Artemis mission approaches lunar loop for first fly-by of Moon since 1972

HOUSTON – The Artemis II astronauts entered the final phase of their run-up to a lunar loop on April 6, a tipping point of sorts that means that the Moon’s gravity is now having a stronger pull on the spacecraft than Earth’s.

The Orion capsule will now whip around the Moon, setting the crew up to travel farther from our home planet than any human before.

The astronauts entered what NASA calls the lunar sphere of influence at about 0442 GMT (12.42pm Singapore time) on April 6, and will soon record the first lunar fly-by since 1972.

As they entered the Moon’s gravitational influence, the crew was about 63,000km from the Moon and about 373,368km from Earth, a NASA official said on the agency’s live streaming of the event.

The historic occasion comes alongside a constellation of firsts for the crew of three Americans and one Canadian.

Mr Victor Glover will go down in the books as the first person of colour to ever fly around the Moon, and Ms Christina Koch will be the first woman.

Canadian Jeremy Hansen, meanwhile, will become the first non-US citizen to accomplish the feat.

Those three, along with mission commander Reid Wiseman, will spend much of their lunar fly-by documenting the Moon.

The astronauts have already started seeing features of the celestial body never before viewed with the naked human eye.

In the wee hours of April 5, NASA published an image taken by the Artemis crew that showed a distant Moon with the Orientale basin visible.

“This mission marks the first time the entire basin has been seen with human eyes,” the US space agency said.

The massive crater, which resembles a bull’s-eye, had been photographed before by orbiting cameras.

Ms Koch, speaking to Canadian children live from space, said the crew was most excited to see the basin – sometimes known as the Moon’s “Grand Canyon”.

“It’s very distinctive and no human eyes previously had seen this crater until today, really, when we were privileged enough to see it,” Ms Koch said during the question-and-answer session hosted by the Canadian Space Agency.

Near the end of their fly-by, the astronauts will witness a solar eclipse, when the Sun will be behind the Moon and hidden from view aside from its outermost atmosphere, the solar corona.

The four astronauts will also spend some time testing their “Orion crew survival system” (OCSS) spacesuits.

The bright orange suits protect the crew during launch and re-entry, but are also available for emergency use – they can provide up to six days of breathable air. The astronauts are the first to wear the OCSS suits in space, and will test their functions, including how quickly they can put them on and pressurise them.

While the four astronauts will not touch down on the lunar surface, they are expected to break the record for the farthest distance from Earth during their pass around the Moon.

Over the next day, “they will be on the far side of the Moon, they will eclipse that record, and we’re going to learn an awful lot about the spacecraft”, NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said on April 5 during a televised interview with CNN.

The information will be “pretty paramount to set up for subsequent missions like Artemis III in 2027 and, of course, the lunar landing itself on Artemis IV in 2028”.

NASA said the Artemis crew members have completed a manual piloting demonstration and reviewed their lunar fly-by plan, including reviewing the surface features they must analyse and photograph during their time circling the Moon.

“We’re focusing very much on the ecosystem, the life support system of the spacecraft,” Mr Isaacman told CNN.

“This is the first time astronauts have ever flown on this spacecraft before,” he said. “That’s what we’re most interested in getting data from.” AFP