On Thursday, the Orion capsule carrying four astronauts in NASA’s Artemis II mission executed a key thruster firing that will send the crew out of orbit and on a path towards the moon, committing them to reaching the farthest distance humans have ever travelled in space.
The successful manoeuvre put the crew on a path to enter the moon’s sphere of gravitational influence by Sunday morning, as they prepare to break the record for farthest distance set by Apollo 13 in 1970.
Final Thruster Firing
On day six, the astronauts are expected to reach roughly 405,554 km from Earth, the most distant point ever flown by humans, when the planet will appear roughly no larger than a basketball beyond the moon’s shadowed far side.
“We are getting just a beautiful view of the dark side of the Earth lit by the moon right now. Phenomenal,” Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen told mission control some 10 minutes after the thruster firing.
Since launching from Florida 26 hours earlier, the astronauts spent their first day in space testing cameras and steering the Orion spacecraft. They also dealt with small toilet and email issues that were subsequently fixed.
They were initially in a highly elliptical orbit, swinging them as far as 64,000 km away on one end and about 100 miles close on the other, from where the key thruster firing towards the moon began, known as the translunar injection burn.
The manoeuvre, which began at 7:49 pm ET (5:19 am IST), is an orbital exit ramp slinging them out of Earth’s orbit and onto a figure-eight-shaped trajectory towards the moon. It’s the final major thruster firing of the mission, leaving the Orion capsule largely under the influence of orbital mechanics for the remainder of the mission.
Documentation Of The Mission
The four astronauts of NASA ’s Artemis II mission have a few different devices on board to take photos of space from inside the Orion capsule throughout the flight.
They include a small GoPro action camera and iPhones, as well as professional Nikon cameras that have been used by NASA astronauts on the International Space Station for years.
The decision to equip the crew with iPhones was made under NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, a billionaire astronaut who flew on two private SpaceX Dragon missions and used the devices during his own flights, according to NASA officials.
NASA has not released any images captured by the crew, but is expected to do so later in the mission after more climactic moments. Among them is an anticipated “Earthrise” image, echoing the famous photo taken by Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders in 1968 when his spacecraft looped around the moon.
Toilet Malfunction
Not long after the successful launch, astronaut Christina Koch alerted mission control in Houston to a red blinking light signalling a problem with Orion’s toilet. It is housed in a small compartment within in the crew cabin. Mission engineers implemented a fix promptly after a proximity operations test, NASA stated.
Spacecraft toilets are awkward to use but are essential for long-duration missions and are of varied designs. On the ISS and Orion, astronauts use a $24 million Universal Waste Management System. It uses suction to collect waste, recycles urine in water and seals solid waste bags that are eventually jettisoned.
The toilet includes a specially shaped funnel and hose for urine and a seat for bowel movements. The funnel and seat can be used simultaneously, based on feedback from female astronauts, according to NASA’s website.
