When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.Artist’s illustration of a moon base. | Credit: NASAAs NASA prepares to send astronauts to the moon for the first time in more than half a century, the agency is revising its long-term plans for Earth’s natural satellite.Speaking at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference on Monday (March 16), NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya said that Artemis 2 remains on track for an April 1 launch. If successful, the mission will send astronauts farther from Earth than humans have ever traveled before, surpassing the distance record set by Apollo 13 in 1970.AdvertisementAdvertisement”The most exciting point is, we’re getting back to it,” Kshatriya said. “We’re getting back to contemplating what human exploration of the moon could look like.”The roughly 10-day mission will carry commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen on a trajectory around the far side of the moon. At closest approach, the moon will appear to them about the size of a basketball held at arm’s length. From that vantage point, the astronauts will document various surface features, including regions scientists believe have never been seen by humans.”We tell the crew that their verbal descriptions are actually going to be the monumental scientific data set from this mission,” said Ariel Deutsch, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California and a member of the science team helping plan Artemis 2 observations. “As humans, the crew provides critical perceptual context that just can’t be replicated with robotic sensors.”The Artemis 2 crew may spend up to six hours conducting observations, using handheld Nikon cameras, recording verbal descriptions, and making sketches and annotations on tablets. While many lunar targets are large or otherwise easy to identify, scientists are particularly interested in subtle variations in color, lighting and terrain — features human perception can capture in ways that instruments alone may miss, Deutsch said.AdvertisementAdvertisementTo guide the effort, NASA has developed an interactive lunar atlas to help the crew track priority targets based on lighting and viewing conditions during the flyby. The final observation plan will be uploaded after launch, once the spacecraft’s precise trajectory is confirmed, said Deutsch.Preparation for Artemis 2 has included three years of training rooted in Apollo-era techniques, particularly field geology, along with an intensive “lunar fundamentals” course designed to build the vocabulary and observational skills needed to describe the moon from orbit, said Cindy Evans of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, who led the geology training program for the crew.”We practiced a lot their visual observations and their descriptions,” Evans said, “so that they would feel confident in being able to talk about the moon and knowing that they were talking about critical features that are important to lunar scientists back on the Earth.”NASA’s Artemis 2 moon rocket on the pad. | Credit: NASA/Cory S HustonA more flexible path back to the moonArtemis 2 was, until recently, billed as the precursor to a crewed lunar landing in 2028. But in late February, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said that …
