猎户座飞船视角的地落

2024年11月20日

Earthset from Orion
Image Credit: NASA, Artemis 1

Explanation: Eight billion people are about to disappear in this snapshot from space taken on 2022 November 21. On the sixth day of the Artemis I mission, their home world is setting behind the Moon’s bright edge as viewed by an external camera on the outbound Orion spacecraft. Orion was headed for a powered flyby that took it to within 130 kilometers of the lunar surface. Velocity gained in the flyby maneuver was used to reach a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon. That orbit is considered distant because it’s another 92,000 kilometers beyond the Moon, and retrograde because the spacecraft orbited in the opposite direction of the Moon’s orbit around planet Earth. Orion entered its distant retrograde orbit on November 25. Swinging around the Moon, Orion reached a maximum distance (just over 400,000 kilometers) from Earth on November 28, exceeding a record set by Apollo 13 for most distant spacecraft designed for human space exploration. The Artemis II mission, carrying 4 astronauts around the moon and back again, is scheduled to launch no earlier than September 2025.

Tomorrow’s picture: pixels in space

猎户座飞船视角的地落
影像提供: NASA, Artemis 1

说明: 在这张摄于太空的快照里，80亿人即将消失。在2022年11月21日、阿尔忒弥斯1号任务的第六天，从离地球远去的猎户座飞船的舱外相机看出去，家乡地球向月球明亮边缘的后方沉降。当时用自主动力推进的猎户号，即将以不到130公里的间距掠过月表。而此次的飞越操作，会让猎户座提速进入绕行月球的远逆行轨道。之所以称为“远逆行”，是因它将继续航行到月球后方92,000公里之处，而且绕行月球的方向与月绕地的方向相反。猎户座于11月25日进入远逆行轨道。在旋绕月球运行时，猎户座座于11月28日抵达离地球最远的位置（略超过400,000公里），打破了阿波罗13号先前所创下的载人太空探测器的最远飞行记录。阿尔忒弥斯II号任务将在2025年9月之后发射，届时会搭载4名太空人绕月飞行并返回地球。

明日的图片: pixels in space