Ti NASA Science, Tech Instruments Flying to Moon on Firefly Lander

As part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign, the agency is preparing to fly ten instruments aboard Firefly Aerospace’s first delivery to the Moon. These science payloads and technology demonstrations will help advance our understanding of the Moon and planetary processes, while paving the way for future manned missions to the Moon and beyond, for the benefit of all.

Firefly’s lunar lander, called Blue Ghost, is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Wednesday, January 15, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. After a 45-day cruise phase, Blue Ghost is targeted to land near a volcanic feature called Mons Latreille in the Mare Crisium, a basin approximately 340 miles wide (550 kilometers) located in the northeast quadrant of the Moon’s near side.

How can we enable more precise navigation on the Moon? How do spacecraft interact with the lunar surface? How does Earth’s magnetic field affect the effects of space weather on our home planet? NASA’s instruments on this flight will perform first-of-its-kind demonstrations to help answer these questions and more, including testing regolith sampling technologies, lunar subsurface drilling capabilities, increasing the precision of positioning and navigation capabilities, testing radiation-tolerant computing, and learning for to mitigate lunar dust during lunar landings.

The ten NASA payloads aboard Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander include:

• Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity (LISTER) will measure the flow of heat from the Moon’s interior by measuring the thermal gradient, or changes in temperature at different depths, and thermal conductivity, or the ability of the subsurface material to allow heat to pass through it. LISTER will take numerous measurements up to 10 feet deep using pneumatic drilling technology with a custom heat flow needle instrument on the tip. Data from LISTER will help scientists trace the Moon’s thermal history and understand how it formed and cooled. Lead organization: Texas Tech University
• Lunar PlanetVac (LPV) is designed to collect regolith samples from the lunar surface using a burst of compressed gas to propel the regolith into a sample chamber (sieve) for collection and analysis by various instruments. Additional instrumentation will then transmit the results back to Earth. The LPV payload is designed to help increase the scientific yield of planetary missions by testing low-cost technologies for collecting regolith samples in-situ. Lead organization: Honeybee Robotics
• Next Generation Lunar Retroreflector (NGLR) serves as a target for lasers on Earth to accurately measure the distance between Earth and the Moon by reflecting very short laser pulses from ground-based Lunar Laser Ranging Observatories. The transit time of the laser pulse to the Moon and back is used to determine the distance. Data from NGLR could improve the accuracy of our lunar coordinate system and contribute to our understanding of the Moon’s internal structure and fundamental physics questions. Lead organization: University of Maryland

• Regolith Adherence Characterization (RAC) will determine how the lunar regolith adheres to a variety of materials exposed to the lunar environment throughout the lunar day. RAC will measure accumulation rates of lunar regolith on surfaces (for example, solar cells, optical systems, coatings, and sensors) through imaging to determine their ability to repel or shed lunar dust. The data collected will help test, improve and protect spacecraft, spacesuits and habitats from abrasive regolith. Lead organization: Aegis Aerospace
• Radiation Tolerant Computer (RadPC) will demonstrate a computer that can recover from errors caused by ionizing radiation. Several RadPC prototypes have been tested aboard the International Space Station and Earth-orbiting satellites, but this flight will provide the biggest test yet by demonstrating the computer’s ability to withstand space radiation as it passes through Earth’s radiation belts while on way to the Moon, and on the surface of the Moon. Lead organization: Montana State University
• Electrodynamic Dust Shielding (EDS) is an active dust suppression technology that uses electric fields to move and prevent dangerous accumulation of lunar dust on surfaces. EDS is designed to lift, transport and remove particles from surfaces without moving parts. More tests will demonstrate the feasibility of the self-cleaning glass and thermal radiator surfaces on the Moon. In the event that the surfaces do not receive dust during landing, the EDS has the option of dusting itself again using the same technology. Lead organization: NASA’s Kennedy Space Center
• Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-ray Images (LEXI) will take a series of X-ray images to study the interaction between the solar wind and Earth’s magnetic field that drives geomagnetic disturbances and storms. Deployed and operated on the lunar surface, this instrument will provide the first global images showing the edge of Earth’s magnetic field for critical insight into how space weather and other cosmic forces around our planet affect Earth. Lead organizations: Boston University, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, and Johns Hopkins University
• Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder (LMS) will characterize the structure and composition of the Moon’s mantle by measuring electric and magnetic fields. This study will help determine the Moon’s temperature structure and thermal evolution to understand how the Moon has cooled and chemically differentiated since it formed. Lead organization: Southwest Research Institute
• Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) will demonstrate the ability to acquire and track signals from GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) constellations, specifically GPS and Galileo, during transit to the Moon, during lunar orbit and on the lunar surface. If successful, LuGRE will be the first pathfinder for future lunar spacecraft to use existing ground-based navigation constellations to autonomously and accurately estimate their position, speed and time. Lead organizations: NASA Goddard, Italian Space Agency
• Stereo Camera for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies (SCALPSS) will use stereo-image photogrammetry to capture the impact of the rocket exhaust plume on the lunar regolith as the lander descends on the lunar surface. The high-resolution stereo images will help create models to predict lunar regolith erosion, an important task as larger, heavier spacecraft and hardware are delivered to the Moon in close proximity to each other. This instrument also flew on Intuitive Machines’ first CLPS delivery. Lead organization: NASA’s Langley Research Center

Through the CLPS initiative, NASA purchases lunar landing and surface operations services from US companies. The agency uses CLPS to send scientific instruments and technology demonstrations to advance the possibilities of science, exploration or commercial development of the Moon. By supporting a robust cadence of lunar deliveries, NASA will continue to enable a growing lunar economy while leveraging entrepreneurial innovation in the commercial space industry.

Learn more about CLPS and Artemis at: http://www.nasa.gov/clps

Alice Fisher
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-2546
[email protected]

Natalia Riusech / Nilufar Ramji
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
[email protected] / [email protected]