NASA Chooses First Payloads for Pre-Artemis Lunar Research

The crewed Artemis Moon missions,beginning in 2024,will be preceded by a lunar research campaign conducted by autonomous payloads to be launched beginning in 2021.The payloads will go to the Moon on two landers that were chosen in May 2019:Astrobiotic's Peregrine lander,launched on a United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket (11 payloads);and Intuitive Machines' Nova-C lander,launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.The campaign is called the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS).*
The payloads,each about the size of a shoebox,will conduct a wide range of research that will help determine the lunar exploration plans for,and ensure the safety of,the crewed Artemis missions.Areas being covered include navigation;contamination of research sites;advanced solar cells for longer lunar missions;the lunar radiation environment;lunar exosphere studies (the thin lunar atmosphere is referred to as an "exosphere");lunar resources evaluation;lunar regolith composition;neutron radiation studies;magnetic fields/energy and particle pathways at the lunar surface;and lunar radio observatory testing.*
Astrobiotic Technology,Inc.,of Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania,is a space robotics company that seeks to make high-capability space missions practical for a broad spectrum of business,scientific,and social applications.It was spun off of Carnegie Mellon University.
Intuitive Machines,LLC,of Houston,Texas,provides developing engineering solutions services to the aerospace,energy and medical industries.It has expertise in space systems,airborne systems,and additive manufacturing,creating and leveraging modern advances in AI algorithms,control systems,sensors,processes,and software tools.*