{"id":576323,"date":"2026-04-02T01:13:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T01:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/576323\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T01:13:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T01:13:14","slug":"new-brunswick-students-collecting-data-for-nasa-as-part-of-artemis-ii-mission-new-brunswick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/576323\/","title":{"rendered":"New Brunswick students collecting data for NASA as part of Artemis II mission – New Brunswick"},"content":{"rendered":"

The world has been collectively anticipating the launch of Artemis II <\/a>but five university students in New Brunswick are keeping an especially close eye on the mission to the moon.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The University of New Brunswick (UNB) is the only academic institution in Canada tracking the astronaut\u2019s spacecraft, Orion, alongside NASA.<\/a><\/p>\n

The 10-day mission began Wednesday evening, when Orion\u2019s crew lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It will carry NASA astronauts, including Canadian Jeremy Hansen, on a free-return trajectory around the moon \u2014 making it the first crewed mission to the moon since 1972.<\/p>\n

In Fredericton, UNB electrical and computer engineering professor Brent Petersen says he and his students will soon learn whether their months of preparations have been successful.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be encouraging to have the students involved and participate in this. Didn\u2019t expect I\u2019d be here one year ago,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t4:31
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tArtemis II prepares for launch around the moon\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The New Brunswick group is part of 34 companies, space agencies, individuals, and universities around the world that are officially tracking the mission.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Get<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGet daily National news<\/p>\n

Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you’ll never miss the day’s top stories.<\/p>\n

The volunteer program allows them to complement the data NASA is gathering to help the space agency better understand the broader aerospace community\u2019s tracking capabilities.<\/p>\n

Petersen and his students will be using their satellite dish at the UNB Earth Station atop Gillin Hall to track the spacecraft, saving data on computers so that it can be analyzed later and seeing from where signals are received.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, NASA would like the data to be uploaded as soon as possible. At least every day because that might give them information they\u2019re looking for,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t speculate to what they\u2019re doing, but they\u2019re interested in date, time, and the frequency that we receive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tProfessor Brent Petersen and his students will be using their satellite dish at the UNB Earth Station atop Gillin Hall to track the Orion spacecraft.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAnna Mandin\/Global News\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMore on Canada
\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n

Petersen says the UNB Earth Station was never designed for deep space, however it was able to pick up signals from the James Webb Space Telescope, which is located about 1.5 million km from earth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe moon is only 300,000 km from Earth\u2019s surface so it bodes well for our Earth Station being able to pick up signals from Artemis II,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He says the students selected from the university to work on this project have amateur radio licences and have been working for eight months on the technical aspects of tracking Orion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m in my last year, so I\u2019m taking every opportunity, getting my foot in the door, in the space industry (and) actually being part of a real space mission,\u201d said Olivia Ferry Rice, a sixth-year software engineering student.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

Chris Carson, a fourth-year electrical engineering student, shares that dream of having a career in space.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would love to go into a career in space, and mix that with what I\u2019ve been learning in school,\u201d said Carson.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice to be able to help out with NASA and to be able to contribute to a real moon mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Petersen, the experience is both new and exhilarating, too. He says he realizes what an important role they have to play in this mission and the importance of their contribution.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019m a student again because I\u2019m working hard to try and put everything in place and help everybody, and it\u2019s like NASA will be grading me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The world has been collectively anticipating the launch of Artemis II but five university students in New Brunswick…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[58777,49,48,66],"class_list":["post-576323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-artemis-ii","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}