Why Artemis II Is Taking Us Back to the Moon
NASA's Artemis program is looking to the Moon—and beyond.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Media Editor:
Lee Goldstein
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© Ruben Duro/Science SourceA light micrograph is used to capture footage of the tiny tardigrade, or water bear.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.The S wave
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Overview of water moving through the hydrologic cycle, or water cycle: it evaporates from Earth's surface as water vapor, which condenses in the atmosphere, forming clouds and precipitation, which falls to the land and flows through lakes, rivers, and oceans, from which water evaporates as the cycle repeats.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.It's a total eclipse of the Moon.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.A solar eclipse is a celestial phenomenon occurring when the Moon appears to block out the Sun.
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© American Chemical Society (A Britannica Publishing Partner)What does outer space smell like? Learn about some reported smells of outer space and the chemical causes of these.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.An overview of spatial relationships between the Sun, the Moon, and Earth during eclipses of the Sun and the Moon.
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Transcript
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Artemis two is just really cool. It's a very big deal. I don't know how you're gonna work that in, but Artem is two is our first crewed flight test of NASA's Artemis campaign. So we had Artemis one a couple of years ago. Artemis one was an incredible mission, extremely successful, but there were no humans on board.
We had a couple of mannequins on board, and they helped collect data about radiation and vibration inside of the cabin. But it's a very different thing entirely when there are actual human beings on board. The main objective of the Artemis two mission is to evaluate the crewed performance of the deep space exploration system, and so a huge part of the mission is really evaluating the critical life support systems aboard Orion in order to help prepare us for future Artemis missions that will eventually land people on the moon.
We have eye on the horizon for human Martian missions, and so all of the data that we collect during this mission will help prepare us for that eventual giant leap to Mars. About 20m off the surface, there are four astronauts flying aboard Artemis two. Three NASA astronauts. And there is one Canadian Space Agency astronaut.
The spacecraft has a habitable cubic volume of 330 cubic feet. So that's four people and about two minivans of space. So it's a little cramped, I think. Like, pretty much every minute of their schedule is accounted for. Artemis two will be about ten days. We have maneuvers that get the spacecraft on the path, the trajectory it needs to be on.
We also have demonstrations aboard the mission. During the lunar flyby, the astronauts will be making lunar observations. Of course, they need time to eat, to rest, to exercise. Being in weightlessness, it affects bone density and muscle mass. So it's very important that they all exercise every day.
And of course, we have time for them to just relax, right? It's been over 50 years since we've sent human beings to the vicinity of the moon. There's a lot of differences between now and then. NASA had Apollo missions from 1969 to 1972, and these missions all landed within the equatorial region of the moon, which means like the center of the moon.
The moon's equator. The Artemis missions will land astronauts in the lunar south pole region of the moon, and the objective is pretty different. With the Apollo missions, we went and we came back. We collected samples. We picked up rocks and soil. We left behind footprints at lunar rovers. But the difference with Artemis missions is that we're really trying to live and work on the moon and build a lunar presence there.
We're actually flying around the moon in a totally different way than we did with the Apollo missions. The way that Artemis two flies around the moon. We will actually have our astronauts seeing parts of the moon that have never been seen before. With human eyes. We've imaged every square inch of the moon, but it's a totally different thing.
Eyes are a lot more sensitive to things like shade and tone and color and texture. And so these things can help inform lunar geologists. Back on Earth, the mission will actually be taking the astronauts into deep space. So when they fly around the moon, they're flying well beyond the moon, and they're flying deeper into space than perhaps we ever have before.
We actually set the record for how far human beings have flown away from the Earth during the Apollo 13 mission. Depending on when we launch, those astronauts on Artemis two might be breaking that record as we send astronauts into deep space. During this mission, we want to monitor how the deep space environment affects the human body and performance.
And the goal, again, as I said, is to help us prepare for future crewed missions to Mars. So all of these long duration missions, these spaceflights, help us collect data on what will be the best way for us to eventually send people to Mars, which is, by the way, a lot farther away from Earth than the moon. So everything we can do now prepares us for the future.
Artemis two is just really cool. It's a very big deal. I don't know how you're gonna work that in, but Artem is two is our first crewed flight test of NASA's Artemis campaign. So we had Artemis one a couple of years ago. Artemis one was an incredible mission, extremely successful, but there were no humans on board.
We had a couple of mannequins on board, and they helped collect data about radiation and vibration inside of the cabin. But it's a very different thing entirely when there are actual human beings on board. The main objective of the Artemis two mission is to evaluate the crewed performance of the deep space exploration system, and so a huge part of the mission is really evaluating the critical life support systems aboard Orion in order to help prepare us for future Artemis missions that will eventually land people on the moon.
We have eye on the horizon for human Martian missions, and so all of the data that we collect during this mission will help prepare us for that eventual giant leap to Mars. About 20m off the surface, there are four astronauts flying aboard Artemis two. Three NASA astronauts. And there is one Canadian Space Agency astronaut.
The spacecraft has a habitable cubic volume of 330 cubic feet. So that's four people and about two minivans of space. So it's a little cramped, I think. Like, pretty much every minute of their schedule is accounted for. Artemis two will be about ten days. We have maneuvers that get the spacecraft on the path, the trajectory it needs to be on.
We also have demonstrations aboard the mission. During the lunar flyby, the astronauts will be making lunar observations. Of course, they need time to eat, to rest, to exercise. Being in weightlessness, it affects bone density and muscle mass. So it's very important that they all exercise every day.
And of course, we have time for them to just relax, right? It's been over 50 years since we've sent human beings to the vicinity of the moon. There's a lot of differences between now and then. NASA had Apollo missions from 1969 to 1972, and these missions all landed within the equatorial region of the moon, which means like the center of the moon.
The moon's equator. The Artemis missions will land astronauts in the lunar south pole region of the moon, and the objective is pretty different. With the Apollo missions, we went and we came back. We collected samples. We picked up rocks and soil. We left behind footprints at lunar rovers. But the difference with Artemis missions is that we're really trying to live and work on the moon and build a lunar presence there.
We're actually flying around the moon in a totally different way than we did with the Apollo missions. The way that Artemis two flies around the moon. We will actually have our astronauts seeing parts of the moon that have never been seen before. With human eyes. We've imaged every square inch of the moon, but it's a totally different thing.
Eyes are a lot more sensitive to things like shade and tone and color and texture. And so these things can help inform lunar geologists. Back on Earth, the mission will actually be taking the astronauts into deep space. So when they fly around the moon, they're flying well beyond the moon, and they're flying deeper into space than perhaps we ever have before.
We actually set the record for how far human beings have flown away from the Earth during the Apollo 13 mission. Depending on when we launch, those astronauts on Artemis two might be breaking that record as we send astronauts into deep space. During this mission, we want to monitor how the deep space environment affects the human body and performance.
And the goal, again, as I said, is to help us prepare for future crewed missions to Mars. So all of these long duration missions, these spaceflights, help us collect data on what will be the best way for us to eventually send people to Mars, which is, by the way, a lot farther away from Earth than the moon. So everything we can do now prepares us for the future.
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