#ArtemisII is the second of three planned
#lunar #missions. Artemis I was a test mission in 2022, during which the US American
#Orion spacecraft orbited the Moon unmanned from November 16 to December 11, 2022.
Now
#NASA has prepared another
#testflight, this time with a
#crew.
The system, consisting of the Space Launch System
#rocket and the Orion capsule, has been transported to the launch pad at the
#KennedySpaceCenter in Florida. The launch is scheduled for early February ("no earlier than February 6, 2026"). A "wet dress
#rehearsal," essentially a
#groundtest, will be conducted at the end of January. During this rehearsal, all procedures except the actual launch will be practiced on the ground.
On board the space mission, which will be the first
#crewedmission to the Moon since
#Apollo 17 in 1972, will be the astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Jeremy Hansen. The lunar
#flyby will serve to test systems that will be used during the landing on the subsequent Artemis III mission. Medical tests are also part of Artemis II, as are checks of all technical procedures.
As with the Europa Clipper mission, which launched to Jupiter's moon Europa in 2024, and where the "Message in a bottle" project allowed interested citizens to participate by having their name engraved along with a poem, NASA is also offering the opportunity to
#participate #byname in the Artemis II mission. 1.5 million names are expected to be included in the mission, requiring only free registration. Participants receive a
#boardingpass with their name on it. Interested people are informed that their submitted names will be included on an
#SDcard during the trip. There is also an option to subscribe via email to receive the latest NASA information.
I am very interested in
#futurespacemissions and therefore couldn't resist registering by name to stay informed. My boarding pass is attached below. Furthermore, I created an own AI-assisted illustration showing what it might look like to see the Moon up close from the window of the Orion capsule.
When you want to
#signup with your name to the mission, you'll find the form here:
go.nasa.gov/artemisnames
I consider the lunar mission, especially after the completion of Artemis III and preparations for establishing a permanent
#researchstation there, to be highly promising for the future. This is not only because of the mineral and water
#resources available on the Moon, but above all because humanity will gain invaluable new insights, particularly in the
#naturalsciences, through long-term
#researchprojects there. Furthermore, these lunar missions also serve as preparation for manned missions to
#Mars.
But first, even seemingly mundane tasks will have to be learned anew on the Moon. For example, how to construct stable
#roads despite the
#lunargravity.
©
#StefanFWirth Berlin January 2026
Further reading:
NASA information about the Artemis II mission:
nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii/
Ginés-Palomares, JC. et al.
#Laser melting
#manufacturing of large elements of lunar regolith simulant for
#paving on the Moon. Sci Rep 13, 15593 (2023).
doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-4…
#Pictures
1) My boardingpass
2) my
#AI assisted artistic
#illustration, © Stefan F. Wirth 2026