Flashes on the Moon: NASA releases 800 gigabytes of Artemis II data
More than 11,000 photos and videos, over eight and a half hours of audio and a first science report: NASA is making the Artemis II crew's observations publicly available.
Archive image · Photo: NASA / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain (cropped and resized)
US space agency NASA has released more than 800 gigabytes of material from the Artemis II lunar flyby. The archive includes over 11,000 photos and videos, more than eight and a half hours of audio recordings, images annotated by hand by the crew and a preliminary science report. The data are hosted in NASA's public Planetary Data System. The four-person crew led by Reid Wiseman spent about nine days in space in April.
Highlights include faint flashes of light on the Moon's night side that the astronauts saw with the naked eye. Scientists believe they were caused by impacts of small rock fragments, probably no more than five centimetres across. They are likely the faintest impact flashes ever observed with the unaided eye. The crew also experienced a 54-minute solar eclipse as the Moon blocked the Sun. The astronauts also described subtle colour differences on the lunar far side that point to different rock types. The observations will be compared with spacecraft data and feed into planning for future Artemis missions.