Humans have officially gone farther into space than ever before. The record was previously set by Apollo 13 in 1970.
The crew aboard NASA’s Artemis II mission looped around the dark side of the moon and is headed back to Earth. While in space, astronauts aboard Artemis II viewed parts of the lunar surface never seen before with human eyes. They’re expected to splash down off the coast of San Diego on Friday morning.
While in space, astronauts aboard Artemis II viewed parts of the lunar surface never seen before with human eyes.
Cady Coleman, a former NASA astronaut and retired colonel in the U.S. Air Force, served as a mission specialist on two Space Shuttle missions. She said the Artemis II mission is a vital step in the ‘relay race’ of space travel innovation.
“ This is Artemis II, and right on the heels of that comes Artemis III and IV,” Coleman said. “The Artemis III mission, it’s like they’re waiting on the starting line with their hand in back of them waiting for the baton, and the baton is about to land. So it’s a very exciting time.”
3 questions with Cady Coleman
How does Artemis II clear the path for future lunar missions?
“The technical: ‘OK, what do we need to know before we can go further?’ And so they tested the spacecraft right after they ejected the last stage, the upper stage. In order to really understand how that thing works — that Orion capsule, you know, how it flies — you have to have something close by to see if you speed up, and then you come back. What response do you get? And also importantly, how does that feel compared to the simulators that you’ve been using? So this allows everybody to be having a more realistic expectation of how the capsule flies for future rendezvous.
“ But then there’s the wonder and inspiration. And I think that by being so personal on this mission, by sharing so much of themselves, [the crew has] brought so many people with them, and they do it in a very intentional way, like, we know you are there. We know you want to be with us, and we are taking you.
“I just so admire that. And I think that opens up the door for everybody to realize that home is bigger than we thought, and the moon is part of it.”
The crew on Artemis II took geological observations, noting color changes on the lunar surface. What do those observations tell us?
“The big thing is, it is more than what a satellite taking photos can tell them, and it is because the human eye, apparently, can just see color and see differences in light in a different way than the best cameras that we have right now.
“The Apollo missions did get to see some of the dark side of the moon, but probably a third of it or so. They were about 70 miles from the surface, maybe 100, whereas these folks were 4,000. So they’re seeing sort of the whole playing field, and they get to see not just this crater, but its neighbor and how high is that ridge next to it.
“There are many, many tiny little craters, and the tops of them are very bright, and so it’s almost like a lampshade, you know, with little pinpricks of light.”
What are your hopes and predictions for what else is possible for space travel in our lifetimes?
“ I also lived for almost six months up on the space station, which, you know, paves the way for things like this, and the fact that they’ve gone farther, it is literally meaning, ‘OK, we’re trying to go farther and farther from our planet. And they have done that, and they have gone farther than anyone has been in 50-something years.
“It is about the fact that we are exploring and no one can hold — and I don’t mean NASA, I mean everyone — from this planet exploring together.”
This interview was edited for clarity.
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Hafsa Quraishi produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Catherine Welch. Grace Griffin produced it for the web.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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