Artemis II: 8. Final Approach

Now thoroughly within the lunar gravitational sphere of influence, Artemis II’s crew perform final preparations for the flyby and nearest approach. Very shortly they will break the human distance record from earth.

But listeners ask, why will they go further than Apollo 13 went?

They will shortly be the only people to see a unique solar eclipse, survey parts of the lunar far side never gazed upon with human eyes, and enter a communication blackout for around 45 minutes, with only themselves for company.

Astronaut psychology is one of the most important areas of space science. Before working on Nasa's Twins study, Dr Mathias Basner developed a test for astronauts’ cognition testing. Why? Because astronauts are such over-performers that ordinary tests that the rest of us would be subjected to barely register. So… how did Tim score when he had to do them?

But tonight, all eyes are on the moon.

Season 4 theme music by Hans Zimmer and Christian Lundberg and produced by Russell Emanuel, for Bleeding Fingers Music.

You can get in touch with the 13 Minutes Presents: Artemis II team by emailing 13minutes@bbc.co.uk.

13 Minutes Presents: Artemis II is a BBC Audio Science production for the BBC World Service.

Presenters: Tim Peake and Maggie Aderin Producers: Alex Mansfield and Sophie Ormiston Series editor: Martin Smith