The launch date of Artemix II for a 4 astronaut flyby of the moon is planned for September of next year (2025).
Do you think NASA will be able to make this date? (https://www.nasa.gov/event/artemis-ii-launch/)
It’s a very exciting time to see something like this, something humans haven’t done for 50 years.
And as a matter of historical significance, this will be the furthest humans have ever travelled from Earth. We’ve existed for 300,000 years (homo sapiens), and no human has ever gone as far from this rock as these 4 people are about to do.
No, I think they’ll have another delay. It seems like everything is endlessly delayed these days.
I don’t really get the bit about this being the furthest we’ve traveled. We’ve sent people to the Moon before. Isn’t this mission doing the same thing?
The furthest we’ve traveled milestone is not really worth mentioning for Artemis III. Sure they will be granted a Guinness book of world records entry for beating Apollo 13’s record by a smidge. However, it is one of the least significant accomplishments they will have on this epic journey.
A smidge is right. It sounds like they’re going 10,000km away from the far side of the Moon. To compare, the Moon’s average distance is 385,000km, so they’ll actually be 395,000km away?
Except that’s probably off by a few thousand km; the 385,000 figure is the average distance from the center of the Earth to the center of the Moon. Meh, correcting for center vs. radius is starting to sound like homework, so this will have to be “close enough for a Lemmy comment” :)
Edit: OP posted another article in a comment; Artemis II will actually be 432,194km away. Sounds like “a smidge” is about 10% of the distance in this case!
The Artemis 2 crew will come within 6,479 miles (10,427 kilometers) of the lunar surface and travel 6,400 miles (10,300 km) beyond the far side of the moon. From this vantage point — farther than any humans have ever traveled into deep space — they will be able to see both Earth and the moon from Orion’s windows.3 Apr 2023
I don’t know the reason why the distance is further but I would imagine it is intentional to increase speed or some other technical reason.
Actually since they are further away from the moon, they’ll most likely be moving slower (relative to the moon). Higher orbit = slower travel.
Ah, you know your orbital mechanics :D
I did some looking and found this question on Stackexchange. The diagram was super helpful for me – it’s pretty intuitive to see where the mission is going.
Also, thanks for posting that article! It had a reference to http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-112622a-artemis-i-breaks-apollo-13-distance-earth-record.html which cited the actual records (talking about Artemis I, not II):
The uncrewed Orion flew past the record-setting distance achieved by the Apollo 13 command module “Odyssey” at 248,655 miles from Earth (216,075 nautical miles or 400,171 kilometers) at about 8:40 a.m. EST (1340 GMT) on Saturday (Nov. 26).
The Apollo 13 spacecraft had previously set the record on April 14, 1970, at 7:21 p.m. EST (0021 GMT on April 15).
…
NASA expects the Artemis I capsule to reach a maximum distance from Earth of 268,553 miles (432,194 km) at 4:06 p.m. EST (2106 GMT) on Monday (Nov. 28).
So they’re actually going 32,000km past the previous record. It’s interesting that they’re using such a far-flung lunar orbit.
I don’t know the reason why the distance is further but I would imagine it is intentional to increase speed or some other technical reason.
Aren’t they going further out for a more efficient insertion into the Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit which Lunar Gateway will be in?
I’m cautiously optimistic. But anything can happen after the election it feels like…
Honestly I think that’s almost a good thing for space exploration. It’s a non political issue in that both parties want to be seen as pioneers in space.
Fiscal conservative republicans were a bit against NASA spending but now that private companies have there fingers in the pot at least now everyone is on board, lol.
And what’s the purpose of just orbiting the moon with people on board?
I get why Apollo did it, but isn’t this a fully automated system now?
(This isn’t a criticism, I really don’t know much about Artemis).
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/artemis-i-map-2/
Here is the official plan if it helps explain what all is part of the mission.
Thanks.
That seems to say the moon orbit mission will be uncrewed. That makes more sense.
that was Artemis I and it’s flightplan. That already launched and returned in 2022.
Artemis II is the manned flyby of the moon, they want to make sure everything goes ok before adding a landing sequence.
Artemis III (right now scheduled for 2025, but will likely be later) will be 4 humans walking on the moon.
Artemis III (right now scheduled for 2025, but will likely be later)
It will be later. NET 2026: https://sh.itjust.works/post/12485968
Artemis III will be 4 humans walking on the moon.
2 humans walking on the moon, 2 humans chilling out in Lunar Gateway watching their friends bounce around on the surface.
Oh I just noticed I posted the link for mission 1 as the other person caught. Here is the flight path for 2. https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/artemis-ii-map-2/
