ORLANDO, Florida – NASA’s Artemis II mission continues April 2nd wrapped theirs first day in space by testing the cameras they will use to capture spectacular images of the Earth as it slowly descends beneath them, hours before it leaves the Moon’s orbit.
“It’s like going back home, you’re trying to take a picture of the Moon. That’s what it feels like now when you’re trying to take a picture of Earth,” commander Reid Wiseman told mission control in Houston as he took pictures of his home planet with an iPhone.
More than 64,000 kilometers from Earth, where the planet looks like a shrinking sunlit globe, Mr Wiseman says taking photos from such a distance makes it difficult to adjust exposure settings on his GoPro and iPhone.
Mission expert Christina Koch described managing missions as “the beauty we see”.
“You can actually see the coastline of the continent, you can see the rivers because of the sun’s rays, you can see the big thunderclouds … and you can see the South Pole lit up. It’s amazing,” he said.
However, the project is not free of minor technical problems. There were problems with its toilet, as well as Mr. Wiseman’s first attempt to use Microsoft Outlook to check emails, both of which were fixed.
Astrology of the four stars of NASA’s Artemis II mission, which launched from Florida at 6.35pm ET on. April 1st (6.35am on 2 April, Singapore time)they have several different instruments on board to take pictures of space in their Orion capsule throughout the flight.
They include a small GoPro action camera, iPhones and professional Nikon cameras, the most popular model for NASA astronauts who have been using them on the International Space Station (ISS) for years.
The decision to equip crews with iPhones was made under NASA administrator Jared Isaacman, a billionaire astronaut who flew two private SpaceX Dragon missions and used the devices during his flights, NASA officials said.
NASA has not released any images taken by the crew so far, but expects to do so later in the mission after some critical moments. Among them is the much-anticipated “Earthrise” image, which resembles the famous photo taken by Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders in 1968 as his spacecraft orbited the Moon.
On the sixth day, scientists are expected to reach approx 400,000km from Earth, the furthest point ever flown by humans, when the planet will appear no bigger than a basketball on the far side of the Moon.
NASA’s Artemis II lunar mission takes off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 1.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The crew is now close to the orbital exit path that will push them out of Earth’s orbit and onto the Moon, starting at 7.49pm ET April 2ndan important part of their journey called a trans-lunar injection that includes a combination of thrusters and orbital mechanics of the Orion service.
On their first day in space, the astronauts completed the first mission of many experiments, including a demonstration of close proximity to the Orion guidance probe.
Shortly after the successful launch, Ms Koch alerted mission control in Houston of a flashing red light indicating a problem with Orion’s cabin, which sits in a small compartment inside the crew cabin, itself slightly larger than the interior of the shuttle.
The mission’s engineers applied the fix after a near-miss performance test, NASA said.
Space toilets are often not easy to use but are useful for long-duration missions, with very different designs.
On the ISS and Orion, scientists spend US$24 million (S$30 million) The Universal Waste Management System, which uses liquid to collect waste, recycles urine into water and traps solid waste in bags that end up in the jet.
The toilet has a specially shaped funnel and hose for urine and a stool. The fan and the chair can be used at the same time, to show ideas from female astronauts, NASA’s website shows.
In contrast, astronauts on the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s used rudimentary pouches attached to their bodies, stored in cabins or left on the Moon.
The Orion toilet is very similar to the standard design and is protected by a small door in another room.
It’s “the one place we can go during a mission where we can feel like we’re alone for a second”, Artemis II astronaut Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency said in a video. in 2025. Reuters
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