posted 12-07-2020 12:12 PM               

NASA Defines Science Priorities for First Crewed Artemis Landing on Moon

NASA has identified the agency's science priorities for the Artemis III mission, which will launch the first woman and next man to the Moon in 2024. The priorities and a candidate set of activities are included in a new report.

The Artemis III Science Definition Team, which comprises federal employees and consultants with expertise in lunar science, began meeting in September to define compelling and achievable science objectives for all aspects of the Artemis III mission, including sampling strategies, field surveys, and deployable experiments.

The Moon often is referred to as the cornerstone of the solar system, and these high-priority investigations will help scientists better understand fundamental planetary processes that operate across the solar system and beyond. In addition, the team prioritized investigations that will help NASA understand the risks and potential resources of the Moon's South Pole, where the agency hopes to establish its Artemis Base Camp concept by the end of the decade.

"The Moon holds vast scientific potential and astronauts are going to help us enable that science," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. "Even before Artemis III lands, our agency's science and human exploration teams are working together as never before to ensure that we leverage each other's strengths. This report helps outline a path forward toward the compelling science we can now contemplate doing on the lunar surface in conjunction with human explorers."

Questions the team explored include how to approach investigations and key science activities on the lunar surface and how to incorporate science into the concept of operations for the crewed mission to the lunar surface. The team also solicited papers from, and drew from many existing reports outlining the highest science priorities of, the lunar science community, which has been preparing for the return of humans to the Moon's surface for decades.

"Science will be integral to Artemis missions, and we look forward to planning missions of human and scientific discovery that draw on the thoughtful work of this team," said Kathy Lueders, associate administrator for NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. "The work NASA is already doing in science will help prepare for the Artemis III landing in 2024 and maximize the science value of having humans back on the lunar surface for the first time since 1972."

As was the experience during Apollo era of human exploration, every second of an astronaut's time on the lunar surface will be meticulously planned, and the report will provide a resource for mission planners who will be developing crew surface activities.

Activities related to field geology, sample collection and return, and deployed experiments all are part of the necessary mix of work to advance a science program at the Moon. Collectively, this candidate set of activities will address the highest science priorities that can be achieved at the lunar South Pole.

The team also provided overarching context by assessing what science goals could be realistically executed during the Artemis III surface mission. NASA will develop a detailed mission operations plan when human landing system capabilities, a landing site, and other architectural details come into sharper focus. The procedures and operations techniques developed for Artemis III also will inform future Artemis missions.

"We wanted to bring together what was most compelling to the science community at the Moon with what astronauts can do on the lunar surface and how the two can mutually reinforce each other," said team co-chair Renee Weber, chief scientist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, who led the effort. "The team's hard work will ensure we're able to take advantage of the potential of the Artemis III mission to help us learn from the Moon as a gateway to the rest of the solar system."

NASA's Science and Human Exploration and Operations mission directorates will work together to integrate recommendations into the science strategy of the agency's Artemis Plan as plans move ahead for the Artemis III crewed launch in 2024.

Artemis III has the potential to enable the science community to make significant progress on many of the identified priority science goals, including increasing our understanding of how the Moon formed and evolved, how it interacts with the Sun, and how water and other resources arrived at the Moon, are transported, and currently are preserved.

posted 08-22-2023 06:46 PM               

NASA Selects Geology Team for the First Crewed Artemis Lunar Landing

NASA has selected the geology team that will develop the surface science plan for the first crewed lunar landing mission in more than 50 years. NASA's Artemis III mission will land astronauts, including the first woman to land on the Moon, near the lunar South Pole to advance scientific discovery and pave the way for long-term lunar exploration.

"Science is one of the pillars of Artemis," said Dr. Nicky Fox, NASA Science Associate Administrator. "This team will be responsible for leading the geology planning for humanity's first return to the lunar surface in more than 50 years, ensuring that we maximize the science return of Artemis and grow in our understanding of our nearest celestial neighbor."

The Artemis III Geology Team, led by principal investigator Dr. Brett Denevi of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, will work with the agency to determine the mission's geological science objectives and design the geology surface campaign that the Artemis astronauts will carry out on the Moon during this historic mission. These objectives will be defined in accordance with the established Artemis science priorities.

"Selecting this team marks an important step in our efforts to optimize the science return of Artemis III. This team of well-respected lunar scientists has demonstrated experience with science operations, sample analysis, and operational flexibility, all of which is critical for the successful incorporation of science during Artemis III," said Dr. Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration in NASA's Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "With the establishment of the Artemis III Geology Team, we are ensuring that NASA will build a strong lunar science program."

The other co-investigators on the Artemis III Geology Team are:

• Dr. Lauren Edgar (deputy principal investigator), U.S. Geological Survey in Reston, Virginia
  
• Dr. Bradley Jolliff, Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri
  
• Dr. Caleb Fassett, Johns Hopkins University
  
• Dr. Dana Hurley, Johns Hopkins University
  
• Dr. Gordon Osinski, University of Western Ontario in London
  
• Dr. Jennifer Heldmann, NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California
  
• Dr. Jose Hurtado, University of Texas at El Paso
  
• Dr. Juliane Gross, Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey
  
• Dr. Katherine Joy, University of Manchester in the United Kingdom
  
• Dr. Mark Robinson, Arizona State University in Tempe
  
• Dr. Yang Liu, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California

The Geology Team's focus will be to plan the Artemis III astronauts' science activities during their moonwalks, which will include field geology traverses, observations, and the collection of lunar samples, imagery, and scientific measurements. The team will also support the real-time documentation and initial assessment of scientific data during astronaut lunar operations. Members will then evaluate the data returned by the mission, including preliminary examination and cataloguing of the first lunar samples collected by NASA since 1972.

"The Artemis III Geology Team will have the unique opportunity to analyze the first-ever samples from the lunar south pole region, helping us not only to unlock new information about the formation of our Solar System, but also with planning for future Artemis missions and establishing a long-term lunar presence," said Jim Free, Associate Administrator for NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate.

The collection of samples and data from this region, which contains some of the oldest parts of the Moon, estimated to be at least 3.85 billion years old, will help scientists better understand fundamental planetary processes that operate across the solar system and beyond. The resulting analysis from the geology team's activities could also help yield important information about the depth, distribution, and composition of ice at the Moon's South Pole. This information is valuable from both a scientific and a resource perspective because oxygen and hydrogen can be extracted from lunar ice to be used for life support systems and fuel.

The team, which was chosen through a dual-anonymous peer review process, will have a budget of $5.1 million to lead the geology for Artemis III.

The members of this geology team are part of the broader Artemis Science Team and will work in coordination with Artemis III Project Scientist, Dr. Noah Petro, and the NASA Artemis Internal Science Team, as well as participating scientists, and deployed payload teams that will be selected from future or ongoing competitive solicitations.

posted 03-26-2024 04:00 PM               

NASA Selects First Lunar Instruments for Artemis Astronaut Deployment

NASA has chosen the first science instruments designed for astronauts to deploy on the surface of the Moon during Artemis III. Once installed near the lunar South Pole, the three instruments will collect valuable scientific data about the lunar environment, the lunar interior, and how to sustain a long-duration human presence on the Moon, which will help prepare NASA to send astronauts to Mars.

"Artemis marks a bold new era of exploration, where human presence amplifies scientific discovery. With these innovative instruments stationed on the Moon's surface, we're embarking on a transformative journey that will kick-start the ability to conduct human-machine teaming – an entirely new way of doing science," said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy. "These three deployed instruments were chosen to begin scientific investigations that will address key Moon to Mars science objectives."

The instruments will address three Artemis science objectives: understanding planetary processes, understanding the character and origin of lunar polar volatiles, and investigating and mitigating exploration risks. They were specifically chosen because of their unique installation requirements that necessitate deployment by humans during moonwalks. All three payloads were selected for further development to fly on Artemis III that's targeted to launch in 2026, however, final manifesting decisions about the mission will be determined at a later date. Members of these payload teams will become members of NASA's Artemis III science team.

The Lunar Environment Monitoring Station (LEMS) is a compact, autonomous seismometer suite designed to carry out continuous, long-term monitoring of the seismic environment, namely ground motion from moonquakes, in the lunar south polar region. The instrument will characterize the regional structure of the Moon's crust and mantle, which will add valuable information to lunar formation and evolution models. LEMS previously received four years of NASA's Development and Advancement of Lunar Instrumentation funding for engineering development and risk reduction. It is intended to operate on the lunar surface from three months up to two years and may become a key station in a future global lunar geophysical network. LEMS is led by Dr. Mehdi Benna, from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Lunar Effects on Agricultural Flora (LEAF) will investigate the lunar surface environment's effects on space crops. LEAF will be the first experiment to observe plant photosynthesis, growth, and systemic stress responses in space-radiation and partial gravity. Plant growth and development data, along with environmental parameters measured by LEAF, will help scientists understand the use of plants grown on the Moon for both human nutrition and life support on the Moon and beyond. LEAF is led by Christine Escobar of Space Lab Technologies, LLC, in Boulder, Colorado.

The Lunar Dielectric Analyzer (LDA) will measure the regolith's ability to propagate an electric field, which is a key parameter in the search for lunar volatiles, especially ice. It will gather essential information about the structure of the Moon's subsurface, monitor dielectric changes caused by the changing angle of the Sun as the Moon rotates, and look for possible frost formation or ice deposits. LDA, an internationally contributed payload, is led by Dr. Hideaki Miyamoto of the University of Tokyo and supported by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency).

"These three scientific instruments will be our first opportunity since Apollo to leverage the unique capabilities of human explorers to conduct transformative lunar science," said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration in NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "These payloads mark our first steps toward implementing the recommendations for the high-priority science outlined in the Artemis III Science Definition Team report."

Artemis III, the first mission to return astronauts to the surface of the Moon in more than 50 years, will explore the south polar region of the Moon, within 6 degrees of latitude from the South Pole. Several proposed landing regions for the mission are located among some of the oldest parts of the Moon. Together with the permanently shadowed regions, they provide the opportunity to learn about the history of the Moon through previously unstudied lunar materials.