Jeremy Hansen on Artemis II: ‘I thought I’d have more fear’

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]I want to start with a couple of questions from our readers that sent in and this one this is one I really love uh because we heard a lot before the mission about how human eyes can see things that cameras can't. Can you tell me this is a question from Laura from Sarnia not too far from where you grew up.

[00:00:16]>> Um what what was most surprising to you about the colors or the contrasts on the lunar landscape that cameras really wouldn't pull out? So So what what can you tell us about what you saw that even the pictures won't tell us? We spent a lot of time as a crew um discussing back and forth about the boundaries of the different shades of gray that we were saying seeing. So we were talking about browns and kind of greens in the in the grays. And then the longer I stared at it, the more I started to started to connect different regions of the moon together because these different shades, they get broken up by impacts and crater rays and you know just bright rays across the moon. But then as you stared longer, you started to piece together, you know what? I think that is all coming from Oriental. I have no idea if I'm right, but I'm just observing. I'm just reporting what I'm seeing. And they'll tell us whether that is, you know, a supportable conclusion or not, but I I definitely saw differences between the far side and some of that coloration and also what I was seeing in Aristarkus Plateau. that was there even though they were different shades was a different type of shades and I really started to get a sense of like where material had come from um and some from some of the larger impacts and how like oriental had really it looked to me like had really at one point in history resurfaced the portion of the far side of the moon that I could see and that was really neat.

[00:01:40]>> I have to ask you about the eclipse as well. I know that everyone seemed at a loss for words. I'm not sure if you've seen a total eclipse from the ground.

[00:01:47]There were a couple that went through Texas. How would you describe the corona and what you could see? That's hard to capture on camera.

[00:01:54]>> Yes, I did see the sol the last solar eclipse from Niagara. Um but it was a cloudy day and I only saw it for a brief few moments like maybe 3 seconds. Um but I experienced that this was this was very different in that the sun was tiny tiny tiny compared to the moon and that that in itself was really unique to see.

[00:02:14]And then I had my solar eclipse glasses on, like the same ones I was wearing at Niagara essentially. And uh as soon as it went behind the moon, I lifted them up and then I just watched the corona and I just tried to describe what I was seeing. But I saw these long streamers and they weren't uniform. It was definitely coming out sort of like the 330 direction was the most prominent streamer and it lasted a long time. And uh I didn't see any of the colors. They wanted to know if we saw colors. I really did not see color. I just saw white brightness, you know, different brightnesses of white. And then when the sun went, you know, I watched that streamer over many, many, many minutes dis finally disappear. And then I started to look broader and realized that that there was this halo around the entire moon. And I didn't expect to see that. And then as I looked in that black hole of the what was left of the moon there or the black disc of the moon, I could still tell there was a three-dimensionality to the whole thing, but it it was this eerie matte black and a little bit I don't know if shimmery is the right word, but not consistent. It was it was neat. And the fact that there was this halo really made that stand out as something un it looked very unnatural to anything I'd seen before.

[00:03:27]>> Yeah. Yeah. And you had the Earth shine.

[00:03:28]So that gave the moon just maybe a little bit of light that wouldn't be possible if you were seeing from Earth.

[00:03:34]So that's >> And the the images I've seen, I haven't seen many yet. The images I've seen that were taken, we did not feel like we were looking through the camera. The images we were taking, we did not feel like we were capturing what we were seeing on our cameras. I've seen, I think, a solar array wing image that looked a little closer to what I saw, but initially like that that um the Earth shine did not show up for me at all. that is not I was not seeing it. Eventually I did, but initially I couldn't see that at all.

[00:04:01]And that just gave it this weird sort of I've said it a few times, this kind of black hole feeling like that that thing could just all of a sudden decide to suck us up. [laughter] >> Here's another question from Shauna May Burke. She's northwestern Ontario. How did you balance work and rest in the station? We know you had rest periods, but I can't imagine how you would sleep in the middle of all that excitement.

[00:04:23]And then when you were resting, did you could you listen to anything on your iPhone or read anything? How did that work?

[00:04:30]>> Um, you could do all those things. We as a crew, you know, we had a bedtime and we we were pretty disciplined about getting to bed on time. Uh, cuz once you, you know, once you decide to go to bed, everyone you set up the sleeping bags and kind of cabin is kind of clobbered by sleeping bags at that point. The first couple sleeps were just broken like I was camping because it was cold and I would wake up and then I would go back to sleep. But I I sort of had the mindset of like sleep was my mission. Like I knew I needed rest to do what needed to be done. And I I slept really well overall. Took me a couple nights to figure out a few tricks to like sleep most comfortably. But by night three, I I really had it wired in and I was sleeping all the way through.

[00:05:09]But I have to say also, we got woken up almost every night by some alarm um that we had to check and make sure everything was okay and then go back to sleep. A lot of your crew mates, Victor in particular, said you made it look easy.

[00:05:22]It was your first time in space. Was it as easy as it looks or or what was the hardest part for you?

[00:05:27]>> It did. I mean, I'm just so grateful. I would not have expected it to feel as good as it did. I expected to get space motion sickness. I had not taken any medications because I was just worried about some of the side effects for going uphill and we weren't going to be on our backs for such a long period of time.

[00:05:42]And urine retention is a is a side effect to some of those medications. And I kind of wanted to make sure that all the plumbing was working well in space before I took a risk on medication. So my strategy was only to medicate if I ended up getting sick and I just never did. And uh I was very careful the first day. I tried to move deliberately, not spin my head around quickly.

[00:06:03]>> And I'm super grateful that I just felt good.

[00:06:06]>> I'm wondering if you experienced fear during the mission and if so, how you managed that. Yeah, I thought I'd have more fear and it wasn't like a courageous thing or a bravado thing. It was mental preparation for me and I I really felt like there was a lot of risk in the mission. I was very optimistic that we would come back, that it would go in our favor, but I was also resigned to the fact that I might not be coming back. And uh and so I just got in the mental headsp space of I'm just going to enjoy the journey. I'm going to accept what comes and enjoy the journey. But there was still yet this awareness of like, you know, every time the alarm went off, it's like this can go from feeling great right now to, you know, we're not we might not make it home. And that was very I was very aware of that.

[00:06:46]A number of the, you know, when we had the the depress leading into the trans lunar injection, you know, it was very clear in my mind like this we're about to burn to go to the moon or we're about to start getting in space suits and trying to figure out how to survive the next 24 hours to get back to Earth. And you know, that was very clear to all of us in that moment when the fire alarm went off. you know, and all the fans shut off and it goes dead quiet in the vehicle and you just you just start moving around sniffing and trying to find a source of smoke. Um, it's serious business.

[00:07:16]>> Now that you've done this, why is it important?

[00:07:21]>> Look at the results. We we set big goals. We and we accomplished some amazing things and there will be ripple effects from this for years if not decades to come. And uh let's not stop here. Let's go do the next big thing.