From left: Megan MacDonald, a master’s student in electrical engineering, Olivia Gerry Rice, a computer science undergraduate, and Brent Petersen, a specialist in digital communications and a professor in University of New Brunswick's department of electrical and computer engineering.Brent Petersen/Supplied
For many space enthusiasts, following the Artemis II mission has meant tuning into NASA’s online livestream and watching the four crew members, including Canada’s Jeremy Hansen, work in their minivan-sized capsule.
But one group at the University of New Brunswick has had a more direct connection to the mission this week that they first demonstrated before dawn last Saturday.
On that morning, with the aid of a repurposed satellite dish atop the university’s engineering building in Fredericton, the team was able to successfully pick up the radio signal broadcast from the spacecraft, allowing them to determine its position while it was still on its way to the moon.
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“I was very excited immediately,” said Megan MacDonald, a master’s student in electrical engineering, describing the moment when the signal came in. “It was so clear on the graph and so visible that I wondered for a second if we were pointed at a satellite much closer.”
However, the signal was at exactly the frequency and elevation expected from Artemis II, “so it couldn’t be anything else,” she added.
The frequency was also decreasing over time, an effect called the Doppler shift, because of the capsule’s rapid motion away from Earth at that point in the mission.
Since then, the team of half a dozen volunteers, including students, has been following the progress of the spacecraft through the heavens. They made one final detection on Friday morning, ahead of the crew’s expected return at 8:07 p.m. ET, and followed the spacecraft’s signal before it disappeared over the horizon, as Earth rotated it out of view.
Data that were gathered by the group over the course of the week will be sent to NASA for analysis.
The receiver dish at the University of New Brunswick campus in Fredericton used to pick up the radio signal from the Artemis II spacecraft.Brent Petersen/Supplied
The University of New Brunswick was one of 34 ground stations in 14 countries selected by NASA earlier this year to assist with tracking the lunar mission, which launched on April 1.
NASA relies on its Deep Space Network – a series of a large receivers at locations that wrap around the globe – to maintain communication with Artemis II. But tracking data gathered by volunteer groups can provide added precision on the location of the spacecraft on various points during the mission.
“They’ll use all of that information from all the other observing stations to help characterize or to check if we’re doing things okay, and it’s an additional verification of their existing Deep Space Network,” said Brent Petersen, a specialist in digital communications and a professor in UNB’s department of electrical and computer engineering.
NASA has said the initiative is intended to help commercial and academic groups develop capabilities that could be utilized in the future when the tempo of flights to translunar space is expected to increase.
In its original call for participants, NASA recommended that each station have a receiver dish measuring at least nine metres across. However, the UNB team has managed to pick up the signal with a repaired 1.8-metre diameter dish that had once been used to pick up TV signals from satellites in geostationary orbit.
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“Ours is the little dish that could,” said Richard Langley, a professor in geodesy and geomatics who, along with Dr. Petersen, has provided faculty support for the project.
He said the challenge of successfully pinpointing and picking up the Artemis II signal provided students with an excellent real-world example of how to apply communications technology.
“It was pretty cool to share in the excitement,” said Olivia Gerry Rice, a computer science undergraduate who helped to interpret the incoming signal and its behaviour.
Ms. MacDonald said she felt fortunate that the mission was under way at just the right time for her to participate while working on her graduate degree.
“From my perspective as a younger person, I feel like interest in space kind of ebbs and flows,” she said.
She added that Artemis II – and hopefully other lunar missions to come – have provided students with a chance “to feel so connected and involved in a hands-on way with something that’s going on right now.”
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated NASA selected 47 locations to track the Artemis II mission. NASA selected 34 locations.