From the south pole of the moon, this is how Earth appears (video)

NASA hopes astronauts will see this for real, later in the decade.

If a new NASA animation is any indication, future explorers standing on the south pole of the moon will find the strange motions of Earth and its sun to be amusing to watch.

The brief video(opens in new tab), which was created by NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, condenses a simulated viewpoint across three months (or little more than three lunar days) into just two minutes. As the sun moves more gracefully over the horizon, you can watch Earth bob up and down.

You’ll be treated to an eclipse of Earth passing in front of the sun if you pay close attention to the movie; this is the reverse of lunar eclipses that we can observe from Earth.

“This is a lunar eclipse for watchers on Earth since the moon is moving through Earth’s shadow. However, as seen from the moon, this is a solar eclipse “

The animation’s virtual camera is pointed towards Earth from the Shackleton Crater rim, which is partially visible in the lower right. The area that NASA is aiming for with their Artemis lunar landing missions is similar to this one.

Later in the 2020s, the agency plans to send a group of robotic explorers to the surface to help with the mission. These payloads might land on the moon as early as 2022 under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.

According to an announcement made by NASA this week, the Artemis 1 mission, an unmanned loop around the moon and return to Earth, is scheduled to launch in February 2022. Technical difficulties caused the mission to be delayed multiple times.

The next mission, Artemis 2, is a crewed lunar orbiting mission that will take a Canadian astronaut, the first from outside the United States, to the moon’s vicinity. 2023 is a very preliminary date for it. Then, in 2024, NASA plans to have Artemis 3, a landing mission, land.

However, once Artemis 1 is completed and finance and technological development advance, these timelines might alter. According to NASA’s inspector general, the spacesuits for Artemis, for instance, look to be too far behind schedule to meet a 2024 deadline.

Do not forget to share your opinion with us to provide you with the best posts !