 13 astronauts in 1970.
Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen enjoys a shave inside the Orion spacecraft during Flight Day 5 and ahead of the crew's lunar flyby.The Associated Press
Toward the end of the flyby, the crew also observed a solar eclipse from space. Even from a small camera sitting on one of the spacecraft’s solar panels the eclipse was a spectacular and eerie sight for those watching live from Earth.
Aboard Integrity it was clearly much more, as the glow of Earth bathed part of the night portion of the moon during the eclipse.
Capt. Glover described the scene as “science fiction.”
“There are no adjectives to describe what we’re seeing out our window right now,” said Capt. Wiseman.
During the 53-minute eclipse, the crew was on the lookout for signs of dust lofted above the moon’s surface and backlit by the rising Earth in the distance.
The astronauts could also be heard reporting to scientists that they spotted at least four flashes that they thought were owing to meteorites explosively striking the moon’s darkened surface, much to scientists’ delight.
NASA astronaut Christina Koch peers out of one of the Orion spacecraft's main cabin windows, looking back at Earth on April 2.NASA/Reuters
Researchers’ aim is to have the same real-time communication stream running for a lunar landing, which could take place as early as 2028. That made Monday’s exercise a key test of the system as well as a genuine scientific opportunity.
“It’s something we’ve been working on for the first surface mission but seeing it in action on an actual mission is fantastic,” said Gordon Osinski, a planetary scientist at Western University in London, Ont., and a member of the Artemis program science team.
The encounter was called a lunar flyby because Integrity did not orbit the moon. Instead it continues to trace a figure-8 loop that took it around the moon where the collective gravitational pull of the Earth and moon together bent its course back toward home for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on Friday evening.
The crew will hold a debrief with researchers on Tuesday, but the real prize will come after Integrity returns and researchers can pore through the thousands of images that the astronauts are bringing back with them.
For scientists and for those watching as the flyby unfolded, the day’s events offered not only plenty of data, but the genuine drama of a live performance.