NASA 's Orion spacecraft snapped some stunning photos of the moon as it passed just 130 kilometers (81.1 miles) above the lunar surface on Monday (November 21), as part of the Artemis mission .
These detailed black-and-white images were taken by the Orion spacecraft's onboard visual navigation camera on day 6 of the mission
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Today, Friday, November 25, the capsule will enter lunar orbit. If all goes according to plan, it will remain in lunar orbit for about a week before beginning its journey back to Earth. The spacecraft is expected to land in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California on December 11.
As we mentioned earlier, on the sixth day of the Orion spacecraft's journey, the camera took these amazing black-and-white photos of the moon.
“The mission continues to progress as planned, and our ground systems, operations teams, and Orion spacecraft continue to exceed expectations,” Artemis I mission manager Mike Serafinin a press conference on Nov. 21.
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According to NASA, Orion was busy taking images of the Earth and Moon at different phases and distances to test the effectiveness of the navigation camera under different lighting conditions. These tests will help orient the spacecraft during future crewed missions.
The Artemis 1 mission aims to assess the readiness of NASA's Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for future human missions to the moon.
If all goes well, the spacecraft will be able to transport humans near the moon by 2024 (Artemis 2 mission).
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In about a year or two, the Artemis 3 mission will land astronauts near the moon's south pole.
Artemis program
The Artemis program is a lunar exploration program led by NASA along with three partner agencies: the European Space Agency (ESA), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The Artemis program aims to re-establish a human presence on the Moon for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission. The main components of the program are the Space Launch System (SLS), the Orion spacecraft , the Lunar Gateway space station, and the commercial Human Landing Systems, including the Starship HLS. The long-term goal of the program is to establish a permanent base camp on the Moon and facilitate human missions to Mars.
Source: www.space.com
