{"id":234490,"date":"2026-04-02T15:05:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T20:05:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/noaas-space-weather-mission-protecting-artemis-ii-astronauts-and-society"},"modified":"2026-04-02T15:05:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T20:05:27","slug":"noaas-space-weather-mission-protecting-artemis-ii-astronauts-and-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/noaas-space-weather-mission-protecting-artemis-ii-astronauts-and-society","title":{"rendered":"NOAA\u2019s Space Weather Mission: Protecting Artemis II Astronauts and Society"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/noaas-space-weather-mission-protecting-artemis-ii-astronauts-and-society.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>For the majority of its orbit, the moon remains outside Earth\u2019s magnetic field and is directly exposed to the full force of the solar wind and energetic solar particles. Artemis II astronauts will therefore spend time outside this naturally occurring protective shield. Any overlap between periods of heightened solar activity and time spent beyond Earth\u2019s magnetospheric protection could pose significant radiation risks to the crew.<\/p>\n<p>NASA relies on operational space weather forecasts and warnings from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swpc.noaa.gov\/\"> NOAA\u2019s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC).<\/a> As the nation\u2019s official around-the-clock space weather forecasting authority, SWPC provides direct, real-time support to human spaceflight missions. Observations from NOAA\u2019s GOES satellites and the SOLAR-1 observatory at Lagrange point 1 will provide important measurements of solar wind speed, magnetic field orientation, and the flow of hazardous, high-energy particles. These observations allow SWPC to issue timely warnings if radiation levels approach thresholds that could affect astronaut safety. During the Artemis II mission, NOAA forecasters will continuously monitor solar wind conditions and evaluate any solar flares, coronal mass ejections (CMEs), or solar energetic particle events that may occur.<\/p>\n<p>The Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI), Extreme Ultraviolet and X-Ray Irradiance Sensors (EXIS), Space Environment In-Situ Suite (SEISS), and Magnetometer (MAG) are specialized instruments onboard the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nesdis.noaa.gov\/our-satellites\/currently-flying\/goes-east-west\/goes-r-series-spacecraft-instruments\"> GOES-R Series satellites<\/a> that measure solar activity and changes in Earth\u2019s magnetic field. Additionally, the Compact Coronagraph (CCOR-1) onboard GOES-19 further enhances the detection of CMEs by providing continuous real-time monitoring of the sun\u2019s corona, improving both measurement quality and warning lead time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the majority of its orbit, the moon remains outside Earth\u2019s magnetic field and is directly exposed to the full force of the solar wind and energetic solar particles. Artemis II astronauts will therefore spend time outside this naturally occurring protective shield. Any overlap between periods of heightened solar activity and time spent beyond Earth\u2019s [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":396,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,2028],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-234490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-particle-physics","category-satellites"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/396"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234490\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}