Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, along with NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch have made it safely home after an incredible and historic trip around the moon.
The group set the record for the farthest any humans have travelled at 406,771 kilometres, beating Apollo 13’s record of 400,171 kilometres set in 1970.
While their trip looked like fun during the numerous news conferences and videos we saw, the four were hard at work with scientific observations, medical experiments and exercise.
It’s important to remember that this was a test mission. Artemis II was the first time astronauts tested out the Orion spacecraft and its capabilities. Here are some of the highlights from this historic mission.
Toilet issues
Everybody poops. But pooping in space, in zero gravity where everything floats, is a bit trickier.
Unfortunately, the new toilet — sorry, the Universal Waste Management System — had some hiccups.
Within an hour of liftoff, Koch reported back to mission control in Houston that there was an issue with it. It took a few hours to fix it — with Koch essentially rebooting the toilet — and all seemed to go well.
“I’m proud to call myself the space plumber,” Koch later told the media. “I like to say that it is probably the most important piece of equipment on board.”
However, problems persisted. It appeared that the lines that suck out urine were freezing up in the vacuum of space. They rotated the Orion capsule so that sunlight could warm up the lines and they could vent. It worked a bit, but not entirely.
While they could poop, the urine was more of an issue, as they couldn’t vent it into space. Instead, they had to use their backup.
While it may seem like a silly or minor snag, NASA is going to have to re-examine the toilet for the next missions, especially if it is looking at going to Mars, which would last months.
Deeply emotional moment
One of the most emotional moments on this mission was slightly unexpected.
During a call to mission control, Hansen announced that the crew wanted to name some craters.
The first one they named “Integrity,” after the name of their capsule.
But then, Hansen announced that they wanted to name another one “Carroll,” to pay homage to Wiseman’s wife, who died of cancer in 2020.
Moments after breaking Apollo 13’s distance record, the Artemis II astronauts asked to name two relatively fresh lunar craters, proposing Integrity — the name of their Orion capsule — and Carroll, in honour of commander Reid Wiseman’s late wife. Wiseman wept as Canadian mission specialist Jeremy Hansen put in the request to mission control, and all four astronauts embraced.
His voice cracked as he announced the news, while Koch wiped away tears. Wiseman tried to comfort Hansen as he was talking. In the end, the four had a long embrace.
Hansen later explained that he, Koch and Glover had talked before they launched about doing this. They then approached Wiseman and told him. Wiseman was touched, but said he couldn’t announce it himself. So, Hansen said he would do the honour.
It was a reminder that this mission was also about humanity.
Science!
There was a lot of science going on during this mission. There were health experiments — some began even before they launched — as well as testing the spacecraft.
The highlight, of course, was the lunar flyby that happened on Monday. At their closest, the astronauts were 6,545 kilometres from the moon’s surface.
They had 30 lunar targets that they had to observe over seven hours.
They used cameras, but also their eyes, and sent detailed descriptions to the science team at mission control.
They described how reflective features were, as well as the colour that they could see across the lunar surface.
But one of the highlights came as a pleasant surprise.
The astronauts witnessed meteoroids — small pieces of rocks left over from the formation of our solar system — hitting the lunar surface.
“A little bit of giddiness,” Glover reported to mission control. “We have seen three impact flashes so far. I saw two, and Jeremy has seen one. Undoubtedly … oh, Jeremy saw two. So that’s four total.”
The reaction from Kelsey Young, NASA’s Artemis II lunar science lead, was pure joy.
“Amazing news,” she said. “I literally just looked over at the SER [science evaluation room], and they were jumping up and down.”
On Earth, most meteors burn up in our atmosphere, producing brief streaks against the sky. But the moon has almost no atmosphere, so these meteoroids reach the ground. That’s why the moon has so many craters.
Apollo astronauts thought they saw these impact flashes, but it was never confirmed. That’s likely why Young was so excited.
What’s to come
So, they’re home. Now what?
Well, once they head back to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, they will be checked out by doctors and debriefed.
And over the next few months and perhaps even years, scientists will analyze the group’s experiments. They will also examine how the Orion spacecraft performed, figuring out what worked and what didn’t.
And NASA is already prepared for Artemis III, set to launch in 2027. Initially, the mission was to put humans back on the moon. But NASA administrator Jared Isaacman announced in February that it will instead be a test with a lunar lander provided by Blue Origin or SpaceX. It will take place in Earth-orbit, and won’t go to the moon.
Artemis IV, which will return humans to the lunar surface, is scheduled for no earlier than 2028.
