Artemis II Moon Data Is Now Public: How to Explore 800 GB of Lunar Science
You can now explore the Moon through the eyes of the Artemis II crew. On October 7, 2026, NASA made the full lunar science dataset from the mission available to scientists and the public, uploading more than 800 gigabytes of data to the Planetary Data System, the public archive for NASA's planetary missions.
What is in the archive
The release includes more than 11,000 full-resolution images and videos of the Moon, taken with the crew's handheld cameras and the Orion spacecraft's cameras, along with 8.5 hours of audio recordings of the astronauts describing what they saw. It also includes images the crew annotated by hand. NASA calls it the first planetary science dataset captured primarily by humans in more than half a century.
Reports and a user guide
NASA also published three documents to help people use the data: the Artemis II Preliminary Lunar Science Report, the Artemis II Lunar Science Operations Report and the Artemis II Lunar Science Data User Guide. Together they give an overview of the mission's lunar activities and a technical summary of how the science plan was developed and carried out.
Why the human view matters
The crew, NASA's Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and the Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen, trained in lunar geology and observation. Their quick decisions about what to photograph, how they perceived color, and their discussions of the lunar surface add to decades of data from Apollo astronauts and robotic spacecraft. Their images show craters, ridges and ancient lava flows, and crew annotations mark impact flashes seen during the flyby. NASA says the findings are already informing plans for Artemis III and later missions.
How to explore it yourself
Students, teachers and curious readers can browse the data through NASA's Planetary Data System, starting with the user guide. Earlier in the year, NASA also posted a collection of more than 12,000 Artemis II photos in its Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth database. It is a rare chance to learn from real mission data instead of textbook summaries.
Quick FAQ
How big is the dataset? More than 800 gigabytes.
Is it free to use? Yes, it is in NASA's public Planetary Data System archive.
Who took the images? The Artemis II crew and the Orion spacecraft's cameras.
Source: NASA, Artemis II lunar science data release, October 7, 2026. Image: NASA.
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