Dirt, a 1970s flag, a stuffie: What’s inside the Orion spacecraft

More than half a century ago, NASA It took only three years to land astronauts on the Moon before the country lost interest in continuing the program.

This meant that the United States space The agency was unable to launch at least three other planned Apollo missions that would have explored new regions of the lunar surface.

But NASA never forgot – as evidenced by a small artifact the agency hid inside the Orion spacecraft: An American flag that would have flown on Apollo 18 in the early 1970s.

“The flag serves as a powerful emblem of America’s renewed commitment to human exploration of the Moon,” NASA said, “while honoring the legacy of the Apollo pioneers who blazed the trail.”

from NASA Artemis II assignment, which took off on April 1stis a crowded flight, carrying four astronauts in a spacecraft the size of two minivans. While the crew… Commander Reid WisemanVictor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen — didn’t have to leave their carry-on bags on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Fla., their “home” for the 10 day flight around the Moon is certainly filled to the gills. Still, NASA had room to store some precious souvenirs and other odds and ends for the trip.

The “Official Flight Kit,” established in federal law, allows NASA, commercial partners, and international entities to later use these items as awards, gifts or museum exhibits. But to ship these items, each supplier must request written permission from NASA.

Artemis II flight kit is considerably smaller than the one that flew on the unmanned vehicle Artemis I mission in 2022, which contained approximately 120 books of weird stuff. During this trip, the capsule was stocked with systems and cargo to keep four adults alive. The toilet, the compact rower, food and other survival equipment, as well as the astronauts themselves, had to take priority.

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As usual, the Artemis II kit includes numerous flags, mission patches and pins, most of which will be intended for employees and contractors who helped support the project. But here are some of the more unusual and symbolic elements that were selected:

Space Launch System Parts

When a rocket is about to blast you into space at 18,000 mph, the last thing you, as an astronaut, want to hear is that some of its parts are actually right next to you inside the capsule.

But don’t worry. These are shavings of Space Launch SystemThe main stage of production is probably small pieces of aluminum recovered from the welding and machining process. After the first eight minutes of flight, the core stage shut down its engines and broke away, shattering over the Pacific Ocean.

Standing 212 feet tall, the Space Launch System’s core stage holds more than 733,000 gallons of fuel to power four engines at its base.
Credit: NASA

Bags of earth

Yes, the mission planners provided room for 10 bags of soil, but not just any dirt. Special dirt. These bags contain soil collected from trees whose seeds flew to Artemis I. After this flight, they were planted on Earth. Today, some of the soil that helped them grow makes the lunar journey, tracing a full circle from space to Earth and back.

On Apollo 14, NASA brought seeds to discover the effects of deep space on plants. Unfortunately, the can that contained them brokethe seeds being all mixed together. No longer viable for research, the seeds were incorporated into a new program. Not wanting to waste them, NASA delivered the seeds to the U.S. Forest Service. When hundreds of trees began to sprout, they earned the nickname “moon trees.”

This time around, NASA didn’t package tree seeds, but the Canadian Space Agency did, continuing the tradition. As a member of the Artemis II crew, Canadian astronaut Hansen is the first non-American to fly into deep space.

Other seeds, including a packet of zinnias and chili peppers, are also on board.

The Wrights pioneered the first powered airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903.
Credit: The Estate of Orville Wright / Smithsonian

Wright Brothers Fabric Sample

A one-inch square of fabric from the Wright Brothers Flyer is inside Orion right now. The sample is intended to commemorate the birth of the flight. The scrap metal is on loan from the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, along with another small piece that had previously flown aboard the space shuttle. Discovery in 1985. After the spacecraft lands, the artifacts will return to the museum.

As another nod to the history of the flight, the kit contains a photo negative of Ranger 7the 1964 probe that became the first American mission to successfully touch the lunar surface.

Laboratory-grown astronaut tissue samples

Separate from the flight kit, the mission carries a unique scientific experiment, known as a virtual astronaut’s tissue analog response, or AVATAR. The test involves living tissue from each of the four astronauts on chips the size of a USB stick, stored in a temperature-controlled box.

Before launch, doctors took blood from each crew member and grew cells from those samples to load onto the chips. The samples mimic bone marrow, a crucial part of the immune system.

After the mission, scientists will study how gene activity changes within individual cells, comparing flight samples with copies on Earth. The work aims to reveal how deep space radiation and microgravity affect the development of blood cells. And it will also serve as a test of whether these chips can predict health outcomes. In the future, the research could help NASA create personalized health kits for astronauts.

Lucas Ye, 8, won a competition to design a weightlessness indicator for the Artemis II lunar mission.
Credit: Freelance / NASA

A soft toy with a story

NASA has not assigned Snoopy to this lunar mission – the beagle has already flown on Artemis I – but another stuffed animal is replacing him. Although not part of the official flight kit, the round mascot, selected by the astronauts from more than 2,600 competition entries, has an important role. It’s called a zero-G indicator, which lets mission control know when the spacecraft has reached microgravity.

How? It floats.

Lucas Ye, a second grader from California, designed the little plush toy that looks like the moon and wears an Earth cap. It represents the famous Earthrise image taken during Apollo 8, when humans first saw the planet hovering above the moon’s horizon. Inside is an SD card containing the names of people who support the success of the mission.

At the moment there doesn’t seem to be a way to purchase Increasebecause NASA apparently didn’t authorize it. But there might be some pent-up demand for this cutie: The official Kennedy Space Center gift shop has temporarily stopped selling most Artemis-related merchandise due to an “unprecedented surge” in orders.

“We sincerely appreciate your enthusiasm and support,” the store said in a review on its website“and please ask for your patience as processing times may be longer than usual.”