science
NASA's Artemis II Mission Completes Lunar Flyby with New Photos and Scientific Observations
NASA's Artemis II mission involved four astronauts who orbited the Moon, capturing detailed images of its far side and witnessing a solar eclipse. The crew traveled farther from Earth than any humans since 1972 and conducted experiments on human biology in space. Newly released photos show hundreds of craters, some formed after the Apollo program ended.
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mission launched four astronauts—Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, Jeremy Hansen, and Victor Glover—on a 10-day journey that included a flyby of the Moon.
The mission marked the first crewed lunar orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972. The crew traveled approximately 240,000 miles from Earth, farther than any previous human spaceflight. m. Eastern time as it passed around the far side of the Moon.
During the mission, the astronauts captured photographs of the lunar surface, including close-ups of craters and basins on the far side. Some craters visible in the images formed since the Apollo program concluded in the 1970s.
“— Artemis II crew, during mission update (BBC News)”
Newly released photos from Artemis II, published by NASA and the White House, show hundreds of craters and basins on the Moon's far side with unprecedented detail. The images include views of a setting Earth and a solar eclipse observed by the crew.
The crew proposed naming new craters, including one after Carroll, the late wife of astronaut Reid Wiseman, who died in 2020. Astronaut Jeremy Hansen reported observing craters likely formed about 4 billion years ago during a period of asteroid bombardment affecting both Earth and the Moon.
The crew witnessed six meteorites colliding with the Moon, generating visible light from impacts. These observations provide data on lunar geology not previously documented in such detail from a crewed mission. A small experiment aboard Orion used bone marrow cells from the astronauts to study deep-space effects on human biology.
The cells, seeded in chips, orbited the Moon to analyze changes in immune function and other physiological responses. Results from this experiment could inform future long-duration missions.
