Artemis is splashing down near us today
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/10/science/nasa-artemis-ii-splash-down-watch-time-strea...
but unfortunately
Will I be able to see the spacecraft return to Earth in California?
The spacecraft is not likely to be visible to those along the coast near San Diego as it falls through Earth’s atmosphere, said Rachel Kraft, a NASA spokeswoman. That’s because it will enter from the southwest over the Pacific Ocean and during daylight.
What were the objectives of this mission?
by Jeff (BGS) 
, A starter home in suburban Tempe, Friday, April 10, 2026, 19:55 (6 days ago) @ Jay
I’ll admit that this launch kind of snuck up on me. I didn’t know anything about it until my son was assigned a school project a few weeks ago. In my mind, I thought, “Cool. Glad we are continuing space exploration,” but then it seemed like the only objective was to go farther from the earth than anyone had done before, but not really by all that much (~4,000 miles).
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At night, the ice weasels come.
It's at least a bit about beating China there, no?
by LaFortune Teller 
, South Bend, Saturday, April 11, 2026, 17:18 (5 days ago) @ Jeff (BGS)
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A step to the moon and Mars.
by nedhead , Friday, April 10, 2026, 20:19 (6 days ago) @ Jeff (BGS)
I think the objectives of humans going to the moon and Mars are relatively vague and vibe-based. At this point. there's not really much advantage of sending humans over robots, and humans will always cost far more because we don't really care if robots return or get blown up.
But we should be exploring with people, too! I can't really say why, but just because? Nobody has landed on the moon in my lifetime. That's crazy. I hope I get to see someone on Mars (and I'm optimistic that either US or China, or both, will get there in the mid-2030s).
The difficulty with going to Mars (at least as of today)
is the journey would be 9 months or so one way. Probes can get there in as little as 7 months. I assume it's timed so that the distance between Earth and Mars is at or close to its least. A Mars orbit is just over two Earth years and isn't wildly eccentric so I assume that's not hard to calculate.
Packing enough so that you could keep two or three humans alive has to be a challenge. I know people have been in the ISS or Mir for a year or more but those space stations get replenished regularly.
A trip that takes two years has to be exponentially more complicated than a week or so.
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"It's our blood and bones and these whistles and phones against Miller's and Noem's dirty lies."
Especially if you want to come home at some point
by Jeff (BGS) , A starter home in suburban Tempe, Sunday, April 12, 2026, 14:11 (4 days ago) @ omahadomer
The Moon is always about the same distance from Earth. I'm sure the timing matter, but not as much as it would for a trip to Mars.
I think Mars and the Earth are close together once every two years or so, but that doesn't last all that long. When they are far apart, they are VERY far apart.
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At night, the ice weasels come.
Pretty sure we have a decent handle on the orbits!
by nedhead , Sunday, April 12, 2026, 15:50 (4 days ago) @ Jeff (BGS)
The launch would have to be in pretty specific windows. Mars is definitely a lot more challenging than the moon, in many ways.
I feel like it'd be pretty amazing to be one of those astronauts, were it not for the risk of death and the realization, like 10 minutes in, that there's another two years of staring at the inside of their small container ship. I guess they could bring the electronic version of War and Peace?
Was neat to run around town this evening...
by domer.mq , Friday, April 10, 2026, 18:00 (6 days ago) @ Jay
a ton of NASA folk live in our community. And it's a beautiful evening. Tons of folks out with neighbors watching everything on rigged up TVs.
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Sometimes I rhyme slow sometimes I rhyme quick.
Nail biting.
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I'm old enough to remember Apollo 13 --
The capsules would lose communications for about 3 minutes going through the ionosphere. I remember when it was radio silence and Cronkite saying "3 minutes, 3 minutes 15 seconds . . ." and then after 4 minutes "Houston do you read us?" The mass exhale. They had to come in at a shallower angle so it took them longer to get through. The movie does a good job of communicating the mass tension.
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"It's our blood and bones and these whistles and phones against Miller's and Noem's dirty lies."
My dad and I were space nuts when I was a kid.
by NDinVA , Yorktown, VA, Sunday, April 12, 2026, 10:42 (4 days ago) @ omahadomer
He would wake me up at ungodly hours to watch the countdowns and blast offs. I remember the first US manned flight by Alan Shepard. It was only about 15 minutes long. I think I was 9 years old.
![[image]](https://i.imgur.com/aqYjR09.jpeg)