NASA officials announced that a network of 18 volunteers, organizations and space services will assist in monitoring Artemis 1which will send an unmanned Orion spacecraft into orbit the moon after being blown up by Earth above a Space launch system rocket (SLS). The release is set for no earlier than November 14. The selected volunteers, including two people in the ham radio community, will “demonstrate whether they can receive Orion’s signal and use their respective ground antennas to passively monitor and measure changes in the radio waves transmitted by Orion,” officials said. of NASA in a statement. (opens in new tab) on Monday (October 31). “These measurements will be made during three distinct phases of Orion’s approximately 25-day mission: the trip to the moon, its orbit above the lunar surface and the trip back to Earth,” agency officials added.
NASA compiled the suggestions in a request for information (opens in new tab) released in August. The data received by participants will be sent to the service’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program. The goal is to improve tracking information for future deep space missions, NASA officials said. (NASA will also collect its own tracking data on Orion.) “We received dozens of calls from antenna owners and operators around the world asking, ‘How can we get involved?’ John Hudiburg, SCaN’s director of mission engagement, said in the statement. “That was our answer: Show us what you can do while supporting the next big thing in human space exploration.” Participating government space agencies include:

Canadian Space Agency, Canada National Center for Space Studies (CNES), France German Aerospace Center, Germany Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), Republic of Korea National Space Centre, Earthstation Elfordstown, Ireland

Trading companies include:

Clearbox Systems Pty Ltd., Australia Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd., United Kingdom Intuitive Machines, USA Kongsberg Satellite Services (US office) Leaf Space LLC, USA Swedish Space Corporation (US office) Telespazio, Italy Vambrace Inc., USA Viasat, USA

The other volunteer groups or individuals are:

Non-profit organization: CAMRAS, Netherlands Academic Institutions: Space Systems Design Laboratory, Georgia Tech Research Institute, USA Individuals: Scott Chapman, USA and Scott Tilley, Canada

Elizabeth Howell is the co-author of Why Am I Taller (opens in new tab)? (ECW Press, 2022; with Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a book on space medicine. Follow her on Twitter @howellspace (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in a new tab) or Facebook (opens in a new tab).