It’s hard to overstate the importance of NASA’s next project Mission Artemis 2. For the first time in more than 50 years, astronauts will fly past the Moon in the first crewed test of the rocket and spacecraft that will ultimately enable humanity’s long-awaited return to the lunar surface.
But Artemis 2 won’t just test spaceflight systems and hardware. This mission will also test NASA’s space science operations. During their 10-day journey around the Moon, the crew will play the role of researchers, observing regions of the Moon’s far side never before seen with the naked eye.
“I’m really excited about this test flight,” Jacob Richardson, deputy lead for lunar science for Artemis 2, told Gizmodo. “There is a very special place in my heart for Artemis 2, for the crew who completely leaned in to be part of our science team, and for the science we will get from this mission.”
See the other side in a new light
The last time astronauts traveled to the Moon was during NASA’s Apollo program, which sent nine missions to the Moon between 1968 and 1972. All but one entered lunar orbit and six astronauts landed on the surface.
NASA launched each of these missions to reach the Moon when the landing sites were illuminated by early morning sunlight, a time when surface temperatures were manageable and shadows could help guide the lander’s navigation.
The disadvantage of this approach was that large parts of the surface, especially those on the far side, were shrouded in darkness, or at least too poorly lit for the Apollo astronauts to observe with the naked eye from orbit. Their visibility was also limited by their low orbital altitude, which was generally only 110 kilometers above the surface.
The Artemis 2 astronauts – Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch of NASA and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency – will not encounter the same limitations. Their spacecraft, Orion, will fly past the Moon at a minimum distance of 4,300 miles (6,900 km). And if the mission is launched by February, what currently seems possiblealmost the entire dark side of the Moon will be fully illuminated.
“They will be the first humans to see virtually the entire far side disk in one shot,” Richardson said. From this vantage point, they will be able to observe and compare surface features thousands of miles apart – a perspective that orbiters cannot provide, he explained.
Mysterious Features Will Reveal
The crew will spend a day observing the surface of the Moon. Richardson and his colleagues on the lunar science team provided them with extensive training on how to look for certain features, photograph or videotape them, and write detailed descriptions of what they see.
Astronauts won’t have a clear idea of what features of the far side they will be able to observe until launch, Richardson said. During the first days of flight, he and his team will finalize a list of observation targets for the astronauts to prioritize.
These targets could include the Eastern Mare, a massive impact basin that straddles the boundary between the near and far sides of the Moon, according to Richardson. Humans have never laid eyes directly on the farthest part of this mare before. Like the the youngest and best preserved A multi-ring impact basin on the lunar surface, Orientale is a natural laboratory for studying the impact history of the Moon and the formation of ringed craters.
Artemis 2 astronauts could also observe one of the most mysterious features of the lunar surface: the South Pole-Aitken Basin. This far side impact crater is the largest on the Moon, drawing more than 1,550 miles (2,500 km) in diameter. Scientists believe it is also among the oldest, but its exact age remains uncertain.
“We know that it was this massive event that shook the Moon. We know that similar events have happened throughout the solar system. So any observations they make of it are really going to add to our understanding of this very interesting southern area of the Moon,” Richardson said.
But the crew’s main goals will be to observe color and albedo variations in the illuminated parts of the far side and look for impact flashes (bursts of light emitted when meteoroids hit the lunar surface) in the unilluminated parts, Richardson said.
This mission will provide an unprecedented view of the Moon’s most enigmatic terrain, giving scientists on Earth new insight into its history and the forces that continue to shape our closest celestial neighbor.
“I hope that with the Artemis missions, we scientists today – in 2026 – will end up looking like fools, and that the Artemis missions create so many opportunities for discovery that we will be able to rewrite the textbooks,” Richardson said.
