A visual guide to Artemis II and previous missions to the moon

Monday, April 6, 2026, is 1 of the astir important days for quality spaceflight successful much than 50 years.

At 13:56 EDT (17:56 GMT) Artemis II ngo is expected to interruption the grounds for the farthest region humans person travelled from Earth, primitively acceptable by Apollo 13 astatine 400,171km (248,655 miles).

The unit is expected to yet scope a maximum region of 406,773 km (252,760 miles) from Earth astatine 19:07 EDT (23:07 GMT) arsenic they execute a lunar flyby aboard the Orion spacecraft. This means Artemis II volition question astir 6,602km (4,105 miles) further into abstraction than immoderate quality successful history.

What is NASA’s Artemis programme?

The Artemis programme is NASA’s multi-decade ngo to instrumentality men and women to the satellite for the archetypal clip since 1972, found a semipermanent basal determination and yet alteration aboriginal missions to Mars by crews.

The programme is presently divided into 5 missions: Artemis I, II, III, IV and V.

Artemis I was the inaugural uncrewed trial flight, which launched connected November 16, 2022, and lasted 25 days. It successfully placed the Orion spacecraft into Earth’s orbit and provided important information for Artemis II.

What is Artemis II and erstwhile did it launch?

Artemis II is the archetypal quality ngo of the Artemis programme.

On April 1 astatine 18:35 EDT (22:35 GMT), the ngo lifted disconnected from the Kennedy Space Centre successful Florida, carrying 4 astronauts for the 10-day mission.

(Al Jazeera)

Who are the Artemis II astronauts?

The 4 astronauts onboard are:

• Reid Wiseman, 50, commander: The NASA seasoned and erstwhile International Space Station commandant is starring the Artemis II mission. The trial pilot-turned-astronaut has enactment and heavy spaceflight experience.
• Victor Glover, 49, pilot: The US Navy aviator is the archetypal Black astronaut assigned to a lunar ngo and flew connected SpaceX Crew-1.
• Christina Koch, 47, ngo specialist: The grounds holder for the longest azygous spaceflight by a pistillate astatine 328 days is simply a seasoned of aggregate spacewalks and has technological and deep-space ngo expertise.
• Jeremy Hansen, 50, ngo specialist: The archetypal Canadian acceptable to question to the satellite is simply a erstwhile combatant aviator and represents planetary collaboration successful heavy abstraction exploration.

(Al Jazeera)

What volition the astronauts do?

The Artemis II astronauts volition verify that the spacecraft and its life-support systems are acceptable for deep-space missions by manually flying astatine times, overseeing automated systems and investigating cardinal functions specified arsenic propulsion, power, thermal control, navigation and proximity operations.

They volition besides behaviour technological investigations connected lunar observations and quality wellness successful space, portion rehearsing captious steps specified arsenic people changes, long-distance communications and managing re-entry and splashdown to show Orion’s readiness for aboriginal missions.

Taking photographs is 1 of the different things the astronauts volition beryllium doing a batch of.

On April 2, Commander Reid Wiseman captured a photograph of Earth from Orion, which has been dubbed “Hello, World”. Because the spacecraft is rotated astir 180 degrees from the accustomed “north-up” orientation, Earth appears upside down.

The photograph captures:

• The Northern and Southern Aurora Lights with their vivid greenish lights.
• The nighttime lights from assorted cities crossed Africa, Europe and South America.
• A faint spot of zodiacal airy arsenic the Earth eclipses the sun.

(Al Jazeera)

What are the astronauts eating onboard?

NASA accidental the Artemis II unit volition devour from a fixed paper of 189 shelf‑stable items, including drinks, tortillas, nuts, main dishes specified arsenic beef brisket and macaroni and cheese, arsenic good arsenic desserts specified arsenic cookies and chocolate, designed to conscionable nutritional and hydration needs connected a no‑resupply lunar mission.

Because Orion has nary fridge oregon late‑load capability, lone ready‑to‑eat oregon rehydratable foods tin fly, which the unit volition rehydrate with a h2o dispenser, lukewarm successful a tiny heater, and support crumb‑free for information successful microgravity.

When volition the astronauts return?

NASA’s Artemis II ngo is planned to onshore successful the Pacific water adjacent San Diego astatine astir 20:07 EDT connected Friday, April 10 (0:00 GMT, Saturday, April 11). After splashdown, helicopters volition prime up the unit to get aesculapian checkups aboard the USS John P Murtha. Then they’ll measurement ashore and committee a level to NASA’s Johnson Space Centre successful Houston.

How large is the satellite and however acold distant is it?

The mean region betwixt the Earth and the satellite is astir 384,400km (238,855 miles), akin to circling Earth’s equator astir 10 times.

Earth is astir 3.7 times the width of the moon. To enactment that successful perspective, if the Earth were a basketball, the satellite would beryllium the size of a tennis ball.

Because the satellite has virtually nary ambiance to clasp vigor oregon circulate it, the somesthesia connected the aboveground fluctuates drastically from nighttime to day. Its somesthesia ranges from -173C (-180F) astatine nighttime to 127C (260F) during the day, making it overmuch colder than anyplace connected Earth astatine nighttime and hotter than boiling h2o during the day.

Because of its little mass, the moon’s aboveground gravity is astir one‑sixth that of Earth (16-17 percent), truthful a idiosyncratic with a wide of 60kg (132lbs) would measurement astir the aforesaid arsenic a 10kg (22lbs) wide connected Earth.

(Al Jazeera)

How galore satellite missions person determination been?

Between 1961 and 1972, NASA ran the Apollo satellite programme. Its 33 missions included 11 crewed and 22 uncrewed.

The astir notable was Apollo 11, which carried Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin who became the archetypal men to locomotion connected the Moon connected July 20, 1969.

Six palmy satellite landings followed: Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17.

The past radical to locomotion connected the lunar aboveground were Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt, with their 3rd and last moonwalk connected December 14, 1972, arsenic portion of the Apollo 17 mission.

In Greek mythology, Artemis is the duplicate sister of Apollo and the goddess of the moon. The sanction symbolises the programme’s transportation to the archetypal Apollo lunar missions.

(Al Jazeera)

Some different notable missions from different countries include:

Luna 9 (USSR, 1966): The archetypal spacecraft to soft-land and nonstop images from the moon, highlighting the USSR’s aboriginal pb and increasing contention with the US.

Chang’e 4 (China, 2019): The archetypal brushed landing and rover connected the moon’s acold broadside tested relay links, precision landing and rover operations.

Chandrayaan-3 (India, 2023): The archetypal palmy brushed landing adjacent the moon’s southbound polar region, making India the archetypal to scope it.

The southbound rod contains heavy craters that person not seen sunlight for billions of years. Temperatures determination tin driblet to -230C (-382F), allowing h2o crystal to stay stable.

How galore astronauts person walked the moon?

Twelve US astronauts person walked connected the moon, each during NASA’s Apollo programme (1969–1972):

• Apollo 11 (1969) – Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin: First humans connected the moon.
• Apollo 12 (1969) – Charles “Pete” Conrad, Alan Bean: Precision landing adjacent Surveyor 3 probe.
• Apollo 14 (1971) – Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell: Shepard famously deed play balls connected the Moon.
• Apollo 15 (1971) – David Scott, James Irwin: First usage of the lunar rover; focused connected geology.
• Apollo 16 (1972) – John Young, Charles Duke: Explored the lunar highlands.
• Apollo 17 (1972) – Eugene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt: Last Moonwalkers; Schmitt was the lone nonrecreational geologist to locomotion connected the moon.

(Al Jazeera)

Why is NASA going backmost to the moon?

The ngo reflects broader semipermanent goals. NASA plans to found a sustained quality beingness connected and astir the moon, peculiarly adjacent the lunar southbound pole, wherever h2o successful the signifier of crystal is believed to be.

This is seen arsenic a stepping chromatic towards aboriginal quality missions to Mars. At the aforesaid time, Artemis is unfolding wrong a wider geopolitical discourse arsenic the United States seeks to support enactment successful abstraction exploration amid increasing competition, peculiarly from China.

When are the adjacent Artemis missions?

Artemis III – 2027
NASA precocious overhauled the ngo illustration of Artemis III. The mission, scheduled for adjacent year, volition nary longer onshore connected the satellite but alternatively nonstop a unit into debased Earth orbit, wherever it volition trial integrated operations betwixt the Orion spacecraft and 1 oregon some commercialized landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin.

Artemis IV – aboriginal 2028
The ngo is owed to beryllium the archetypal crewed lunar landing since Apollo 17. NASA plans to nonstop its unit into lunar orbit and 2 astronauts down to the lunar southbound pole.

Artemis V – precocious 2028
With this mission, NASA plans a 2nd crewed lunar landing and the commencement of a lunar base.