NASA’s Artemis II mission, launched on April 1 and lasted 10 days, sending four astronauts into space to orbit the moon. This was the first lunar flyby in over 50 years and a BGSU alum helped make it all happen.
Matthew Burmeister, a BGSU alum who currently works in the computer systems branch at the Kennedy Space Center helped with the mission. Within his role at NASA, Burmeister works in the engineering directorate, supporting the exploration ground systems.
“My team is the one that built the back room servers for both Artemis I and Artemis II… my job is to help provide the correct hardware to meet the needs for the actual launch,” said Burmeister.
While he is more involved within the behind the scenes aspect of the Artemis II mission, Burmeister and his team played a huge role that many people don’t know about.
“I personally designed and implemented the hardware that takes all of the telemetry signals that come off of the rocket… the things that give us flight data for the Orion, that’s something I personally worked on. It’s really cool to look at that and think ‘Wow, that’s the thing I did!’,” said Burmeister.
The Artemis II mission was NASA’s first crewed Artemis mission. This is the farthest any humans have ever traveled in space, and it’s NASA’s first human deep-space travel since 1972.
“When I was born, nobody was going to the moon anymore. I mean, we haven’t been back to the moon in over 50 years… this is all brand new… it’s all so interesting,” said Burmeister.
The Artemis II mission had been originally planned for launch in 2024, but was pushed due to delays, Burmeister says it’s all part of making sure everything is perfectly crafted to keep everyone safe and complete a successful mission.
“It’s all part of the process of space travel… we’re figuring things out along the way. We’re trying to make sure we work through any issues because, personally, I’d rather go slower and be safe… we don’t want to rush anything with these missions,” said Burmeister.
Burmeister is hopeful that this will spark more interest in the STEM field and space travel within younger generations.
“This is truly just the beginning. We’ve been working on this for a long time, but we learn more with every mission and each time we go back we get closer and closer to creating and maintaining a permanent moon base… eventually we can use what we learn to get to Mars,” said Burmeister.
Dr. Kate Dellenbusch, a BGSU teaching professor and director of the BGSU planetarium, has similar hopes for future generations.
“I have talked about Artemis with my students and colleagues… many students seemed interested. I think the Artemis missions as well as private companies now engaging in human spaceflight are already and will continue to inspire a new generation to be interested in STEM,” said Dellenbusch.
The BGSU planetarium hosted a viewing party for the Artemis II launch and splashdown open for the community to watch.
“It was great to see so many people visit the Planetarium to watch the launch and splashdown. We had a diverse audience of people of all ages, including BGSU students, faculty and staff and members of the broader community,” said Dellenbusch.
Dellenbusch noted that the Artemis II mission was eye-opening, and allowed her to put life into perspective in a way.
“I also feel that you can’t look at the images of Earth and the Moon that the astronauts took and not feel a sense of wonder. It is humbling to look at an image of the Earth, particularly from deep space and think about the fact that every person who has ever lived and is alive today spent their lives on that small world you see from space,” said Dellenbusch.
Burmeister encourages students with any interest in NASA, the STEM field, space exploration and more to apply for an internship with NASA.
“I highly recommend that students apply for NASA internships. Someone gave me a chance at an internship … and without it I wouldn’t be here. Apply for all of them, it’s a great way to get involved,” said Burmeister.
For more information on NASA’s internship program, please follow this link.
For more information on NASA’s Artemis II mission, please follow this link.
