AILSA CHANG, HOST:
NASA's Artemis II crew are on their way home today after their test flight around the moon - seven hours of observing the lunar surface, including parts of the far side never before seen with human eyes. The crew also saw a solar eclipse live and up close.
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VICTOR GLOVER: This is (laughter) - continues to be unreal. The corona is still visible. And it's bright, and it creates a halo almost around the entire moon.
CHANG: That is Artemis II pilot Victor Glover. The mission paves the way for what NASA hopes will be future landings on the moon. And that has scientists back here on Earth very excited about the future of lunar research. But what does that future look like? Well, Jack Burns is an astronomer and a professor emeritus of astrophysics and planetary science at the University of Colorado Boulder. Welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
JACK BURNS: Well, thank you. It's great to be with you.
CHANG: It's so great to have you. So I assume that you were glued to the flyby yesterday. What did you make of the whole thing?
BURNS: Well, you know, the far side of the moon is a really special and unique place because the moon is what we astronomers call tidally locked. One side faces the Earth; the other side always faces away. The far side of the moon is the only place in the solar system that is radio quiet. So we were excited to see the Artemis astronauts put eyes on that lunar far side yesterday.
CHANG: Yeah. And when they put eyes on it, when they were making all these observations of the lunar surface, tell me how their findings might help the science that you and your colleagues are working on.
BURNS: Well, it's just interesting to get a human perspective. NASA has been surveying the far side with a satellite called the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter now for close to 15 years. But human eyes are very good at looking at things that sometimes cameras can't capture very well, for example, flashes that might occur when a meteor strikes the moon. So we were hoping to see some of those flashes and record some of those impacts.
CHANG: Well, can we talk about future missions? - because I want to play for you first part of a message from mission specialist Christina Koch. This is what she said when the crew emerged from the radio blackout you described on the moon's far side.
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CHRISTINA KOCH: We will build ships. We will visit again. We will construct science outposts. We will drive rovers. We will do radio astronomy.
CHANG: I mean, she's talking about ships. She's talking about outposts. She's talking about settlement. Like, she intends to go back. What would that look like to you in your mind?
BURNS: Well, that will look like we would start off with the first radio telescope on the far side of the moon. And then over time, that will be followed by additional telescopes, and what they will do is to survey for the first time a part of the universe we have never seen before, called the Dark Ages. This is before the first stars and galaxies form in the universe.
CHANG: Do you feel so lucky that during your professor emeritus years, you've now seen people back around the moon?
BURNS: I am. I'm thrilled with it. At times, I wasn't sure this was going to happen. Forty years is a long time to be advocating for a set of experiments.
CHANG: (Laughter) Yeah.
BURNS: But it's happening now. It is so exciting, and we're getting real data back from the moon at radio frequencies for the first time.
CHANG: Jack Burns, professor emeritus of astrophysics and planetary science at the University of Colorado Boulder, thank you very much for joining us today.
BURNS: Well, thank you, Ailsa. It was a pleasure. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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