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By NASA
Artemis II NASA astronauts (left to right) Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen stand in the white room on the crew access arm of the mobile launcher at Launch Pad 39B as part of an integrated ground systems test at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. The test ensures the ground systems team is ready to support the crew timeline on launch day.NASA/Frank Michaux With Artemis II, NASA is taking the science of living and working in space beyond low Earth orbit. While the test flight will help confirm the systems and hardware needed for human deep space exploration, the crew also will be serving as both scientists and volunteer research subjects, completing a suite of experiments that will allow NASA to better understand how human health may change in deep space environments. Results will help the agency build future interventions, protocols, and preventative measures to best protect astronauts on future missions to the lunar surface and to Mars.
Science on Artemis II will include seven main research areas:
ARCHeR: Artemis Research for Crew Health and Readiness
NASA’s Artemis II mission provides an opportunity to explore how deep space travel affects sleep, stress, cognition, and teamwork — key factors in astronaut health and performance. While these effects are well-documented in low Earth orbit, they’ve never been fully studied during lunar missions.
Artemis II astronauts will wear wristband devices that continuously monitor movement and sleep patterns throughout the mission. The data will be used for real-time health monitoring and safety assessments, while pre- and post-flight evaluations will provide deeper insights into cognition, behavior, sleep quality, and teamwork in the unique environment of deep space and the Orion spacecraft.
The findings from the test flight will inform future mission planning and crew support systems, helping NASA optimize human performance for the next era of exploration on the Moon and Mars.
Immune Biomarkers
Saliva provides a unique window into how the human immune system functions in a deep space environment. Tracing changes in astronauts’ saliva from before, during, and after the mission will enable researchers to investigate how the human body responds to deep space in unprecedented ways.
Dry saliva will be collected before, during, and after the mission. It will be blotted onto specialized paper in pocket-sized booklets since equipment needed to preserve wet spit samples in space – including refrigeration – will not be available due to volume constraints. To augment that information, liquid saliva and blood samples will be collected before and after the mission.
NASA Astronaut Randy Bresnik prepares to collect a dry saliva sample aboard the International Space Station. The process, which helps scientists investigate how the immune system is affected by spaceflight and will be part of the Artemis II mission, involves blotting saliva onto special paper that’s stored in pocket-sized booklets.Credit: NASA With these wet and dry saliva samples, scientists will gain insights into how the astronauts’ immune systems are affected by the increased stresses of radiation, isolation, and distance from Earth during their deep space flight. They also will examine whether otherwise dormant viruses are reactivated in space, as has been seen previously on the International Space Station with viruses that can cause chickenpox and shingles.
The information gathered from this study, when combined with data from other missions, will help researchers develop ways to keep crew members safe and healthy as we explore farther and travel for longer periods on deep space missions.
AVATAR: A Virtual Astronaut Tissue Analog Response
AVATAR is another important component of NASA’s strategy to gain a holistic understanding of how the deep space environment affects humans. Scientists plan to use organ-on-a-chip technology during Artemis II, marking the first time these devices will be used beyond the Van Allen belts.
Roughly the size of a USB thumb drive, the chips will measure how individual astronauts respond to deep space stressors, including extreme radiation and microgravity. The organ chips will contain cells developed from preflight blood donations provided by crew members to create miniature stand-ins, or “avatars,” of their bone marrow. Bone marrow plays a vital role in the immune system and is particularly sensitive to radiation, which is why scientists selected it for this study.
An organ chip for conducting bone marrow experiments in space. Credit: Emulate
A key goal for this research is to validate whether organ chips can serve as accurate tools for measuring and predicting human responses to stressors. To evaluate this, scientists will compare AVATAR data with space station findings, as well as with samples taken from the crew before and after flight.
AVATAR could inform measures to ensure crew health on future deep space missions, including personalizing medical kits to each astronaut. For citizens on Earth, it could lead to advancements in individualized treatments for diseases such as cancer.
AVATAR is a demonstration of the power of public-private partnerships. It’s a collaboration between government agencies and commercial space companies: NASA, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences within the National Institutes of Health, Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, Space Tango, and Emulate.
Artemis II Standard Measures
The crew also will become the first astronauts in deep space to participate in the Spaceflight Standard Measures study, an investigation that’s been collecting data from participating crew members aboard the space station and elsewhere since 2018. The study aims to collect a comprehensive snapshot of astronauts’ bodies and minds by gathering a consistent set of core measurements of physiological response.
The crew will provide biological samples including blood, urine, and saliva for evaluating nutritional status, cardiovascular health, and immunological function starting about six months before their launch. The crew also will participate in tests and surveys evaluating balance, vestibular function, muscle performance, changes in their microbiome, as well as ocular and brain health. While in space, data gathering will include an assessment of motion sickness symptoms. After landing, there will be additional tests of head, eye, and body movements, among other functional performance tasks. Data collection will continue for a month after their return.
All this information will be available for scientists interested in studying the effects of spaceflight via request to NASA’s Life Sciences Data Archive. The results from this work could lead to future interventions, technologies, and studies that help predict the adaptability of crews on a Mars mission.
Radiation Sensors Inside Orion
During the uncrewed Artemis I mission, Orion was blanketed in 5,600 passive and 34 active radiation sensors. The information they gathered assured researchers Orion’s design can provide protection for crew members from hazardous radiation levels during lunar missions. That doesn’t mean that scientists don’t want more information, however.
Similar to Artemis I, six active radiation sensors, collectively called the Hybrid Electronic Radiation Assessors, will be deployed at various locations inside the Orion crew module. Crew also will wear dosimeters in their pockets. These sensors will provide warnings of hazardous radiation levels caused by space weather events made by the Sun. If necessary, this data will be used by mission control to drive decisions for the crew to build a shelter to protect from radiation exposure due to space weather.
Additionally, NASA has again partnered the German Space Agency DLR for an updated model of their M-42 sensor – an M-42 EXT – for Artemis II. The new version offers six times more resolution to distinguish between different types of energy, compared to the Artemis I version. This will allow it to accurately measure the radiation exposure from heavy ions which are thought to be particularly hazardous for radiation risk. Artemis II will carry four of the monitors, affixed at points around the cabin by the crew.
Collectively, sensor data will paint a full picture of radiation exposures inside Orion and provide context for interpreting the results of the ARCHeR, AVATAR, Artemis II Standard Measures, and Immune Biomarkers experiments.
Lunar Observations Campaign
The Artemis II crew will take advantage of their location to explore the Moon from above. As the first humans to see the lunar surface up close since 1972, they’ll document their observations through photographs and audio recordings to inform scientists’ understanding of the Moon and share their experience of being far from Earth. It’s possible the crew could be the first humans to see certain areas of the Moon’s far side, though this will depend on the time and date of launch, which will affect which areas of the Moon will be illuminated and therefore visible when the spacecraft flies by.
Spacecraft such as NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter have been surveying and mapping the Moon for decades, but Artemis II provides a unique opportunity for humans to evaluate the lunar surface from above. Human eyes and brains are highly sensitive to subtle changes in color, texture, and other surface characteristics. Having the crew observe the lunar surface directly – equipped with questions that scientists didn’t even know to ask during Apollo missions – could form the basis for future scientific investigations into the Moon’s geological history, the lunar environment, or new impact sites.
This visualization simulates what the crew of Artemis II might see out the Orion windows on the day of their closest approach to the Moon. It compresses 36 hours into a little more than a minute as it flies the virtual camera on a realistic trajectory that swings the spacecraft around the Moon’s far side. This sample trajectory is timed so that the far side is fully illuminated when the astronauts fly by, but other lighting conditions are possible depending on the exact Artemis II launch date. The launch is scheduled for no later than April of 2026. NASA Goddard/Ernie Wright
It will also offer the first opportunity for an Artemis mission to integrate science flight control operations. From their console in the flight control room in mission control, a science officer will consult with a team of scientists with expertise in impact cratering, volcanism, tectonism, and lunar ice, to provide real-time data analysis and guidance to the Artemis II crew in space. During the mission, the lunar science team will be located in mission control’s Science Evaluation Room at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Lessons learned during Artemis II will pave the way for lunar science operations on future missions.
CubeSats
Several additional experiments are hitching a ride to space onboard Artemis II in the form of CubeSats – shoe-box-sized technology demonstrations and scientific experiments. Though separate from the objectives of the Artemis II mission, they may enhance understanding of the space environment.
Technicians install the Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) K-Rad Cube within the Orion stage adapter inside the Multi-Payload Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. The K-Rad Cube, about the size of a shoebox, is one of the CubeSats slated to fly on NASA’s Artemis II test flight in 2026. Credit: NASA Four international space agencies have signed agreements to send CubeSats into space aboard the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, each with their own objectives. All will be released from an adapter on the SLS upper stage into a high-Earth orbit, where they will conduct an orbital maneuver to reach their desired orbit.
ATENEA – Argentina’s Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales will collect data on radiation doses across various shielding methods, measure the radiation spectrum around Earth, collect GPS data to help optimize future mission design, and validate a long-range communications link.
K-Rad Cube – The Korea Aerospace Administration will use a dosimeter made of material designed to mimic human tissue to measure space radiation and assess biological effects at various altitudes across the Van Allen radiation belt.
Space Weather CubeSat – The Saudi Space Agency will measure aspects of space weather, including radiation, solar X-rays, solar energetic particles, and magnetic fields, at a range of distances from Earth.
TACHELES – The Germany Space Agency DLR will collect measurements on the effects of the space environment on electrical components to inform technologies for lunar vehicles.
Together, these research areas will inform plans for future missions within NASA’s Artemis campaign. Through Artemis, NASA will send astronauts to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.
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By Space Force
The Industry Day assisted commercial launch service and space capability providers in planning for NSSL Phase 3 Lane 1 on-ramp opportunities.
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By NASA
4 Min Read Washington State Student Wins 2025 NASA Art Contest
“My Wonders with You” by Dahyun Jung, 2025 NASA Student Art Contest grand prize winner Credits: NASA/Dahyun Jung A Washington state high school student with a passion for art, space exploration, and a curiosity about the possibility of life on other planets earned the grand prize for the 2025 NASA Student Art Contest.
Dahyun Jung’s winning piece, titled “My Wonders with You,” shows a child seated on the roof of a barn, their arm draped around a dog, watching a space shuttle blast off in the distance. The two are joined by three extraterrestrial beings that also watch in awe. Jung was a high school senior during the submission period for the 2025 competition, which was December 1 through December 31, 2024. The theme for the 2025 art contest was “Our Wonder Changes the World.”
“My Wonders with You” by Dahyun Jung, 2025 NASA Student Art Contest grand prize winner
Credit: NASA/Dahyun JungNASA/Dahyun Jung “The theme immediately sparked memories of the moment I first saw a NASA spacecraft launch into space,” Jung said. “That experience filled me with awe and endless questions—especially about how aliens might view our efforts to explore the cosmos. I began imagining what future space missions might look like if we ever made contact with extraterrestrial life. That was the moment everything clicked—the exact moment when imaginations started to fill up the tiny world in my head. I knew exactly what I wanted to draw!”
Jung said art and crafting have been a special part of her life since childhood. She enjoys using a variety of materials to create everything from drawings and paintings to keychains and crochet dolls.
“I’ve always loved drawing, but it was in middle school that I really began to delve into it more deeply,” Jung said. “I see everything that passes through my hands as a form of art.”
I see everything that passes through my hands as a form of art.
Dahyun Jung
2025 NASA Student Art Contest grand prize winner
“A Marsbulous Future” by Chloe Ji, 2025 NASA Student Art Contest First Place Winner, 1st Grade Division
Credit: NASA/Chloe JiNASA/Chloe Ji Jung was one of more than 2,300 kindergarten through 12th grade students from across the United States and its territories who participated in the 2025 art contest, a record-breaking number. Kristina Cors, art contest coordinator at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, said, “This contest gives the students a way to connect their passion for art with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and hopefully inspires them to continue exploring those connections throughout their lives.”
Jung is no stranger to the art contest. She said she first participated in 2022.
“Returning to the contest in 2025 felt both nostalgic and thrilling as I came back with improved techniques, more experience, and a fresh new idea that fit this year’s theme,” she said.
Jung used Procreate, a digital illustration and painting app, to create her award-winning work.
“For this piece, I used my customized brush in Procreate,” Jung said. “The biggest merit of using a digital platform for drawing is the variety of textured brushes they offer. They allowed me to vividly illustrate various elements—like the sky, the rocket’s exhaust plume, hair, and roof—each with its own texture and detail.”
Dahyun Jung, grand prize winner of the 2025 NASA Student Art Contest, holds her winning piece “My Wonders with You.”
Credit: NASA/Dahyun JungNASA/Dahyun Jung Jung’s artwork brought to life her own enthusiasm regarding NASA’s work advancing space exploration, aeronautics, and science.
“I’ve always been fascinated by NASA’s commitment to pushing boundaries—especially in space exploration,” Jung said. “Space feels like an undiscovered world, full of endless possibilities, but only a few have had the chance to access it. In many ways, NASA’s work mirrors how I always push creative boundaries in my own art. I’ve always dreamed of traveling to space, and it’s that sense of wonder that inspired my piece.”
Jung said she hopes her artwork can help to inspire awe and stir imagination in others.
“Changing the World” by Jane Lee, 2025 NASA Student Art Contest First Place Winner, 8th Grade Division
Credit: NASA/Jane LeeNASA/Jane Lee “I want my artwork to be the starting point of all wonders—a spark that takes people back to their childhood, when dreams were bold and limitless,” Jung said. “I hope it rekindles that sense of passion, whatever it may be, and encourages others to dare to dream again.
To view a complete list of winners by grade, please click here.
To view all 2025 art contest entries, please click here.
Brittny McGraw
NASA Langley Research Center
About the Author
Joe Atkinson
Public Affairs Officer, NASA Langley Research Center
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Last Updated Aug 25, 2025 Related Terms
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By Space Force
The U.S. Air Force and Space Force held its first National Signing Day ceremony at the historic Rayburn House Office building, Aug. 15.
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By NASA
NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft sits on the ramp at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California during sunrise, shortly after completion of painting in December 2023.Credit: NASA/Steve Freeman As we observe National Aviation Day Tuesday – a tribute to Orville Wright’s birthday – let’s reflect on both America’s and NASA’s aviation heritage and share how we are pushing the boundaries of flight for the nation’s future. Modern NASA grew from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), an agency created by Congress in 1915 to advance U.S. aviation. When President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, NACA was dissolved and its people, laboratories and research programs became the foundation of NASA. These intrepid men and women are the cornerstone of the world’s most capable aerospace industry and their legacy lives on today across all facets of the agency.
The most significant aviation milestones in the twentieth century were achieved through both NASA and NACA research and through the courage of pioneering test pilots. In 1947, the joint NACA/U.S. Army Air Forces (later the U.S. Air Force, or USAF) developed Bell X‑1 flew faster than the speed of sound, shattering the mythical “sound barrier.” This breakthrough, enabled by NACA wind-tunnel data and high-speed aerodynamic expertise, made supersonic flight a reality and led directly to NACA Test Pilot Scott Crossfield being the first human to reach Mach 2, twice the speed of sound, in the Douglass DD558-II a mere six years later. During the X‑15 program of the 1960s, legendary NASA Test Pilots Joe Walker, John McKay, Neil Armstrong, Milt Thompson, and Bill Dana piloted nearly half of the program’s sorties and flew the rocket-powered research plane at altitudes up to 354,200 feet and speeds of 4,520 mph (Mach 6.7).
The NASA/USAF-developed North American X‑15 became the world’s first reusable hypersonic aerospace vehicle, reaching space (above 50 miles altitude) on 11 separate missions; it provided essential data on materials, flight control and pilot physiology that helped shape the agency’s Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle programs. These milestones remind us that our nation’s accomplishments are the result of visionary NASA, Department of Defense, industry engineers, and test pilots working together to achieve audacious goals.
NASA’s commitment to aviation innovation did not stop with early experimental high-speed aircraft. In the 1990s, the U.S. general aviation industry faced a steep decline – production fell from 18,000 aircraft in 1978 to fewer than 1,000 in 1993. NASA saw an opportunity: we envisioned a Small Aircraft Transportation System in which safe, efficient general aviation planes could revitalize a critical industry. To enable that vision, NASA partnered with the Federal Aviation Administration, industry, universities, and non‑profits to create the Advanced General Aviation Transport Experiments (AGATE) consortium in 1994. The AGATE consortium developed safer cockpit displays, crashworthiness improvements, efficient airfoils, and modern manufacturing techniques. These innovations transformed U.S. general aviation, helping spawn industry successes like the Cirrus SR20 and SR22 family of aircraft, which incorporate NASA-derived composite structures and safety features.
In 2004, NASA’s unmanned X‑43A Hyper-X broke world speed records for air‑breathing aircraft, flying at Mach 6.8 and later Mach 9.6. Those flights demonstrated practical scramjet propulsion and proved that hypersonic cruise flight is achievable.
Today, we are building on this legacy and pushing the envelope with the X-59. Later this year, NASA Test Pilot Nils Larson will usher in a new era of quiet supersonic flight when he pilots the X‑59 Quesst’s first flight out of NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The experimental aircraft, designed to fly at 1.4 times the speed of sound while producing only a gentle sonic “thump” instead of the traditional loud sonic boom, will provide data vital to achieving the vision in President Donald J. Trump’s Executive Order “Leading the World in Supersonic Flight.”
Hypersonics research is another pillar to our 21st‑century vision. Lessons from the X‑15, X‑43, and Space Shuttle inform our study of high-temperature materials, flight controls and propulsion. These technologies will not only bolster national security but will also spur the development of ultrafast civil transports, shrinking the world even further. We are also investing in 21st century propulsion, additive manufacturing, and autonomy for light aircraft while also developing advanced air traffic control systems. Partnering with U.S. aerospace industry and the FAA, we will bring true 21st century technology into light general aviation aircraft, ensuring America remains at the forefront of aviation innovation.
I am continually inspired by the ingenuity of our past and the promise of our future. Our roots in NACA remind us that a small group of dedicated men and women can change the world. From the Wright brothers’ pioneering work to the supersonic and hypersonic records set by NASA pilots and vehicles, we have consistently expanded the boundaries of what is possible in flight. Looking ahead, our pursuit of quiet supersonic aircraft, hypersonic technologies, and revitalized general aviation will keep the U.S. aviation industry strong and sustainable for decades to come. On National Aviation Day, we celebrate not only our history but also the teamwork and vision that will carry us into the next century of flight.
Higher, Farther, Faster!
Todd C. Ericson is a senior advisor to the NASA administrator for aerospace research and development
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Last Updated Aug 19, 2025 EditorJennifer M. Dooren Related Terms
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