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Majestic photos of Earth juxtaposed against the Moon, as seen from Artemis II, are sure to become iconic portraits of our home planet. Our photo team stayed up late last night hoping for these first images , but we only spotted glimpses on the tablet of commander Reid Wiseman on the mission's livestream. Now they are here to marvel at. See more on NASA’s free image repository on Flickr. (NASA)
Backstory: from the Nature reporter’s perspective Here at mission control, reporters and VIPs are flooding the humid, grassy campus of the Johnson Space Center in Houston. (I’ve also spotted deer and possums ambling around.) Everywhere you look there are images — including life-sized cutouts — of the four Artemis II astronauts: Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen. The sound of the mission’s livestreamed audio echoes through the lobby of the giant auditorium, where media are staked out below a giant mural of space shuttles and space stations. After all the years building up to this flight, to the return of humans to the Moon, I’m almost surprised by how well the mission has been going. Apart from some minor glitches, like the infamous space toilet that was “no-go” for a while, the flight has proceeded remarkably smoothly. It almost belies the enormous technical challenges of designing and building the rocket and capsule that ultimately took these four souls around the Moon. Science is not the main point of Artemis II. But as several scientists with the mission pointed out to me this week, the voices of the astronauts soar with joy when they talk about observing the Moon, the Sun and the stars. Pilot Victor Glover is turning out to be something of the poet of the mission, waxing eloquent on the “magic” he sees in lunar features, such as the illuminated mountains he calls “islands of light”. Amidst the chaos and fighting that reigns these days across much of planet Earth, Artemis II is turning out to be the respite we all needed.
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I watched the Orion capsule make its swing around the Moon from the ‘Science Evaluation Room’, a brand-new workspace in the main mission control building. The Artemis II crew were in constant contact with the scientific team on Earth, describing their observations — both objective and emotional — and batting questions back and forth about what they were seeing. I captured some of the key moments on Nature’s live blog; here are two of my most memorable:
• Audible gasps among the science team as the astronauts reported seeing green and brown colours on the Moon. “The more I look at the Moon, the browner and browner it looks,” one of the astronauts said. Detecting colour differences was one of the science team’s main goals.
• They saw impact flashes! These bursts of light happen when tiny meteorites hit the lunar surface. Mission scientists were hoping the astronauts would spot some, but couldn’t be sure. Artemis II’s science officer Kelsey Young put her hand up to her head in awe in mission control on hearing that they had.
Nature live blog | Leisurely scroll
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Lunar scientists, in particular, were eager to discover what the astronauts observe as the first people to see much of the far side of the Moon with the naked eye. (Apollo astronauts travelled too close to the surface to get a wide view, and it was dark.) The far side of the Moon is markedly different to its near side, with far fewer vast lava flows, a thicker crust and many more impact craters. At the top of many researchers’ lists is the Orientale basin — a huge, multi-ringed impact basin in the Moon’s southern hemisphere. Orientale “holds a lot of importance in understanding impact cratering across the Solar System”, says science officer Kelsey Young.
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