Artemis (NASA moon mission)

I've beaked about the production quality of the launch broadcast. You might think I can't be impressed by anything low-res. Of course, that's not the case:

Artemis I Earth-moon transit

Wow!

I've never seen that before, and neither have you (not counting if you viewed it earlier today ;) )! We know from physics and common navigation (even here on Earth) that at some point, transits have to happen... we just don't often get to see this particular one!


Thank you for this. Somehow it's rather moving. I suspect the music they've chosen helps.

The moon somehow doesn't look like the moon, because I (and everyone else on the planet) am not used to seeing that side of it.
 
I've beaked about the production quality of the launch broadcast. You might think I can't be impressed by anything low-res. Of course, that's not the case:

Artemis I Earth-moon transit

I wonder why it seems to be pulsating or throbbing? (growing and shrinking in size) I get that it's a time lapse. Did the zoom change as it was happening?

It's very cool nevertheless, but would be even cooler if it were smooth.

Reminds me of something that was filmed in a desert or hot summer day through hot rising air, but I know that can't be it because it's in the vacuum of space.
 
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I wonder why it seems to be pulsating or throbbing? (growing and shrinking in size) I get that it's a time lapse. Did the zoom change as it was happening?

It's very cool nevertheless, but would be even cooler if it were smooth.

Reminds me of something that was filmed in a desert or hot summer day through hot rising air, but I know that can't be it because it's in the vacuum of space.
My guess is that it is because the camera is mounted on the end of a solar panel wing which moves and flexes.

Someone could process the video to remove the "throbbing." It isn't a lot of frames so it might be something someone with a bit of free time could do manually frame -by-frame.

Not me!
 
I don't think anything makes me feel more insignificant and vulnerable as viewing Earth from space.
 
The NASA stream just ended right as the mission was handed off to the "recovery team." The team that's actually going to pull it out of the water. Anyone know if there's a way to watch that live?
 
BTW, it was explained earlier that they are leaving the capsule in the water longer than they will in later missions so they can perform some tests. They are doing things like determining how well and low long the cooling system would keep the crew comfortable.

They also said that NASA hasn't decided yet if the astronauts will remain in the capsule until it is lifted onto the recovery ship or if they will exit while it is still in the water. The astronaut in that discussion made it clear that her preference would be to get out as soon as possible. Watching it bounce around in the relatively calm waters right now, I see her point.
 
BTW, it was explained earlier that they are leaving the capsule in the water longer than they will in later missions so they can perform some tests. They are doing things like determining how well and low long the cooling system would keep the crew comfortable.

They also said that NASA hasn't decided yet if the astronauts will remain in the capsule until it is lifted onto the recovery ship or if they will exit while it is still in the water. The astronaut in that discussion made it clear that her preference would be to get out as soon as possible. Watching it bounce around in the relatively calm waters right now, I see her point.

I heard the part about the extended recovery time here for testing/documentation, but not that the crew extraction timeline is still in flux for future missions. Yeah, I gotta imagine that after that ride, I'd want out right away:)
 
I heard the part about the extended recovery time here for testing/documentation, but not that the crew extraction timeline is still in flux for future missions. Yeah, I gotta imagine that after that ride, I'd want out right away:)

"I love you guys, and it's been fun, but I need some 'me' time, if you don't mind."
 
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Well, the capsule is finally out of the water and onto a ship. I thought it would be picked up by a helicopter, not pulled into the hull of a ship. Thanks jadebox for the KSC link.
 
Well, the capsule is finally out of the water and onto a ship. I thought it would be picked up by a helicopter, not pulled into the hull of a ship. Thanks jadebox for the KSC link.
Wasn't that exciting? I should have made popcorn! :-)

Remembering Apollo, I was expecting them to use a helicopter also.

When I was a kid, we lived near Eglin AFB in Florida. When we visited the base swimming area, we could see a barge with an Apollo capsule on it docked near by. We even saw it being towed out into the ocean once or twice. It was used for training the crews that recovered the capsules. The boilerplate capsule is now on display near the building where I later worked on-base.
 
Wasn't that exciting? I should have made popcorn! :-)

Remembering Apollo, I was expecting them to use a helicopter also.

When I was a kid, we lived near Eglin AFB in Florida. When we visited the base swimming area, we could see a barge with an Apollo capsule on it docked near by. We even saw it being towed out into the ocean once or twice. It was used for training the crews that recovered the capsules. The boilerplate capsule is now on display near the building where I later worked on-base.

That's pretty cool! I live in Lancaster, Ca. We used to have a capsule on display outdoors at a local "Apollo Park". It got taken away a while ago to a museum.

This article talks about it: https://www.presstelegram.com/2011/02/16/space-capsule-makes-re-entry/
 
Today NASA announced the crew of the Artemis 2 mission, which will be taking them to lunar orbit and back (analogous to Apollo 8 and 10).

The crew assignments are as follows: Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist 1 Christina Hammock Koch, and Mission Specialist 2 Jeremy Hansen. They will work as a team to execute an ambitious set of demonstrations during the flight test.

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This will be Wiseman’s second trip into space, serving previously as a flight engineer aboard the International Station for Expedition 41 from May through November 2014. Wiseman has logged more than 165 days in space, including almost 13 hours as lead spacewalker during two trips outside the orbital complex. Prior to his assignment, Wiseman served as chief of the Astronaut Office from December 2020 until November 2022.

The mission will be Glover’s second spaceflight, serving previously as pilot on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1, which landed May 2, 2021, after 168 days in space. As a flight engineer aboard the space station for Expedition 64, he contributed to scientific investigations, technology demonstrations, and participated in four spacewalks.

Koch also will be making her second flight into space on the Artemis II mission. She served as flight engineer aboard the space station for Expedition 59, 60, and 61. Koch set a record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman with a total of 328 days in space and participated in the first all-female spacewalks.

Representing Canada, Hansen is making his first flight to space. A colonel in the Canadian Armed Forces and former fighter pilot, Hansen holds a Bachelor of Science in space science from Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario, and a Master of Science in physics from the same institution in 2000, with a research focus on Wide Field of View Satellite Tracking. He was one of two recruits selected by CSA in May 2009 through the third Canadian Astronaut Recruitment Campaign and has served as Capcom in NASA's Mission Control Center at Johnson and, in 2017, became the first Canadian to be entrusted with leading a NASA astronaut class, leading the training of astronaut candidates from the United States and Canada.
 
I would have thought that they could send a probe or two or maybe a test lander to the Moon.

They already flew an uncrewed Artemis mission around the moon, now they're going to do it again with a crewed mission. They don't need a test lander before this mission as it's not going to land on the moon.
 
NASA has stopped putting off the budget question

I think Artemis 2 is safe, and Artemis 3 is probably safe, unless the program budget is deliberately set on fire by someone in Congress; but anything after that isn't likely to happen unless NASA can find some reasonable cost savings. They seem to have started the beginnings of a plan for this, but they don't have forever and it's not a sure thing whether they'll be able to find ENOUGH to save for the program to remain viable after a couple more missions.
 

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