Four astronauts heading towards the Moon under NASA’s Artemis-2 mission have captured stunning photographs of Earth. Earth is looking extremely beautiful in blue color. One photo showed the curved portion of Earth while another photo showed the entire Earth covered with white clouds. The four astronauts on the mission (3 American, 1 Canadian) have currently reached about 1.8 lakh kilometers away from Earth. They still have to travel 2.4 lakh kilometers more. They will reach near the Moon by April 6. On April 2 at 4:05 AM IST, the ‘Space Launch System’ (SLS) departed towards the Moon carrying 4 astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft. For the first time since 1972, humans will go near the Moon. However, the astronauts will not set foot on the Moon. They will only orbit around the Moon and return. 5 photographs taken during the Moon mission NASA released a new video from space showing astronauts staying active and preparing food during the Artemis II mission. Orion capsule left Earth’s orbit a day earlier The Artemis-2 mission is now heading towards the Moon. A day earlier, on Friday morning at 5:19 AM, the Orion capsule fired its thrusters and left Earth’s orbit. Now it will travel through space for the next 4 days and reach where only 24 humans have reached till date. The process of firing the engine to leave Earth’s orbit and head towards the Moon is called ‘Translunar Injection Burn’. This was approximately a 6-minute maneuver, which increased the spacecraft’s speed to 22,000 miles per hour, that is, approximately 34 thousand km/hour. Mission’s next milestones…next 5 days Fifth day: Artemis-2 will enter Moon’s gravity By the fifth day of the mission on April 5, the capsule’s speed will slow down due to Earth’s gravitational pull. As soon as it enters the Moon’s gravitational field, its speed will start increasing again and it will begin moving rapidly towards the Moon. Sixth day: Moon will appear as big as a basketball On the sixth day, Orion will pass just 6,400 km above the lunar surface. During this time, astronauts will be able to see with their own eyes that part of the moon which is never visible from Earth. When looking through the window, the moon will appear so large, as if a basketball is placed near one’s hand. Contact may be lost for 50 minutes: When Orion passes behind the moon, its contact with Earth may be completely cut off. There will be a ‘communication blackout’ for about 50 minutes. Mission Control will not receive signals from the spacecraft. Will reach farthest from Earth for the first time: On this same day, the record of 400,171.18 km – the greatest distance from Earth set by Apollo 13 in 1970 – may also be broken. The astronauts of Artemis II are expected to reach a distance of 402,336 km from Earth. Seventh Day: Spacecraft will return to Earth from Moon’s gravity On the seventh day, after exiting the Moon’s gravitational field, the spacecraft will begin its journey back towards Earth. The path of Artemis-2 is quite similar to the 1970 Apollo-13 mission. It will use the Moon’s gravity like a ‘slingshot’, which will push the spacecraft back towards Earth. Throughout the entire mission, the four astronauts will travel approximately 11.02 lakh kilometers. Tenth Day: Spacecraft will splash down in Pacific Ocean on April 10 According to Indian time, on April 11 at 6:30 AM, Orion will enter Earth’s atmosphere. At 6:36 AM, it will ‘splashdown’ in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego. After this, there will be a press conference in Houston, where information about the mission will be provided.
