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).

Artemis Quote: A New Feat for Humanity

Posted on by onespaceman2000
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.

Where are the Chinese in this Moon Race?

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Image (Credit): China’s Long March 10 rocket. (South China Morning Post)

Now that Artemis II is well underway as NASA prepares for an eventual crewed landing on the Moon, one might ask where the Chinese are in their own race for the Moon.

The answer is that the Chinese are moving along with their program as well, as noted in a recent Ars Technica article that highlighted China’s test in February of its new reusable booster and crew capsule. The test of the Long March 10 rocket and Mengzhou spacecraft (“dream vessel”) was considered a success, moving China closer to its own lunar mission. The next test will be to put the Mengzhou spacecraft into orbit later this year.

At the same time, the Chinese are testing a lunar lander to bring the taikonauts to the lunar surface.The lunar lander is called Lanyue, which means “embrace ​the moon.”

China is still aiming for a crewed landing on the Moon before 2030, followed by an International Lunar Research Station by 2035. The country is also planning to have a station orbiting the Moon by 2045, similar to the Gateway that NASA has decided to drop from its plans for now. The Chinese orbiting station would assist with scientific work on the Moon as well as a future trip to Mars.

Neither NASA nor China have the luxury of any detours over the next few years as each plans to be the first to return to the surface of the Moon. The current Artemis II mission puts the US in a good position to meet its own goal to land on the Moon before China assuming everything goes as planned with the mission and any technical issues can be easily resolved.

Space Quote: OMB is Just in Time to Ruin the Moon Party

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Credit: Planetary Society

“The Planetary Society is deeply disappointed by this budget proposal. The White House’s budgeting office has put forward the same budget cuts to NASA and NASA Science that were rejected by overwhelming bipartisan majorities in Congress last year. This proposal needlessly resurrects an existential threat to U.S. leadership in space science and exploration.”

-Statement from a Planetary Society press release after the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released its proposed NASA budget for Fiscal Year 2027. The proposal would cut the overall agency budget by 23 percent and reduce the Science Mission Directorate by 47 percent. You may remember a similar attempt at cuts that was later reversed by the Congress. It appears everyone will be playing this game again this year.

Note: The budget picture above may look like a lunar landing, but it is a full-scale crash if allowed to stand. We can call the impact site “Trump Crater” filled with the remains of our space program if it cannot be reversed.