Artemis II astronauts get a look at far side of moon on flyby

April 6 (UPI) -- Artemis II astronauts have reached the farthest distance humans have ever traveled from Earth.

"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," Artemis 2 Commander Reid Wiseman said. "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."

The astronauts named an unnamed crater on the moon after Wiseman's late wife.

"Her name was Carroll, the spouse of Reid, the mother of Katie and Ellie," Space.com reported that Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen said.

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Wiseman's wife died of cancer in 2020. They shared a group hug as a crew.

The newly dedicated Carroll crater is near Glushko crater, "just to the northwest of that, at the same latitude as home," Hansen said. He added that "it's a bright spot on the moon," that can be seen from Earth. Wiseman's daughters and other family members were in the Mission Control gallery during the flyby, NASA said.

The moon's color looks different from space, NASA astronaut Christina Koch said.

"Something I just heard from the window team is 'the more I look at the moon, the browner and browner it looks,'" Koch reported.

"We just had a huge moment realizing that [the crater] Hertzsprung is about the same size as our incredible Orientale," Koch said of two large moon craters.

"We also are noticing that the moon is still getting noticeably bigger as we go, even when you're watching it continuously," Koch noted. "We can actually see the moon and Earth at the same time right now. It's interesting because the Earth looks way brighter."

Though the astronauts are about 4,000 miles from the moon, they can still see it well.

"It looks completely different than the normal view we have of the near side," Koch said of the far side of the moon. "It is the most striking feature of the west view that we had. Entire mountain chains that form its eastern side are very prominent, but they actually stand out more than I'm used to seeing even on the western side, and the whole thing just feels like a big bump. It actually looks like a large healing wound."

Pilot Victor Glover said the trip has been difficult on his eyes. It's a known issue for many astronauts, as the lack of gravity shifts body fluids into the head area, CNN reported.

"This is a very taxing event on the eyes, looking out the window and seeing the very bright moon and coming back inside to the dark cabin and trying to work cameras and microphones and logistics and lunch and those kinds of things," Glover told the science officer. "And then looking at the PCD [portable computing device], which is dimly lit, it's just been an exercise. It is a difficult thing to manage."

The four crew members of the Artemis II mission entered the moon's sphere of influence early Monday, marking the start of their lunar flyby.

The Orion spacecraft reached what is called the lunar sphere of influence at about 12:41 a.m. ET Monday, meaning the moon's gravitational forces on the capsule were greater than those of Earth.

The mission launched Wednesday from Florida, and it took the spacecraft four days, six hours, two minutes and 54 seconds to cross the important gravitational milestone, the first crewed mission to enter the moon's sphere of influence since Apollo 17 in 1972.

About 13 hours later, at 1:56 p.m., the four-person crew of NASA astronauts Wiseman, Glover and Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Hansen will have surpassed the record for the farthest humans have traveled from Earth, which was previously set by Apollo 13 in 1970.

The spacecraft started its flyby of the moon at about 2:45 p.m. Monday, when a 7-hour lunar observation period began.

NASA said the crew would see both the near and far sides of the moon during this period. As window space is limited, the crew will be divided into pairs that will conduct between 55- and 85-minute observation shifts, it said.

Mission control sent the crew the final list of lunar surface features to be observed and photographed during the flyby early Sunday, according to NASA.

The astronauts are tasked with observing about 30 targets, including the Orientale basin, a nearly 600-mile-wide crater that spans the boundary between the moon's near and far sides, NASA said.

"The crew will study Orientale's features up close and from multiple angles as they pass by," the space agency said in a Sunday evening blog post.

Orion is expected to reach its closest approach to the moon at 4,070 miles at 7:02 p.m. only to reach its maximum distance from Earth during the mission minutes later.

The lunar observation period is expected to come to an end at 9:20 p.m.

At about 1:25 p.m. Tuesday, Orion will have exited the lunar sphere of influence en route home.

The 10-day moon flyby mission is to conclude with a splashdown off the coast of San Diego at about 8:07 p.m. Friday.