00:00Not everyone who looks at the moon sees the same thing. That's especially true for the
00:05Artemis II astronauts, and it's also true for the NASA scientists who trained them to
00:09see something much deeper. Scientists helped train the Artemis II crew to look at the moon
00:13the same way planetary geologists do. Like Amber Turner, who compiled the 90-page Lunar
00:19Science Passport, a pocket-sized cheat sheet the astronauts took with them to help spot
00:24and describe features on the lunar surface. It includes the Big 15, key science targets
00:29spread across the moon for the crew to observe during their mission. Because the goal wasn't
00:33just to take amazing pictures. NASA wanted the astronauts to describe what they were seeing
00:38in real time, using the language of geology. There's like a deep dive into the science so
00:43they can learn more about the craters and the basins and how they formed and what kind of
00:48observations we're looking for. The Passport became the crew's study guide on how to describe
00:52features like swirls, mare basalt contacts, terraced crater rims, ejecta blankets,
00:58wrinkle ridges, and scarps. Because the human eye can still do something spacecraft data can't
01:04always do. Here's how NASA planetary geologist Jacob Richardson puts it.
01:09Our data is based on robotic explorers, robotic orbiters. This unique vantage point let them compare
01:17across the moon in a blink of an eye, which is something an orbiter can't do.
01:21That became especially important when the crew reached the moon and didn't quite know what to expect.
01:26In our simulations, they were always saying, well, we're probably not going to see color. Why are you
01:31asking us to talk about color? And we were imparting upon them, you know, we want you to say color.
01:36Because if you see color, that tells us something about what the materials on the lunar surface are made out
01:41of.
01:42During their lunar flyby, the astronauts reported browns and greens in places like Aristarchus Plateau,
01:47one of the mission's Big 15. Richardson called it a volcanic wonderland.
01:52It has lava flows, it has pyroclastic explosive volcano deposits, and it has this giant bright crater
01:58that hits right through the bedrock underneath all that volcanism.
02:02That's part of what makes Artemis II so important. The moon preserves a record that Earth has mostly erased.
02:07Plate tectonics, weather, and erosion have wiped out much of the planet's oldest history.
02:11The moon, by contrast, can serve as a time capsule. But the biggest surprises weren't only on the surface.
02:17When Orion passed through the moon's shadow, the crew experienced nearly an hour-long solar eclipse.
02:22And as they looked on from the moon's dark side, they spotted several micrometeor impact flashes.
02:27Their impact flash observations have been, like, amazing. I can't really say we were expecting it,
02:33we were just kind of hoping. Those observations could help scientists better understand how often
02:36and how energetic those impacts can be. The crew definitely did justice to the science.
02:42We're all feeling, all feeling the moon's way. Like, I still feel like I'm dreaming.
02:45NASA has released more than 12,000 Artemis II images, and science teams are working through
02:50the crew's audio, photos, and observations as they begin to prepare for when astronauts go
02:55back to the moon during Artemis IV and beyond.
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