(music throughout)
Hi, I'm Doctor Marie Henderson,
a planetary scientist at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
I love the moon.
And so I became a planetary scientist.
Study lunar volcanism and planetary imaging.
In addition to that, I trained astronauts in lunar geology
as one of the scientists on NASA's Artemis two mission.
The mission is due to launch early next year, and it will be the first Artemis
flight to the moon and back with four astronauts on board.
Our science team will support them from Earth in real time as they make
geological observations from the Orion capsule with both their eyes and cameras.
You'll learn more about the Artemis two mission
in the coming months, but for now, I want to invite you to join me,
NASA and explorers around the globe and looking up
and appreciating our near celestial neighbor, the moon.
As part of NASA's annual international Observe the Moon Night.
enjoy the upcoming show where you'll learn more
about the moon and NASA's lunar science and exploration plans.
I'm Reid Wiseman.
And I'm Victor Glover.
And this is how we pilot the Orion spacecraft.
What are the differences between piloting an airplane and a spacecraft?
I think the thing that I first think about
is on a spacecraft, it's really all about attitude.
It's really not about thrust and getting the airplanes flying faster.
And the spacecraft is already going almost 38, 39 times the speed of sound.
So we're really controlling the attitude. Where are we pointing?
Where are we looking at out the windows, where our antenna is pointing?
The software is the primary flyer of the spacecraft.
I think that's the biggest difference, especially for a, you know, a pilot coming
into this who wants to get on the hand controllers and, and put the aircraft
or the spacecraft in its proper attitude in aircraft.
The software is really helping the pilot.
And I think now it's almost like we are helping the software.
So a couple of the things we're going to do on Artemis
two right after liftoff, we are going to detach the Orion
spacecraft and service module from the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion stage,
which is just a lot of words for our upper stage.
During that,
Victor will be physically flying with a rotational hand controller,
the translational hand controller, and doing station keeping on this upper stage.
This phase of the testing will be to simulate the flying that we would do
if we were docking to another spacecraft, like our lander, or to our gateway.
I think we should show you how we actually control the vehicle.
So we've been using
terms like rotational hand controller, rotational hand controller.
We say RHC for short and translational hang controller, THC for short.
In an aircraft you would have a stick in a throttle,
but it's the things that you put your hands on to control the spacecraft.
We will pitch, roll and yaw.
Those are the three axes and each direction.
And then we will also go up, down, left, right, in and out.
And we will assess how precisely that we can control the spacecraft.
But we mentioned
earlier that the main controller of the spacecraft is software.
And so the main way that we interact with
the spacecraft is our cursor control device.
Your another favorite.
I know you love CCD. This thing.
It looks awkward. It looks weird.
But when you get to use it, it is actually a genius piece of gear.
And I know it is your favorite.
Oh it is.
This is our primary way to interact with the spacecraft.
And so what it does is it allows us to determine
where we put our focus on the display.
So I can move the cursor to a certain display.
And then I can move the cursor around to interact with certain fields of data.
And it's one of the primary controllers, because there are going to be times
when we're under 4G, 8G, maybe even,
and we won't be able to lift up our hands and push the buttons on the display.
So this is exactly how we will do it.
There is far more information on these displays than we will need to
to fly this spacecraft normally, but if a system goes off,
if something goes wrong,
we can dig down into the lowest levels of the computer of all the systems here,
and we can take a look to see what's failed.
Talk to Mission Control in Houston.
And then right next to the displays you see switches and toggles and dials.
And so we call those switch interface panels or SIP panels.
If the rotational and translational hand controllers didn't work,
we also have a backup to a set of switches.
Hi, my name is Jeff Samarra and I work for Lockheed Martin.
We're here in the Exploration Development Laboratory, where we do integrated
testing and verification and GNC fights software for the Artemis program.
GNC stands for guidance, Navigation and Control.
Guidance is basically where do we want to go?
Nav is where are we controls?
How do we get where we are, where we want to be?
This is the software that interfaces with both the translational
and rotational hand controls.
We call
this whole stack up the crew and service module or the CSM.
That is the crew module, the capsule, the spacecraft Orion,
and then the service module made by our partners ESA and Airbus in Europe.
And so this is where the thrusters that will maneuver us on the service module.
My name is Hashid Amikan
I am the lead of assembly integration test team of Airbus.
And we built the European service module in Germany.
When the astronaut gives the command to go in any direction.
The software is steering every thrusters as needed.
So it's a balance or a dance between the different engines.
So if you provide thrust on one side, you have to counteract.
And on the other side,
every time you touch the translational hand
controller or the rotational hand controller, those thrusters fire.
And those thrusters are right near us.
And you can hear a bang and it's like, bang, bang, bang, bang.
As you're flying this thing around, you hear it and feel it.
And even though it's quite well shielded and that we're in suits and other
things, you're still going to hear and feel those thrusters when they fire.
It's pretty neat.
I cannot wait until one of us takes controls and just steers
this thing around and looks out at the earth.
We'll be farther from the earth than human beings have been in a very long time.
Let's go, let's go.
And liftoff of Artemis one.
We rise together back to the moon
and beyond.
I'm not used to talking about trees.
Like rocks.
Easier seeds represent the most optimistic of our species.
Given our reliance on wood
from raw material for a home to a baseball bat and now spacecraft.
Planting a seedling is an investment in our future.
The tree may not bring you fruit, but it will bring future generations of fruit.
In 1962.
President Kennedy said these words we meet in an hour of change and challenge
and a decade of hope and fear and an age of both knowledge and ignorance.
The greater of our knowledge increases, the greater of our ignorance unfolds.
Artemis one continued in the grand tradition of what Artemis
two astronaut Victor Glover suggested during his visit to Goddard.
As vessels of humanity,
that we take our culture with us into the cosmos, that we should choose
to take seeds and plant them for future generations to enjoy.
To remind us, earthbound explorers, that
despite the problems we face here, we remain connected to our future in space.
I'm hopeful that our all of our shared work on Artemis
missions will bring similar fruit to future generations.
Hi, I'm NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson,
orbiting 260 miles above the Earth aboard the International Space Station.
Tonight is time to come together to appreciate and observe our shared moon.
We are blessed on the ISS to be able to observe the moon
from space being situated over the Earth's atmosphere.
It's quite a sight to behold.
The effect of the moon is most dramatic for us over large bodies of water.
When the moon is full, it illuminates the whole surface of the earth
and the ocean glistens with a beautiful soft glow.
Contrast that with the new moon,
and the oceans are as black as a starless universe.
It's almost as if the Earth disappears.
It's crazy.
Wherever the moon is in its face, when spotted, you can hear
someone say from the cupola, come look at this moon.
So my crewmates and I are excited to contribute to work that is stepping
stone toward NASA's return to the moon through the Artemis program.
Stay curious and keep looking up.
Three.
Two. One.
Every year,
at the end of October
there is a very special night in Spain
It's a night when dozens of astronomical associations take their telescopes out onto the streets.
We are talking about the Night of the Moon
When, together, they all share their passion for the heavens
People approach the telescopes, intrigued, curious.
Is it here?
Goodness, how cool!
My goodness, what a blast, huh?
Wow!
Oh, how cool!
How handsome!
Wow, it looks perfect! It's amazing!
Almost as if I were there!
Man, it looks super cool!
Cool!
It’s super cool!
Those are the craters of the Moon. Oh, really?
Wow, what a blast!
Wow, how cool!
Look! Look! Look what the Moon looks like!
Wow, how cool!
Can you see the craters on the Moon?
It's gorgeous!
Amazing, huh?!
How cool!
Stand here
Look over here. Wait wait.
Look over there. Like this, with one eye.
What do you see?
The Moon
The Moon, yeah?
In prehistoric times
we humans established a very close relationship with the sky.
For hundreds of thousands of years,
when we had not yet invented writing,
the calendar or the compass,
reading the sky allowed us to locate ourselves in space and time.
Knowing the sky was simply a matter of survival.
We have lost this close relationship we had with heavens.
And yet, looking at it, understanding it and studying it,
continues to move and touch us.
Man, what a blast!
It just doesn't seem real.
Hi, I'm Zena from the German Aerospace Center in Cologne,
and my favorite way to observe the moon is from my balcony.
In 2009, NASA launched the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter,
a bold mission to map our moon in such detail
that future crewed and robotic missions could not only land safely,
but also go to scientifically important locations.
With the start of the Artemis missions.
The future is now as NASA prepares to send humans to the lunar south pole.
This region is of
particular scientific interest because it features areas of extended sun.
That illumination and permanent shadow is known to contain resources like water,
and sits on the rim of the oldest impact crater in the Earth-Moon system.
Over the years, LRO, a suite of scientific instruments, has delivered
his promised, giving us incredible new views and data on this terrain,
helping us build a roadmap for exploration.
So follow this series as we take a look at how the LRO mission
is laying the groundwork for Artemis science.
One of the instruments on
LRO is the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter, or Lola.
It provides topographic data on the lunar surface,
revealing slopes and surface roughness, helping us create models of lunar gravity
and surface brightness, as well as high resolution 3D maps of the moon.
In this visualization, the colors correspond to different
elevations found amongst the craters and mountains of the South Pole region.
Having accurate elevation data is essential for landing site selection.
Surface navigation.
Identifying areas where resources can be found
and planning the design of future lunar infrastructure.
In addition, studying the elevation and topography
of the moon contributes to scientific research
about its geological history, formation processes, and ongoing changes.
By analyzing elevation data.
Scientists can learn more about the moon's past volcanic activity, impact
history, and tectonic processes.
The global
terrain mapping by Lola also makes it possible to simulate
sunlight and shadow on the moon at any date, in the past or future.
Here we see a visualization of the region in 2028, depicting the changes
in shadowing in two hour intervals over the course of the year.
This information is vital to Artemus for planning exploration endeavors,
since the low sun angles and terrain of the South Pole produce
a uniquely challenging lighting environment.
In the years since LRO was launched,
there have been over 60,000 orbits of the spacecraft
and 10 billion laser shots at the lunar surface,
making those data a vital resource for both human and robotic
explorers that arrive at the South Pole in the coming years.
It's one piece in how LRO is helping NASA usher
in a new generation of lunar science.
And I'm David.
Here we are in Melbourne and we like to observe the moon
reflecting off the Yarra River in Melbourne.
NASA's Artemis two
is the first crewed lunar mission in over 50 years
for astronauts will venture around the moon, preparing humanity
for a long term lunar presence for scientific discovery and exploration.
The ten day test flight will demonstrate
a range of deep space exploration capabilities with crew.
The mission will prove the Orion spacecraft is ready to keep astronauts
alive in deep space, and allow the crew and ground teams
to practice operations essential to the success of future
missions.
On launch day, the Artemis
two crew suits up, undergoes final checks and rides, and the crew transportation
vehicles to launch pad 39 B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Stacked on the mobile launcher, NASA's 322ft tall
cells, or Space Launch System rocket with the Orion spacecraft awaits the crew
having made its four mile journey from the Vehicle Assembly
Building on the crawler transporter to the pad.
The launch team fills the SLS
propellant tanks with over 700,000 gallons of liquid oxygen
and liquid hydrogen and verifies guidance, communications, and avionics.
At 12 seconds before liftoff, the hydrogen burn off Igniters fire.
About six seconds later, the rocket's four Rs 25 engines ignite.
When the countdown reaches zero.
The umbilical retract,
giving SLS and the crew in Orion the clearance to begin the journey.
The 6 million pound moon rocket produces 8.8
million pounds of thrust to accelerate toward space.
75% of this power comes from the 217 story solid rocket boosters,
each producing 3.6 million pounds of thrust.
About two minutes when the boosters are released,
their solid propellant consumed the core stage and its Rs 25
engines continue to propel Orion and the crew to space.
After three minutes, the protective fairings surrounding
Orion's service module are ejected, exposing its solar arrays.
Six seconds later, the launch abort system is ejected from Orion.
The crew has safely reached Earth orbit, though they could still abort
using service module engines.
About eight minutes after launch, the SLS core stage engines shut down
and the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage, or ICPS
and Orion separate from the core stage.
Orion and the ICPS are now flying free.
Orion's four solar arrays deploy, powering
the spacecraft and charging its batteries for when it moves out of direct sunlight
during the journey to the moon and back.
After a 90 minute orbit, the engine of the rocket's upper stage
or ICPS, ignites to raise Orion to a high Earth orbit.
The Artemis two crew and mission control
in Houston then began a nearly 24 hour systems check.
While the astronauts are still relatively close to Earth, familiarizing themselves
with their new home for the next several days.
Once in high
Earth orbit, Orion separates from the upper stage.
The expended ICPS and Orion stage adapter serve as a target for a manual handling
test called the Proximity Operations Demonstration.
Preparing future
crews for rendezvous, docking, and undocking with other spacecraft.
During the demonstration, Artemis
two astronauts use cameras and line of sight through Orion's windows
to pilot the spacecraft as they approach and back away.
Assessing Orion's handling qualities, hardware and software.
Following
the demonstration, spacecraft data is collected to verify system
performance, such as life support, communications, and navigation,
ensuring Orion and the crew are ready for the voyage ahead.
About 23 hours later, Orion's service module performs
the Trans Lunar Injection Burn, or TLI, pushing Orion out of Earth orbit
and on an approximately four day trip to the moon.
Ultimately, the crew's figure eight flight path extends
more than 230,000 miles from Earth.
During the trip, the astronauts continue to evaluate the spacecraft's systems
and practice emergency procedures like testing the radiation
shelter.
The Artemis
two crew travels about 4600 miles beyond the moon,
becoming the first humans to lay eyes on the lunar far side in over 50 years.
Their observations will help us prepare for future missions at the moon.
During this period, there will be an anticipated communication
blackout between mission control and the spacecraft
as the crew returns from the far side of the moon.
Orion is drawn home by Earth's gravity in a free return
trajectory, ensuring a fuel efficient four day trip.
Before entering the atmosphere.
Orion's crew module separates from the service module.
12 thrusters ensure Orion is properly oriented
at an altitude of about 75 miles from Earth's surface.
Orion and the crew enter Earth's atmosphere at a speed of nearly
25,000mph, decelerating at a rate up to four times the force of gravity.
The crew will feel four times heavier than they do on Earth.
Orion's heat shield protects the spacecraft from temperatures
of about 5000°F, about half as hot
as the surface of the sun.
To slow its descent,
Orion begins a precise deployment sequence of 11 parachutes.
Three forward bay cover parachutes first separate
the protective thermal cover that sits over the ship's
two drogues, slow and stabilized the crew module, then cut free.
Three pilot chutes lift the three main parachutes,
deployed at an altitude of 9000ft and traveling 130mph.
These should slow the crew module to a speed of less than 20mph.
After traveling more than
595,000 nautical miles, Orion splashes
down in the Pacific Ocean, about 50 nautical miles from the California coast.
Just 16 minutes after entering Earth's atmosphere after splashdown,
a recovery team that includes the US Navy, Air Force and NASA approaches Orion.
The team ensures it's safe for the crew
to exit before divers help the astronauts onto an inflatable front porch,
hoist them into helicopters and fly to the recovery ship.
Orion is towed into the ship for its return to Kennedy Space Center.
Their mission complete, the crew is flown back to land
and step on solid ground for the first time in ten days.
This is Artemis.
To learn more about Artemis at NASA.
Dot gov slash Artemis.
Aloha.
There’s been
a lot of excitement about space suits lately.
But what about that iconic puffy marshmallow suit that we used
to walk on the moon?
This is what we call an Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or EMU.
And these suits truly are in a class of their own.
Since Apollo,
we've retooled and reimagined what can be accomplished on a spacewalk.
And the current spacesuit that NASA uses is based on a design that first flew
in 1981 through rigorous maintenance, safety testing, and upgrades.
This suit has allowed us to perform some incredibly monumental achievements
in space, walk our way into the record books.
You may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.
A space suit is not something you simply wear.
It's more like an astronaut's very own personal vehicle.
A spacesuit is basically a self-contained environment.
It is a mini spacecraft that is tightly wound around
a human body, containing everything they need to survive.
Because we are going back
to the moon and on to Mars, exploration spacesuits
have to solve the challenges from the past and anticipate those in the future.
Some of the biggest environmental challenges that we're seeing
is finding a balance between mobility and lunar dust.
In other words, exploration is dirty work.
Looks like you guys have been playing and I call them.
I don't know how we will get it all to the best we can.
Yeah, like,
how are we going to clean these guys off before they're allowed to go back inside?
There's many ways.
And do we know if they work? We have to find out.
And when your life depends on a good seal and perfectly performing
fabrics, dust is kind of a big deal.
Lunar regolith.
It looks like it's it's just a fine grained material.
When you when you see the pictures of the Apollo boots and it and stuff.
But, you're going to see anywhere from broken rock shapes
to fractured glass shapes.
That's what it looks like under the microscope
of such a small particle size range that it gets in everything.
The Apollo missions only needed their suits to last
for a few moonwalks, but these missions to the Moon
and Mars could be weeks, months, and even years long demanding
the most innovative solutions from NASA and our industry partners.
Whether we put a protective layer, whether we are able to charge the suit
to repel dust, there are multiple things that we're looking at.
So we still have a lot of challenges and work.
The original EMUs were designed for the astronauts of that era.
Since then, our astronaut classes have become far more diverse,
and the next generation of spacesuits can follow well suit.
As NASA
works together with industry partners on exploration spacesuits, follow along
and be part of our journey to the moon
and beyond.
Thank you so much for tuning in to this year's International Observe
the Moon Show, and for celebrating the moon with us, wherever you may be.
Wishing you clear skies and see you on September 19th, 2026 for the next
International Observe the Moon Night.
See you later.