How Artemis II astronauts plan to capture a new ‘Earthrise’

On December 24, 1968, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders became the first humans to enter orbit around the moon, on a mission that set the stage for America’s historic moon landing the next year. As they looked out the windows of their Apollo 8 command module, they glimpsed the blue planet they’d left behind, home to every human in existence.

“Wow, is that pretty!” Anders said, grabbing a modified Hasselblad 500EL camera to snap the iconic photo now called Earthrise.

It was, arguably, one of the most influential pictures of all time, crediting with inspiring the burgeoning global environmental movement. “People realized that we lived on this fragile planet and that we needed to take care of it,” Anders told The Guardian in 2018. (All three members of the Apollo 8 crew died within the last three years.) 

Now, NASA has a chance to produce a new Earthrise photograph during Artemis II—the 10-day flight around the moon that lifted off on April 1 on a trip similar to Apollo 8. It’s the first mission of its kind in more than 50 years, and it also paves the way for a new moon landing that the U.S. space agency hopes to complete by 2028. 

This week, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, will travel more than 4,000 miles above the far side of the moon, on a flight path that will take them farther into space than any humans before them. One of their priorities: to potentially capture a second Earthrise photo that can rival the original in significance and wonder.

What the Artemis astronauts might see

Part of the magic of the original Earthrise is that it was spontaneous, taken in a moment of inspiration. But this time, the astronauts will know in advance what they should be looking out for. This past August, NASA’s Science Visualization Studio released a simulation of what Artemis II astronauts might see outside their windows during the lunar flyby, scheduled for the sixth day of their journey.

You may notice the Earth is smaller in this view than in the original Earthrise. That’s because Artemis II’s closest approach to the moon will be about 4,300 miles above the surface. In contrast, Apollo 8 flew just around 60 miles above the lunar surface.

And NASA doesn’t know exactly how the moon will be lit when the astronauts swing by it. The conditions will be dependent on the time the astronauts execute the engine burn that will take them out of Earth’s orbit and towards the moon. It’s scheduled for a little more than 24 hours after launch. But the exact time is in flux. The first day of the mission will have the crew testing water and air systems, and the maneuverability of the spacecraft.  If the crew needs some extra time to troubleshoot any issues, the view from beyond the moon could change and some—or all—of the lunar surface might be in shadow.

Once the astronauts execute this burn, NASA will have a much better idea of what the lighting conditions might be for any new Earthrise photo.

Regardless of the exact lighting, there will be two opportunities to capture both the Earth and the moon in the same shot, explains Ernie Wright, a NASA senior data visualizer. “The plan is to view both Earthset and Earthrise,” Wright says in an email. The capsule will be traveling so fast, these two chances will occur only about 45 minutes apart, and happen when the capsule will be out of communication range with Houston on the far side of the moon. 

That 45 minutes is the only window they’ll get. Unlike during the Apollo missions, the Artemis II crew won’t enter lunar orbit and will pass around the moon just once.

The Orion capsule has five windows—a docking window towards the top, and four forward-facing windows all on one side of the craft.  It’s through one of these four main windows that the astronauts will snap the next Earthrise photo, says Kelsey Evans Young, lunar science lead for Artemis II. According to David Melendrez, the lead for Orion capsule imagery integration at NASA, the crew will use two handheld Nikon D5 DSLR cameras to get the image.

Earthrise isn’t the only lunar imaging priority for the mission. In total, “we'll have three hours where the crew are taking pictures and just making verbal observations of the moon,” said Young.  Because the human eye is much better at finding subtle color changes on the moon than robotic spacecraft, the crew have been tasked with photographing the surface extensively, as well as the impact flashes of meteorites that crash into the surface during their flyby.

Stoking wonder around the world 

Clearly, NASA is putting a lot of thought into the imagery from the Artemis II mission (including images shot with National Geographic’s own cameras). “We provide the face of the mission to the world,” says Melendrez.

It’s a chance to inspire wonder on a global scale. The year 1968, when the original Earthrise photo was taken, was one of widespread unrest and violence. The Tet Offensive, the My Lai massacre (which the American public wouldn’t know about for another year), and the Prague Spring took place. Protests and demonstrations in support of civil rights and against the Vietnam War were in full swing. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated. For many, Apollo 8, and the Earthrise photo, were a bright spot in a year of troubles, a reminder that we as humans share one home in the cosmos.

“When you see all the strife and the things that are going on in the world today, I think it’s really important to see us as a whole,” said Melendrez. “You look at that picture— there's no borders in that picture, it's just all of us. I think that's one of the biggest things we can take out of this, is reminding everybody, everybody, that that's our home. And we all have to share it.”

Follow along with National Geographic’s coverage of the Artemis II mission here.