Artemis II Was a Success

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): NASA’s Orion spacecraft splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California, Friday, April 10, 2026. (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

We are now one step closer to putting astronauts on the Moon, again.

The Artemis II crew safely landed off the coast of California earlier today after a 10-day, 694,481 mile trip around the Moon. Now NASA needs to spend some time reviewing the results, including the 7,000 images taken of the Moon and surroundings.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman stated:

Artemis II demonstrated extraordinary skill, courage, and dedication as the crew pushed Orion, SLS (Space Launch System), and human exploration farther than ever before. As the first astronauts to fly this rocket and spacecraft, the crew accepted significant risk in service of the knowledge gained and the future we are determined to build. NASA also acknowledges the contributions of the entire NASA workforce, along with our international partners, whose expertise and commitment were essential to this mission’s success. With Artemis II complete, focus now turns confidently toward assembling Artemis III and preparing to return to the lunar surface, build the base, and never give up the Moon again.

I like that part about never giving up the Moon again, though I doubt anyone in the 1970s thought it would be so easy to walk away from the lunar accomplishments and shut down the Apollo program. We were dealing with a war-torn world and a troubled presidency then, and little has changed today.

We shall see if we have changed at all.

Pic of the Week: Earthset from Orion

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The Earth as seen by the Artemis II astronauts on April 6, 2026. (NASA)

This week’s image was captured by the Orion spacecraft Integrity during its Moon flyby on April 6, 2026. It puts a lot of today’s politics into perspective.

As the Earth was setting, NASA pilot Victor Glover stated:

And to all of you down there on Earth and around Earth, we love you, from the Moon. We will see you on the other side.

The photo above can be found with many other photos in NASA’s Astronomy Pictures of the Day Archive.

Note: As Carl Sagan said of Earth, in part, many years ago:

That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there…

Martian Helicopters Give NASA More Options

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): One of the tires on NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity captures on March 23, 2026. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

With NASA’s announcement the other week about its plan to use helicopters again on Mars, at least we know we will have something to augment the two remaining rovers.

The Mars rovers continue to do a bang-up job on the Martian surface, but the bangs are also taking a toll on the tires of at least one rover (as shown above). After 14 years of service, the Curiosity Mars rover has needed some mission modifications and software updates to avoid further damage to its tire tread. Fortunately, the Perseverance Mars rover is having no problems to date with its tires, meaning it should be fine until at least 2031.

In terms of a future Mars mission, NASA announced:

NASA will launch the Space Reactor‑1 Freedom, the first nuclear powered interplanetary spacecraft, to Mars before the end of 2028…When SR-1 Freedom reaches Mars, it will deploy the Skyfall payload of Ingenuity‑class helicopters to continue exploring the Red Planet.

You may remember the Ingenuity helicopter from its test on Mars between 2021 and 2024 when if flew 72 missions. The helicopter had accompanied NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. The planned Skyfall mission will build on this success. You can see an video of these new helicopters here.

Having two rovers and multiple helicopters on the Martian surface later this decade should provide sufficient coverage for both ongoing science as well as scouting efforts for future missions to the planet.

In addition, the test of a nuclear powered spacecraft will give us some additional options for getting to the planet. The Space Reactor‑1 Freedom spacecraft involves the participation of the private sector – particularly Lanteris Space Systems, Aerojet Rocketdyne, and Busek. Notice no mention of SpaceX this time. That is a positive development in that we have many companies working on getting us to Mars, including Lockheed Martin, Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace, Rocket Lab, and others, which is how it needs to continue going forward.

A grand plan for our expansion into space needs the support of many mission types, companies, and minds (as well as temperaments).

Space Stories: A New Type of Telescope to Spot Exoplanets, Walking Martian Robots, and Terraforming Mars in 15 Years

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): An artist’s rendering of the ExoLife Finder telescope. (Astronomy.com)

Here are some recent space-related stories.

—Astronomy.com: “Could this Telescope Find Life on Alien Worlds?“

The ExoLife Finder (ELF) looks like no telescope ever built. A spectacular crown of 15 five-meter mirrors perches atop a sprawling metal lattice, resembling petals on a 10-story-tall mechanical flower — more sculpture than observatory. It is a fundamentally new type of telescope, one that its designers say could discover life on Earth-like planets beyond our solar system. The radical design is the brainchild of astrophysicist Jeff Kuhn of the University of Hawai‘i. For now, it exists only in renderings. To build it, Kuhn and the team he’s assembled must first develop and perfect techniques and technologies never before used in astronomy.

—EarthSky: “Walking Robots on Mars Could Speed Up Life Search“

Robotic rovers have become the go-to way to explore our neighbor planet, Mars. And they’ve been super successful. But they’re also big, heavy and slow. They have to move carefully across the rocky and sandy terrain of Mars. Plus, communication delays between the rovers and Earth – and data transfer limitations – also affect their missions. Is there a better way? On March 31, 2026, researchers in Switzerland and the Netherlands announced a new idea: walking Mars robots. The research team said these robotic explorers would be semi-autonomous. This means they wouldn’t need regular assistance from humans back on Earth. And, their makers say, they could explore their surroundings – on both Mars or the moon – faster than rovers.

—The Times of India: “Mars Could be Warm Enough for Humans in 15 Years; A Discovery that Changes Everything“

Mars has been viewed as a multi-millennial effort to terraform since the inception of the term, but there is new evidence that the time frame has changed dramatically. A published study in Science Advances gives new hope to those wishing to terraform Mars through nanoscopic engineered aerosol-like dust particles made from iron and aluminium found abundantly in the soils of Mars. Specifically, scientists feel that if we inject these engineered aerogels into the atmosphere, the resulting greenhouse effect will raise Mars’ surface temperature by over 50 degrees Fahrenheit in only 15 years.

Artemis Quote: A New Feat for Humanity

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Image (Credit): An image showing three new unnamed craters located on the Moon, two of which were noted by the Artemis II crew. The crew is proposing names for both of these unnamed craters. (NASA)

“From the cabin of Integrity here, as we surpass the furthest distance humans have ever traveled from planet Earth, we do so in honoring the extraordinary efforts and feats of our predecessors in human space exploration. We will continue our journey even further into space before Mother Earth succeeds in pulling us back to everything that we hold dear. But we most importantly choose this moment to challenge this generation and the next to make sure this record is not long-lived.”

–Statement by Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen after the Orion capsule traveled 248,655 miles from Earth earlier today, breaking the record of Apollo 13. The capsule, named Integrity, continued on its mission to fly past the Moon before starting its trip back to Earth.