Nell Greenfield Boyce

Yeah, I mean, that's the kind of thing they're going to need to do in the future as they plan more ambitious moon missions.

And so if everything goes well, and it's maneuvering well, and the life support systems are good, and the navigation and everything, then, you know, they could decide...

whether they're going to go to the moon.

Okay.

So that comes about one day into the mission.

Okay.

And if everything looks good, they'll do what's called the translunar injection burn, which is just a fancy way of saying their propulsion system is going to send them out on this path

that takes them on a figure eight around the moon.

And if they go, it'll take them about four days to get out there.

It's a distance of over 230,000 miles.

Well, not that close.

Okay.

So depending on when they launch and everything, I mean, it's going to be about 4,000 to 6,000 miles away from the moon.

Okay.

On the other hand, it's a lot closer than the Earth is, right?

So NASA has said that from where they are, the moon is going to look about the size, if you held a basketball at arm's length from your face, that's kind of how the moon will look to them.

Oh.

And then, of course, you know, behind it, you'll have the Earth looking very tiny and distant.

And then, you know, as they go around the far side of the moon, there's going to be this communications blackout.

So for a while, they won't be in any contact with Earth and then they'll come around the other side.