PDS Geosciences Node Data and Services: Artemis II Mission

Artemis II Mission

October 7, 2026. The Artemis II science data archive is released. This first delivery includes crew handheld camera images, Orion vehicle camera images and video, mission audio with transcripts and crew annotations, Orion storage locker temperature and humidity data, and mission documents. Follow the links to each PDS archive, and read the Artemis II Lunar Science Data User Guide for details.

Note: The SPICE bundle at the NAIF node is delayed, but is expected to be released in the near future.

Artemis II was a crewed flight test to demonstrate that the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion spacecraft could safely support human life in the deep space environment beyond low Earth orbit. Orion launched April 1, 2026 at 22:35 UTC with Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialist Christina Koch of NASA, and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency. The crew passed approximately 6,545 km above the lunar farside at closest approach on April 6, 2026, and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on April 11, 2026 at 00:07 UTC.

The Artemis II science data archive holds the observations curated by the Artemis II Lunar Science Team: images of the Earth, Moon, and deep space taken by the crew with handheld cameras, crew-recorded verbal observations and annotations, Orion vehicle camera imagery from the lunar flyby, and temperature and humidity measurements from the Orion sample storage lockers. The Artemis II Lunar Science Data User Guide describes the whole archive and is a good place to start.

The PDS Geosciences Node is the lead node for Artemis II and hosts the Mission Bundle of documents and Orion environment data. The imaging and audio bundles are hosted by the PDS Cartography and Imaging Sciences Node, and the SPICE bundle by the PDS Navigation and Ancillary Information Facility. See the complete list of archive bundles below.

Instruments and Archive Bundles

Instruments	PDS Bundles
Crew Cameras - Handheld Nikon D5 and Nikon Z9 cameras used by the crew for lunar, Earth, and deep space observations	Crew Camera Bundle at the PDS Cartography and Imaging Sciences Node
Orion Cameras - Solar Array Wing cameras SAW 2, 3, and 4; Cabin camera CAB 2; Optical Navigation (OpNav) camera; Docking Camera (DCAM)	Orion Camera Bundle at the PDS Cartography and Imaging Sciences Node
Mission Audio - Crew observations recorded on the Portable Computing Devices, Orion-to-Earth voice loops, transcripts, and crew annotations	Mission Audio Bundle at the PDS Cartography and Imaging Sciences Node
Orion Environmental Monitoring - Two Onset HOBO MX1101 data loggers recording temperature, relative humidity, and dew point in the Orion storage lockers	Mission Bundle, Orion environment collection, at the PDS Geosciences Node
Other Archives	PDS Bundles
Mission Bundle - The Data User Guide, Open Science and Data Management Plan, Lunar Targeting Package, Outgoing Target Request, label keyword definitions, and the Orion environment data	Mission Bundle at the PDS Geosciences Node
SPICE - Observation geometry and ancillary data	SPICE Bundle at the PDS NAIF Node (delayed)

Tools

DOIs for Artemis II Data

DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers) for all Artemis II bundles archived in PDS are listed below. DOIs for the individual mission documents are listed on the Mission Bundle page. Section 1.4 of the Artemis II Lunar Science Data User Guide gives the recommended citation format for these bundles and collections, and for individual crew images.