FROM THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON ARTEMIS II BRIGHTENED UP A TROUBLED WORLD

By Michael L. Jarvis London UK

When the Artemis II spacecraft splashes down this Friday as scheduled by NASA, it will bring to an end an historic chapter in space exploration.

From its April 1 launch, the 10-day mission has captured worldwide attention, including in Cayman.

For many, it has offered an alternative to the global news focus on the Middle East crisis, a real and present danger to world peace.

While this mission did not make a touchdown on the lunar surface, in the vocabulary of the space program, it did a ‘slingshot’ around the far side of the moon - the proverbial dark side of the moon. That phrase was long ago permanently etched into popular vernacular, popularised by the British rock band Pink Floyd in the name of one of their hit albums.

According to NASA(National Aeronautics and Space Administration), the Artemis II’s Orion spacecraft set a new record on this leg of its historic journey, travelling a record 252,756 miles from Earth.

What has been described as a ‘flyby’ of the moon was intended to assess the maximum capabilities of the Orion spacecraft. Unlike other missions, which did a circular orbit around the moon, the astronauts on board the Orion and their mission control back on earth at the Kennedy Space Centre, used the Moon’s gravity to ‘naturally slingshot the spacecraft back toward Earth’ for Friday’s splashdown.

In addition to their scientific assignments, the crew also captured a series of breathtaking, memorable shots, including one showing the moon in total eclipse from that celestial vantage point for the very first time.

According to NASA, Artemis II is the first crewed mission in the American space agency’s program to establish a long-term presence at the Moon for science and exploration through Artemis. The 10-day flight was to “test NASA’s foundational human deep space exploration capabilities, the SLS rocket, and Orion spacecraft, for the first time with astronauts.

Operated  by the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Artemis program is named after the Greek goddess of the Moon, who was the twin sister of Apollo, the namesake of the original 1960s/70s moon missions.

As explained by NASA, the name signifies the program’s goal of returning humans to the Moon and highlights the inclusion of the first female astronauts, honouring Artemis as a feminine icon.