Artemis 2: 72 hours to land – the astronauts go into “free fall”

As of Wednesday morning (Israel time), “Orion” is about 195,000 kilometers away from us. Their speed, which was about 3,500 km/h when leaving the lunar orbit, has already almost doubled and will reach a peak of about 40,000 km/h at the moment of penetration into the atmosphere this coming Saturday.

The team successfully completed all planned scientific missions to the lunar side, including radar imaging and radiation mapping. Now, most of the work is devoted to “housekeeping” – making sure that all the spacecraft’s systems are ready for the extreme temperature of the return (about 2,760 degrees Celsius) and a double check of the huge braking parachutes that will open at a height of about seven kilometers above sea level.

The visual climax of the mission came in the moments when the “Orion” passed over the far and mysterious side of the moon, an area never seen from Earth. Using high-resolution cameras and the innovative laser transmission (O2O) technology, the team launched a gallery of breathtaking images documenting the scarred lunar surface from an altitude of only about 6,400 kilometers.

The most exciting moment of all, which has already been dubbed “Earthrise 2026”, was the documentation of the small blue Earth seen from this distance only the size of a basketball as it “shines” above the dark lunar horizon. In addition, the astronauts captured with their lenses the unique “lunar eclipse” effect from space, when the sun’s rays filter around the dark edges of the moon and create a luminous and dramatic halo, a sight defined by NASA scientists not only as an artistic achievement, but as valuable scientific data for understanding the tenuous atmosphere and radiation in the lunar environment.

One of the biggest challenges, in which NASA is putting a great deal of effort these days, is preparing the crew for the extreme physiological change. After more than a week in weightlessness, the body undergoes significant changes: the fluids migrated to the head, the muscles got used to not exerting themselves and the vestibular system (equilibrium) lost its spatial navigation.

At the moment of entering the atmosphere on Saturday, the astronauts will experience a load of 4G, meaning they will feel as if their body weight is four times heavier. For a person who has been floating in the void for a week, this is a real physical blow. To deal with this, the team is performing a “Fluid Loading Protocol” today – drinking large amounts of water with salts to increase blood volume, prevent a sharp drop in blood pressure at the moment of landing, and make sure that the brain will continue to receive oxygen even when gravity pulls all the blood to the legs. In addition, the team today increases the intensity of training on the resistance bands. The goal is to “wake up” the stabilizing muscles of the spine and neck, which will have to absorb the shock of the impact in the Pacific Ocean water.

The schedule for the next two days is tight and tense:

• Thursday: Maneuver OTC-4 (the last revision). The crew will briefly run the engines to fine-tune the angle of penetration. A deviation of one degree could cause the spacecraft to burn up or “jump” back into space.

• Friday: “Packaging Day”. The team will store all scientific instruments, laptops and dinnerware in special lockers to prevent them from becoming lethal projectiles during the jolts of the intrusion.

• Saturday evening (Israel time): The Great Landing. The capsule will land in the heart of the Pacific Ocean, where rescue forces of the US Navy will be waiting for them to rescue the astronauts, who are expected to feel severe dizziness and physical heaviness during the first hours on Earth.

Artemis 2 is the biggest proof of capability of the decade. If the crew gets out of the water on Saturday healthy and the spacecraft is in good condition, the road to the next manned landing on the surface of the moon will be paved and safe. Maariv will bring the landing event live.