More than half a century after astronauts left their last footprints on the lunar surface, humanity is preparing to return to the Moon. The excitement over NASA’s Apollo program once captivated the world, and NASA now hopes to reignite that same sense of wonder with its modern lunar effort, the Artemis program.
NASA’s Artemis II launch is scheduled for the first week of April. This will be the first human mission to the Moon since 1972, and it should be a real achievement for the Artemis program. NASA has now released a new tool that allows the public to track Artemis II in real time.
The Artemis program is NASA’s long-term effort to return humans to the Moon and establish a lasting presence there for the first time since the Apollo program. The program aims to land astronauts near the lunar south pole, develop new technologies for long-term exploration, and use the Moon as a springboard for future missions to Mars.
The Artemis Real-time Orbit website, dubbed AROW, is already publicly available, although there isn’t much to see since the launch is still a few weeks away. It’s also available directly from the NASA app if you’re using a mobile device. The site allows the public to view data collected by Orion’s sensors and sent to the mission control center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The website is simple to navigate. You will see a visual representation of Artemis II’s progress, including its speed, distance from Earth, and distance from the Moon. Mobile app users get all of the above, plus an additional augmented reality tracker that lets you point your phone at the sky and see where Artemis II is in relation to your location on Earth. It works a bit like Google Star Map and other stargazing apps which use similar technology.
According to NASA, tracking will be available once the Orion capsule separates from the rocket’s upper stage, which is expected about 3 hours after the next April launch. The site will then update its information in real time throughout the duration of the 10-day mission.
NASA also offers flight data for download so people who want to create their own content, like visualizations or tracking apps, can do so. The data will include all kinds of things, including state vectors, which are data that “precisely describe where Orion is and how it’s moving.” This same data will be used by NASA to study Orion and make improvements to future Artemis missions.
The exact launch date for Artemis II has not been set, but the agency plans to launch the mission no earlier than April 1. initially scheduled for Februarybut it was delayed several times due to a hydrogen leak and a helium flow problem. NASA says it has since resolved both issues.
