Artemis II astronauts find hidden eggs on Easter Sunday as they close in on the moon - CBS News

As the four Artemis II astronauts closed in on the moon, they took time to send Easter greetings to Earth and had their own version of an egg hunt.

Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch on Sunday presented "astronaut wings" to Canadian crewmate Jeremy Hansen, making his first space flight, before getting down to work carrying out planned tests of new Artemis pressure suits. But first, Koch passed along Easter greetings to flight controllers.

"This time of year is something that many religions and many cultures hold dear," Koch said. "It's a time of emotions such as joy, as well as solemnness, honoring what's going on both in our world and in our religious beliefs."

"Another aspect of that is our family tradition... If I was on the Earth right now, I would be with my family in Houston and we would be hiding confetti eggs in the backyard and watching two very sweet little girls go try to find them."

Koch said the crew had hidden eggs around the cabin to mark the holiday. "They were the dehydrated scrambled egg variety," she added, "but we're all pretty happy with them."

Overnight Saturday, Koch said the crew had switched from measuring their increasing distance from Earth to tracking their decreasing distance to the moon. At the time she spoke, the Orion spacecraft was 76,362 nautical miles from the moon and 168,000 miles from Earth.

The trip around the moon so far has yielded unexpected detail on its surface, giving scientists a taste of things to come when they pass over the lunar far side Monday.

The two major goals of the Artemis II flight are to thoroughly test the Orion moonship and to work through the procedures and techniques needed to safely guide future crews to the moon. The Artemis II crew also plans a full agenda of science observations when they pass behind the moon's far side Monday afternoon and evening.

NASA astronauts, mission control marvel at the moon's surface

Looking at the moon overnight Saturday, Koch told flight controllers "the moon we are looking at is not the moon you see from Earth," adding that even some 75,000 miles from their target, they could easily discern topography and subtle differences in brightness.

She said Glover was "absolutely mesmerized" by a vast basin where "you can actually see the terrain. It's not an albedo change, it's not shadows. You can actually just tell that they are terrain features of the multi-ringed crater there."

Glover initially thought the structure was Mare Orientale, or "Eastern Sea," a high-priority target that straddles the terminator separating the side of the moon facing Earth and the normally unseen far side.

But Jacki Mahaffey in mission control replied that "we think based on your description of the basin that you saw, that is (Mare) Imbrium."

"Yes, that sounds right," Koch agreed. "I've never noticed that Imbrium has such a distinctive high albedo ring defining it. Also worth mentioning, we do apparently have a full moon. We can't detect any terminator at all. It looks like full limb all the way around."

Mare Imbrium, or the "Sea of Rain," has a diameter of 710 miles, one of the moon's largest "seas," or maria, formed by a massive impact event several billion years ago. It is surrounded by mountains that were formed by the impact.

Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman agreed the view of the moon was spectacular, even at a great distance.

"I'm not one for hyperbole, but it's the only thing I could come up with just seeing (the crater) Tycho, there's mountains to the north, you can see Copernicus... it's just everything from the training, but in three dimensions and absolutely unbelievable. This is incredible."

"Moon joy," replied Mahaffey.

Orion's toilet trouble fixed

Before going to bed, the astronauts were told engineers had restored Orion's toilet to normal operation after trouble earlier dumping stored urine overboard.

"At this time you are go for all types of uses of the toilet," mission control radioed.

"And the crew rejoices!" Koch said. "Thank you!

Wiseman, Glover, Koch and Hansen were launched Wednesday and, after spending a full day checking out the Orion spacecraft, the ship left Earth orbit Thursday and headed for the moon.

The crew has had intermittent problems with their space toilet since launch, occasionally being told to avoid its use in favor of "contingency collapsible urinals," or CCUs, plastic containers used for urine collection that can be vented to space later. Each crew member has two of the devices.