Mission Artemis 1 is slowly coming to an end. The Orion ship has already left the orbit of the Moon and is approaching the Earth. So we’re looking at the latest images of our planet taken during this mission from such a great distance.
The earth in the pictures is like a small croissant in the abyss of space
The photos he has posted now NASAcreated in the last days. On December 5 (mission day 20), the Orion spacecraft fired the service module’s main engine for the last time, left lunar orbit, and headed for Earth. That day, Orion got within 130km of the surface of the Silver Globe and snapped some extremely detailed images, which you can see below:
Even more interesting, however, is Earth photographed from such a great distance. The images of our planet were taken two days later, last Wednesday (day 22 of the mission), when Orion was just over 376,586 km from our planet. The earth appears to them as a small croissant immersed in the abyss of space.
Earth seen from a long distance by the Orion spacecraft on December 7, 2022 photo. NASA Johnson / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/
The photos were taken just the day before pen The Moon, and therefore our natural satellite (and the spacecraft returning from its orbit) was on the other side of the Earth from the Sun. So our star only illuminated a very small part of the planet from Orion’s perspective.
On the same day, the Orion ship was already about 200 thousand. km from the lunar surface. Even the Silver Globe appears very small in a photograph taken at this moment:
Distant moon in Artemis 1 mission images photo. NASA Johnson / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/
Finally, it is worth seeing the video that was recorded in the last days of November (the 13th day of the mission), but NASA has only released it now. This is a time-lapse video (assembled from many photos taken at certain intervals) showing the passage of the Earth behind the face of the Moon:
Orion returns to Earth. He will be landing in Pacific waters soon
The Orion spacecraft has been traveling to Earth for four days and its flight will last until December 11th. Then the most important phase of the mission for NASA will begin, namely the re-entry into the atmosphere. Orion will fly through the atmosphere with a huge bothersome, and then it will start to lose it due to air resistance. She will land in Pacific waters near the city of San Diego, California. You will be fished out of the ocean by the US Navy vessel USS Portland.
Provided all goes according to plan, NASA plans to send humans into lunar orbit as part of the Artemis 2 mission in the first half of 2024. The first manned landing on the surface of the Silver Globe in more than 50 years is scheduled for 2025. .
More interesting facts related to the Artemis 1 mission can be found at Gazeta.pl
