You could help NASA track its Artemis 2 astronauts' trip around the moon in 2026

NASA is asking citizen scientists, space industry employees and other volunteers to help them track the first human mission to the moon in more than 50 years.

The agency put out a call for volunteers to passively track the Artemis 2 mission's Orion spacecraft when it launches in April 2026 or thereabouts, to keep an eye as the four astronauts aboard loop around the moon and then come back to Earth.

Examples of volunteers may include "international space agencies, academic institutions, commercial companies, nonprofits and private citizens," according to a NASA statement. You can read more about the opportunity and apply at this website, before the deadline of Oct. 27 at 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT).

NASA, of course, already has tracking and communications systems that will watch over the Artemis 2 astronauts: The agency's Deep Space Network and Near Space Network sets of dishes will help NASA with launch, deep-space operations and reentry.

But the agency is asking for help from external groups "to further understand industry's tracking capabilities," under a request from NASA's Space Communication and Navigation (SCAN) program.

"By offering this opportunity to the broader aerospace community, we can identify available tracking capabilities outside the government," Kevin Coggins, NASA's deputy associate administrator for SCAN at the agency's headquarters in Washington, said in the statement.

"This data will help inform our transition to a commercial-first approach, ultimately strengthening the infrastructure needed to support Artemis missions — and our long-term moon to Mars objectives."

On board Artemis 2 will be NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman (commander), Victor Glover (pilot) and Christina Koch (mission specialist), and Canadian Space Agency astronaut and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen. Glover will be the first Black astronaut ever to fly a moon mission, while Koch will be the first woman and Hansen the first non-American to do so.

The tracking request follows previous work for the uncrewed Artemis 1 mission in 2022, which saw 10 volunteer organizations track Orion on its trip to lunar orbit and back. The participants "attempted to receive Orion's signal and use their respective ground antennas to track and measure changes in the radio waves transmitted by Orion," NASA stated.

Artemis 2 will serve as a key checkout for NASA's larger Artemis program, which aims to put boots on the moon with the next mission: Artemis 3. An international crew will touch down using SpaceX's Starship lander no earlier than 2027, assuming technical and training milestones are reached.

None of those target dates are set in stone, however. For example, the Artemis 2 astronauts have repeatedly emphasized that their mission is developmental and, as such, the crew is not working to a schedule but instead to the pace of training and technology development.