The Intersputnik Earth Station in Neu Golm was decommissioned in 1996. SENSYS GmbH established its headquarters at the site in 2002. Since January 2024, the facility has been reactivated and converted into a radio observatory for schools. Events featuring talks and workshops for school pupils and university students now take place regularly.

The first official event for school pupils and university students was held on 25 March 2025. During the workshops, participants analyse radio astronomy measurements made with NG01, the site's largest 12-metre parabolic antenna. The activities were designed specifically for this purpose in collaboration with Joachim Köppen from Kiel University. In one example, pupils use measured spectra to reconstruct the spiral arms of the Milky Way and gain a clearer impression of our place in the Universe.

The NG01 parabolic antenna was equipped as a radio telescope for observations of the hydrogen line. From December 2024 to March 2025, the first Milky Way survey was carried out in five-degree increments using an analogue angle indicator. The measurement results are available online.

An NG01 simulator is available to train young radio astronomers. Joachim Köppen programmed online versions of the telescope that use the real-time sky above Neu Golm for radiometry with NG01 and spectrometry with NG01. These tools are ideal for classroom practice before pupils conduct real measurements. The pupil research centre has also supported workshops at numerous teacher-training events across Germany and supplied teaching materials. FUTURA Radio Observatory is therefore developing into an important national centre for radio astronomy in schools.

The NASA Application and the Technical Challenge

Artemis II is NASA's first crewed lunar mission since Apollo 17. The launch was originally planned for February 2026, with the aim of testing systems and preparing for future lunar landings. The mission lasts around ten days. During this period, the crew flies around the Moon and reaches a point approximately 7,500 kilometres beyond its far side before returning to Earth.

In September 2025, NASA issued a call for support in receiving signals from the Orion spacecraft. The participating ground stations were asked to determine signal frequencies precisely rather than communicate with the spacecraft.

The call invited volunteers to observe and document the Doppler shift of Orion's downlink carrier signal during the ten-day Earth-Moon-Earth mission. Source: Funkamateur.

In October 2025, Dr Safia Ouazi, Dr Alexander Stendal and Dr Andreas Fischer submitted NG01 to NASA for consideration. NASA approved the application in early January and published its list of participating stations. A total of 34 facilities in 14 countries were selected. These included government facilities such as the German Aerospace Center (DLR), commercial receiving stations, individual and university stations, and amateur facilities including the Bochum Observatory and the FUTURA Observatory in Neu Golm. NASA reported on the selection on its website: NASA Selects Participants to Track Artemis II Mission.

For our newly reactivated station, tracking Artemis presented a technical challenge that we were pleased to take on. The French station at Pleumeur-Bodou provided invaluable support. Several areas required attention: the receiving chain and electronics had to be adapted for the Artemis transmission frequency, the antenna position needed to be known precisely, and the motors had to be controlled so that the antenna could track the spacecraft. The received signals then had to be recorded accurately, analysed and converted into NASA's required format.

Preparing for the Artemis II Mission

Our team expanded to include Norbert Rüdiger for radio technology and Dr Martin Lützelberger for antenna control. The original launch date was postponed several times, providing additional preparation time.

In January, the new 17-bit angle encoders were calibrated using the Sun. The exceptionally low temperatures meant that the motors did not always run smoothly. Warm oil was sprayed into the main bearings to remove frozen water, and heating blankets were installed. At times, the crank had to be turned in a snowstorm to move the 40-tonne antenna.

Norbert Rüdiger has extensive experience in Earth-Moon-Earth radio communication and is one of Europe's leading specialists in this field, particularly at high frequencies. In the Earth-Moon-Earth community, it is not unusual to develop and build high-performance radio-frequency equipment because suitable commercial devices are often unavailable.

Norbert developed the receiving chain and manufactured components in his workshop in Dresden. The receiver was installed directly at the dish's focal point. The 50-metre distance from the focal point to the control room creates attenuation losses that also had to be addressed.

Preparations also included practical work inside the dish and welcoming a Chinese delegation in February 2026.

The old electronics cabinet for operating the azimuth and elevation motors was still functional, and the surviving documentation proved extremely helpful. Combining the old analogue technology with modern digital processors was a central task. Dr Martin Lützelberger designed a circuit board and wrote the motor-control software.

Signals from the Orion spacecraft needed to be recorded with precise timestamps. Aaronia supported us by supplying a spectrum analyser. The high sampling rate produced around 200 gigabytes of measurement data per hour, making sufficient data storage essential. Initial reception tests used signals from the James Webb Space Telescope and the ACE spacecraft.

During the Mission

During the night of 7 to 8 April 2026, on day seven of the Artemis II mission, signals from the Orion spacecraft were successfully received at Neu Golm. For the first time, the tracking system operated very steadily, achieving an accuracy of 0.01 degrees. A clear peak was visible on the screen. Dr Alexander Stendal, Dr Martin Lützelberger and Dr Safia Ouazi were at the station at 3 a.m.

Further signals were measured on day eight of the mission, during the night of 8 to 9 April. The spacecraft subsequently moved too low above the horizon for further measurements. Some of the data has already been uploaded successfully to the NASA cloud, although the analysis is not yet complete. We remain in regular contact with the Pleumeur-Bodou station in France and with other experts.

After the Artemis II Mission

The Artemis project at the Neu Golm Earth Station attracted considerable interest at the Robert Havemann School. In a quiz about the mission, the highest-scoring pupils won NASA T-shirts and mugs.

A public event about the Artemis project at the Earth Station is planned for autumn 2026. Participating in the Artemis tracking project enabled us to make significant technical progress, while our newly reactivated station gained international attention and recognition. We hope to take part in tracking the Artemis III mission in the future.