What home will look like for the Artemis 2 crew headed to the moon
Tired of having too much space? Step into Orion, NASA's compact deep-space rental, where you and three carefully selected crewmates — er, roommates — share a single "open-concept floor plan."
Move-in includes white-glove transport on a 322-foot mega-stretch limo from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The 3 to 4Gs along the way are simply part of the… atmosphere.
Your home away from Earth comes with a do-it-yourself toilet awaiting installation on Day 1, a suitcase-size kitchenette, a free-floating gym, a stowage compartment that doubles as a radiation shelter, and six windows. But what this cozy 330-cubic-foot cabin lacks in personal space more than makes up for in actual outer space.
Gravity not included. Serious astronauts only. Must be comfortable hanging a privacy curtain if you don’t quite fit in the bathroom, sleeping in a bag strapped to the wall — and, oh yeah, remembering you're on a 685,000-mile test flight.
"It’s going to feel a lot bigger in microgravity in 3D," said Christina Koch, one of Orion's first occupants. "I’m really counting on that."
In a capsule roughly the size of a minivan, four astronauts — Koch, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Jeremy Hansen — will spend about 10 days proving the spacecraft can safely sustain human life. The mission could launch as early as this Wednesday, April 1.
The stakes reach far beyond comfort. Artemis II is NASA's first crewed mission beyond low-Earth orbit in more than a half-century — a critical test before astronauts attempt moon landings later this decade. If Orion cannot function as a reliable flying habitat, the agency's broader moon-return plans cannot proceed.
The spacecraft, dubbed Integrity by the crew, must serve as cockpit, lab, dining room, bathroom, bedroom, and lifeboat all at once. Every bag, laptop, and checklist must justify its place. The astronauts will have over 50 percent more room than their Apollo predecessors — but far less than crews aboard the sprawling, 13,000-cubic-foot International Space Station.
The crew will spend their days running demonstrations and monitoring systems. One thing they won't do is leave the confines of the capsule: The mission will loop around the moon's far side — potentially carrying humans farther from Earth than ever before.
"For me, I actually feel completely 100 percent bought-in when I get in Orion. It's like climbing into my bed, and I'll feel warm and tucked-in."
Going to the bathroom and eating
Once the launch phase ends, Koch and Hansen will begin transforming the vehicle into living space. They will set up the toilet, water dispenser, and food warmer — and fold away the seats. Afterall, why sit in microgravity when you can float?
Meals will be simple. A compact hot plate warms food pouches that are rehydrated using water from pressurized tanks in the service module. Menu options tested by NASA's food lab include shrimp, macaroni and cheese, and tortillas.
The toilet occupies about 5 cubic-feet under the floor near the main hatch. Astronauts can close a door or hang curtains for privacy. That may matter: Hansen, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut, is about 6-foot-2.
The airflow-based system resembles the American toilet on the space station, though Orion lacks its complex water recycling. If it fails — not uncommon in orbit — the crew will rely on backup urine collection bags. They can still use it to dispose of solid waste outside — a poop chute, so to speak.
To Debbie Korth, Orion's deputy program manager, the setup represents progress.
"Much nicer creature comforts than maybe some of the previous lunar exploration missions had," she said.
Exercising on the spacecraft
On Artemis II, fitness is both necessity and experiment. Near the hatch, engineers installed a flywheel device that allows astronauts to row against resistance or perform strength exercises like squats and deadlifts.
The harder they pull, the harder it pulls back. Because each motion pushes against the spacecraft, NASA will study how exercise vibrations affect Orion's steering. Engineers will also monitor how life-support systems handle spikes in carbon dioxide and humidity after workouts.
"Canada did get more than its fair share of the volume on this mission by assigning me," Hansen said. "I'm getting a little bit conscious about my size."
Shelter and survival on Orion
During the four-day outbound journey — when Orion travels beyond much of Earth’s magnetic protection — astronauts will rehearse using a radiation shelter beneath the cabin floor. After clearing storage lockers, they can hunker into a shielded cavity designed to reduce exposure during a solar storm.
For emergencies such as depressurization, the crew will wear new orange survival suits for re-entry. These are essentially mini body-shaped survival shelters, capable of providing food, water, medication, and waste removal for up to 144 hours.
Years of training in confined environments, including practice sleepovers at Johnson Space Center and cramped recovery simulations at sea, have helped the astronauts build a family-like dynamic. Then again, sibling bonds also bring sibling squabbles.
"For me, I actually feel completely 100 percent bought-in when I get in Orion," said Wiseman, who will command the mission. "It's like climbing into my bed, and I'll feel warm and tucked-in."
"A metal-and-plastic bed," Glover quipped.
After parachutes slow Orion for splashdown, Navy divers will open the hatch to assist the crew. When the astronauts emerge, they'll step onto an inflatable raft.
NASA has a nickname for it: The front porch.