And as a matter of historical significance, this will be the furthest humans have ever travelled from Earth. We've existed for 300,000 years (homo sapiens), and no human has ever gone as far from this rock as these 4 people are about to do.

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[–] elephantium@lemmy.world 13 points 9 months ago (2 children)

No, I think they'll have another delay. It seems like everything is endlessly delayed these days.

I don't really get the bit about this being the furthest we've traveled. We've sent people to the Moon before. Isn't this mission doing the same thing?

[–] nezbyte@lemmy.world 11 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The furthest we’ve traveled milestone is not really worth mentioning for Artemis III. Sure they will be granted a Guinness book of world records entry for beating Apollo 13’s record by a smidge. However, it is one of the least significant accomplishments they will have on this epic journey.

[–] elephantium@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

A smidge is right. It sounds like they're going 10,000km away from the far side of the Moon. To compare, the Moon's average distance is 385,000km, so they'll actually be 395,000km away?

Except that's probably off by a few thousand km; the 385,000 figure is the average distance from the center of the Earth to the center of the Moon. Meh, correcting for center vs. radius is starting to sound like homework, so this will have to be "close enough for a Lemmy comment" :)

Edit: OP posted another article in a comment; Artemis II will actually be 432,194km away. Sounds like "a smidge" is about 10% of the distance in this case!

[–] laverabe@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

The Artemis 2 crew will come within 6,479 miles (10,427 kilometers) of the lunar surface and travel 6,400 miles (10,300 km) beyond the far side of the moon. From this vantage point — farther than any humans have ever traveled into deep space — they will be able to see both Earth and the moon from Orion's windows.3 Apr 2023

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nasa-announces-the-astronaut-crew-for-artemis-ii-lunar-flyby/

I don't know the reason why the distance is further but I would imagine it is intentional to increase speed or some other technical reason.

[–] SorteKanin@feddit.dk 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Actually since they are further away from the moon, they'll most likely be moving slower (relative to the moon). Higher orbit = slower travel.

[–] elephantium@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

Ah, you know your orbital mechanics :D

[–] elephantium@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

I did some looking and found this question on Stackexchange. The diagram was super helpful for me -- it's pretty intuitive to see where the mission is going.

Also, thanks for posting that article! It had a reference to http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-112622a-artemis-i-breaks-apollo-13-distance-earth-record.html which cited the actual records (talking about Artemis I, not II):

The uncrewed Orion flew past the record-setting distance achieved by the Apollo 13 command module "Odyssey" at 248,655 miles from Earth (216,075 nautical miles or 400,171 kilometers) at about 8:40 a.m. EST (1340 GMT) on Saturday (Nov. 26).

The Apollo 13 spacecraft had previously set the record on April 14, 1970, at 7:21 p.m. EST (0021 GMT on April 15).

...

NASA expects the Artemis I capsule to reach a maximum distance from Earth of 268,553 miles (432,194 km) at 4:06 p.m. EST (2106 GMT) on Monday (Nov. 28).

So they're actually going 32,000km past the previous record. It's interesting that they're using such a far-flung lunar orbit.

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 1 points 9 months ago

I don't know the reason why the distance is further but I would imagine it is intentional to increase speed or some other technical reason.

Aren't they going further out for a more efficient insertion into the Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit which Lunar Gateway will be in?