Artemis II traveled 695,000 miles in 10 days — here's what that distance actually looks like in real life
Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images
Artemis II's crew is finally home. They returned safely to Earth late Friday evening, completing arguably NASA’s most vital mission since first putting man on the moon. The mission followed a “free-return trajectory,” or in layman’s terms, the ship used the moon’s gravitational pull to sling itself back toward Earth. I may have broken it down simply, but it was anything but that.
The journey was a grandiose one. In total, Artemis II traveled roughly 695,000 miles. If we break down that distance over 10 days, the astronauts traveled about 240 hours, 14,400 minutes and 864,000 seconds in space. The spacecraft averaged nearly 2,900 miles per hour, which breaks down to about 48 miles per minute, or almost one mile every second.
So now I’m wondering … what does that distance look like in real life? Let’s get into it!
Photo by NASA via Getty Images
By car, it’s the equivalent of driving from Los Angeles to New York nearly 250 times, or circling the Earth 28 times. Let’s hit the air! The same distance that Artemis II traveled would equal flying from Atlanta to London more than 160 times, and it still wouldn’t match the distance. You would probably have enough sky miles for a lifetime, so maybe worth the investment?
By sea? A seven-day cruise around the Caribbean, which is about 2,500 miles, would need to be repeated nearly 280 times to equate to 695,000 miles. I think that would be the first time anybody is sick of vacation!
If you wanted to walk this distance, it would take a person more than 25 years without stopping, so I don’t think that record will ever be set or even attempted. Let’s make it a bit more manageable. Let’s assume everybody drives about 30 miles a day, and it would still take the average person more than 60 years to reach that mileage.
For my sports nerds, this is for you! An NFL field measures 120 yards from end zone to end zone, including the 100-yard field of play and two 10-yard end zones. To match the distance Artemis II traveled, you’d have to line up roughly 10 million football fields back to back.
Photo by Ken Levine/Allsport/Getty Images
Now take it global. A standard pitch used in the Premier League averages about 115 yards long, or roughly 345 feet (105 meters). That means Artemis II covered the equivalent of more than 10 million soccer fields laid end to end.
We can’t forget about the arts, either. Let’s say the Harry Potter franchise, which has a runtime of 19 hours and 40 minutes across all eight movies. A person could have watched the entire film series more than 12 times before Artemis II splashed back on Earth.
What about listening to the best-selling album of all time, Thriller? You could run through the whole 42-minute album more than 300 times while waiting for the ship to touch down. What about the Swifties? They would have spun Taylor Swift’s latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, more than 100 times and still have time left over.
Photo by Emma McIntyre/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
Space travel is still mind-blowing, no matter how many times we head up there, but this mission really puts it into perspective. Artemis II didn’t just go to the moon and back. It endured a journey so massive, you would need decades of travel, thousands of trips or hours upon hours of entertainment to match it.
And they did it in less than two weeks. So next time your road trip feels long, just remember: Four astronauts just traveled farther than you ever will. And they didn’t even get to stop for snacks while dealing with toilet issues.
NASA
