Florida: The Artemis II crew has begun its seven-hour flyby of the Moon, with astronauts observing the far side—an area never seen directly by humans.
The crew is working in shifts to carry out observations assigned by NASA’s science team. These include studying potential landing sites for future Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) missions, such as Reiner Gamma—a bright and mysterious lunar swirl whose origin remains unknown—and Glushko, a 27-mile-wide crater known for its bright streaks extending up to 500 miles.
NASA noted in a blog post that the crew has reported subtle colour variations on the Moon’s surface. These observations are expected to improve scientific understanding, as shades of brown and blue visible to the human eye can reveal details about mineral composition and the age of lunar features. Based on these reports, the science team is updating observation plans and sending revised guidance to the crew.
NASA astronaut Christina Koch shared that the Moon appears more brown than the white and grey tones typically seen from Earth.
“Something I just heard from the window team is, ‘the more I look at the Moon, the browner and browner it looks,’” she said.
Koch also described the appearance of certain craters:
“All the really bright, new craters—some of them are super tiny, most are pretty small—there’s a couple that really stand out. What it really looks like is a lampshade with tiny pinprick holes and light shining through.”
The Artemis II crew includes NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
The mission has also set a new record for the farthest distance travelled by humans from Earth, surpassing the Apollo 13 mission’s record of 248,655 miles. Artemis II reached a maximum distance of 252,752 miles from Earth at 1:57 pm EDT—about 4,102 miles farther than the 1970 record, according to NASA.
The Orion spacecraft carrying the crew is expected to reach its peak distance from Earth at 7:07 pm ET.
Artemis II marks a major step in NASA’s efforts to return humans to the Moon and advance future deep space exploration.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
