Narayan Gadagkar

Artemis zooms beyond the Moon

The Artemis launched for a lunar mission

With  spacecraft  Orion fly past  the moon

Crewed mission with men and a woman

To review future crewed landing mission

 Explore the Moon more, an unending Passion.

 

A precursor to future lunar landings

The Artemis hits new milestones

Farthest trek in space by any astronauts

Past the Moon’s far side in orbital chase

First to view  the solar eclipse from space.

 

We see only the near side familiar face

where  all past missions  have made their base

Hidden from Earth’s view is the  far side

Always invisible to us,  since tidally locked

Maiden picture by humans of the unknown side.

 

Two sides appear as two distinct hemispheres

Terminator line demarcates the two halves

Near side with more volcanic craters

Far side with impact and secondary craters

With diverse history, both parts differ in looks

Thus ended the ten days sojourn  of Artemis

 The Orion returned and carved many milestones.

                     …….. Narayan Gadagkar