Artemis II Astronauts Enters The Moon’s “Sphere Of Influence”
Credit: NASA
Four astronauts on NASA’s Artemis II mission have entered the Moon’s “sphere of influence,” where its gravity exerts a stronger pull on the spacecraft than Earth’s.
This boundary, as NBC News explains, is arbitrary and won’t be physically felt by the expedition members. Importantly, this barrier was crossed for the first time by humans since 1972, when the Apollo 17 mission to the Moon was launched. A photo of our planet taken by Artemis II astronauts on Sunday from the Orion spacecraft’s window shows that it is quite far from Earth. By Monday evening, the astronauts will have traveled 406,778 km from their home planet during their current mission—the greatest distance in the history of space exploration, as the crew of Apollo 13 managed to travel 400,171 km from Earth in the last century.
During the flight, which will last approximately six hours, the crew will be required to observe the celestial body with the naked eye, as well as using the cameras they have on board.
One of the study sites will be the so-called Orientale Mare, a large crater 966 km in diameter and estimated to be 3.8 billion years old. The slightly smaller Hertzsprung crater will also be visually examined by astronauts during the Artemis II mission. Comparing images of the two craters should help scientists better understand how the Moon’s topography has changed over time. A specially developed program will guide the astronauts in the optimal algorithm for collecting photographic data. However, NASA representatives maintain that the expedition members reserve the right to deviate from the intensive research program if they discover anything extraordinary.
