How the Artemis II crew educated to look at and {photograph} the moon: A NASA science crew geologist explains

The Artemis II crew has now damaged the document — beforehand held by Apollo 13 — for the farthest distance any humans have ever travelled from Earth. The crew additionally accomplished a flyby of the moon’s far facet and despatched again some superb photos of the lunar floor.

I’m a professor, an explorer and a planetary geologist, specializing within the examine of meteorite impression buildings. I’m additionally a member of the First Artemis Lunar Surface Science Team and have been supporting NASA in creating the geology coaching for Artemis astronauts.

The flyby was significantly thrilling because it provided a surprising new perspective of the lunar floor. It additionally supplied the primary operational take a look at of a brand new science crew and analysis room at Mission Control in NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

And it was incredible to see the Artemis II crew conduct observations and take pictures of geological landforms on the moon’s floor — placing their coaching with me on the Kamestastin Lake impact structure, on the territory of the Mushuau Innu First Nation in northern Labrador, into follow.

A brand new view of the moon

Unlike the Apollo missions, that orbited at roughly 110 kilometres above the floor of the moon, Artemis II was at a a lot increased altitude — around 6,545 kilometres above the lunar surface.

This higher distance allowed the crew to view the moon as a full disk, together with areas close to each the North Pole and South Pole.

The crew was additionally in a position to take focused pictures of assorted geological landforms on the lunar floor as a part of the Artemis II science program. One of the first objectives of those investigations is to tell future missions, together with the deliberate first journey back to the lunar surface with Artemis IV as soon as 2028.

A brand new science crew

One of the highlights of NASA’s livestream through the mission has been the direct conversations between two good buddies: Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen and science officer Kelsey Young.

Science officers are the senior flight controllers answerable for lunar science and geology targets throughout Artemis missions.

They act as the principle interface between the broader Mission Control crew and the Artemis II science crew, which is situated in a very separate room referred to as the Science Evaluation Room (SER).

Both science officers and the analysis room are model new for NASA’s Artemis program; they didn’t exist through the Apollo program.

We have been creating the construction and defining roles within the SER for the primary Artemis mission to the moon’s floor. But there may be nothing like an actual mission to check and refine how the science crew ought to work.

A crash course in lunar geology

If you listened in to NASA’s livestream and heard any of the geological descriptions the astronauts have been giving, I hope you have been impressed — I actually was!

Their information is a testomony to the geology coaching that NASA has supplied the crew within the months and years since they have been chosen for the Artemis program.

First, the crew participated in a crash course in lunar geology referred to as “Lunar Fundamentals.” This weeklong, classroom-based coaching provided them the fundamentals to grasp lunar geology and the processes that form the moon’s floor — primarily impact cratering and volcanism.

However, as any person who has been instructing for greater than 20 years, I do know one of the best place to find out about geology is within the subject. That’s why NASA additionally took the Artemis astronauts to a collection of subject websites within the United States, Iceland and Canada.

Early of their coaching, in September 2023, three of the crew members — Hansen, Christina Koch and back-up crew Jenni Gibbons — undertook geology coaching on the Kamestastin Lake impact structure in northern Labrador. Then the entire crew travelled to Iceland in August 2024.

Kamestastin Lake coaching expedition

I used to be honoured to play a number one function within the Kamestastin Lake training. This location was chosen as a result of it provides the same panorama to the floor of the moon.

The Kamestastin Lake crater was shaped roughly 35 million years in the past by the impression of an asteroid between one and two kilometres in diameter. Not solely are rocks like breccias and impact melt rocks produced by the asteroid’s impression effectively preserved right here, however the crater additionally shaped in a rock referred to as anorthosite — the exact same rock that makes up the lunar highlands.

In addition to participating in the geology training itself, I used to be largely answerable for the logistics for this expedition.

Kamestastin is in a distant a part of northern Labrador, so we flew in by way of Twin Otter plane and established a short lived base camp. From tents to pots and pans and meals for 16 folks, there was quite a bit to handle. We then used zodiac boats to journey across the crater.

Sacred Innu tales of the moon

Kamestastin Lake and the encompassing area are on the territory of the Mushuau Innu First Nation. A key a part of my function within the coaching was liaising with the First Nation, which has been following Hansen on this historic mission.

A spotlight for me was sitting across the fireplace on one in all our final nights with Innu Guardians from Natuashish and listening to about how sacred the moon is to them — as it’s to many Indigenous Peoples world wide.

They additionally instructed us the story of Tshakepesh, an Innu hero who teaches that with braveness, exhausting work and perseverance, one can all the time overcome difficulties.

As the Artemis II crew return from its journey, I’m struck by the parallels. The crew has proven the world what can occur if we work collectively in direction of a typical purpose with braveness, exhausting work, perseverance and humility.