Four astronauts from the Artemis II mission are on their way to the Moon. On the fifth day of flight, their spacecraft Orion is gradually approaching the celestial body, with a flyby expected in the coming hours.
Unlike the iconic Apollo 11 mission, they will not land there. Their passage around the Moon, scheduled for a few hours, will mainly be an opportunity to observe it closely.
Despite the onboard technologies, the astronauts will primarily use their own eyes to study the lunar surface. From the capsule’s windows, they will observe, describe, and photograph visible features such as impact craters, ancient lava flows, fissures, and variations in texture and brightness, as explained by NASA on its blog. The crew members were trained for two years before the start of the Artemis II mission in geology to be able to identify these elements and draw clues about the composition and history of the Moon.
Their position will offer a unique perspective. From several thousand kilometers above the surface, they will see the entire lunar disk, including areas near the poles rarely observed under these conditions.
While this approach may seem rudimentary, it is valuable. The differences in color, brightness, or relief that the astronauts will discover with the naked eye will complement the data collected by scientific instruments. “The human eye is simply the best camera that has ever existed,” explained Kelsey Young, the scientific lead for the Artemis II mission. “The number of receptors in the iris far surpasses what a camera is capable of.”
During the flyby, they will also have to identify any flashes on the surface, signs of meteorite impacts, and take advantage of a rare phenomenon: a solar eclipse seen from space, when the Sun disappears behind the Moon.
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