NASA seeks volunteers for first crewed moon mission in over 50 years

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is looking for volunteers for its first crewed trip to the moon in the next 50 years.

Since the Apollo program, no crewed missions had ventured beyond the Earth’s orbit. Now, Artemis II is set to carry four astronauts on a 10-day lunar fly-by in April 2026.

NASA is crowdsourcing support and seeking volunteers with ground station capability.

According to the New York Post, expertise in capturing and consistently monitoring the Orion signal is essential for anyone interested in applying to be a volunteer, adding, "the ability to generate and document one-way Doppler tracking data is also necessary.”

The volunteers will do a sort of deep space radio broadcast as they’ll have to record and report the Orion’s S-band signal as the Artemis II completes its lunar fly-by and return.

NASA’s Deputy Associate Administrator for their Space Communication and Navigation program said, “By offering this opportunity to the broader aerospace community, we can identify available tracking capabilities outside the government.”

Artemis I was an unmanned mission carried out in 2022 and now NASA is planning to send four astronauts on a lunar fly-by.

The space agency suggests that the upcoming mission serve as a systems and hardware check for crewed deep space exploration.