Members Can Post Anonymously On This Site
Meet the Johnson CLPS Team Supporting NASA’s Lunar Exploration Goals
-
Similar Topics
-
By NASA
An artist’s concept design of NASA’s Lunar Terrain Vehicle.Credit: NASA NASA has selected three instruments to travel to the Moon, with two planned for integration onto an LTV (Lunar Terrain Vehicle) and one for a future orbital opportunity.
The LTV is part of NASA’s efforts to explore the lunar surface as part of the Artemis campaign and is the first crew-driven vehicle to operate on the Moon in more than 50 years. Designed to hold up to two astronauts, as well as operate remotely without a crew, this surface vehicle will enable NASA to achieve more of its science and exploration goals over a wide swath of lunar terrain.
“The Artemis Lunar Terrain Vehicle will transport humanity farther than ever before across the lunar frontier on an epic journey of scientific exploration and discovery,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “By combining the best of human and robotic exploration, the science instruments selected for the LTV will make discoveries that inform us about Earth’s nearest neighbor as well as benefit the health and safety of our astronauts and spacecraft on the Moon.”
The Artemis Infrared Reflectance and Emission Spectrometer (AIRES) will identify, quantify, and map lunar minerals and volatiles, which are materials that evaporate easily, like water, ammonia, or carbon dioxide. The instrument will capture spectral data overlaid on visible light images of both specific features of interest and broad panoramas to discover the distribution of minerals and volatiles across the Moon’s south polar region. The AIRES instrument team is led by Phil Christensen from Arizona State University in Tempe.
The Lunar Microwave Active-Passive Spectrometer (L-MAPS) will help define what is below the Moon’s surface and search for possible locations of ice. Containing both a spectrometer and a ground-penetrating radar, the instrument suite will measure temperature, density, and subsurface structures to more than 131 feet (40 meters) below the surface. The L-MAPS instrument team is led by Matthew Siegler from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
When combined, the data from the two instruments will paint a picture of the components of the lunar surface and subsurface to support human exploration and will uncover clues to the history of rocky worlds in our solar system. The instruments also will help scientists characterize the Moon’s resources, including what the Moon is made of, potential locations of ice, and how the Moon changes over time.
In addition to the instruments selected for integration onto the LTV, NASA also selected the Ultra-Compact Imaging Spectrometer for the Moon (UCIS-Moon) for a future orbital flight opportunity. The instrument will provide regional context to the discoveries made from the LTV. From above, UCIS-Moon will map the Moon’s geology and volatiles and measure how human activity affects those volatiles. The spectrometer also will help identify scientifically valuable areas for astronauts to collect lunar samples, while its wide-view images provide the overall context for where these samples will be collected. The UCIS-Moon instrument will provide the Moon’s highest spatial resolution data of surface lunar water, mineral makeup, and thermophysical properties. The UCIS-Moon instrument team is led by Abigail Fraeman from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
“Together, these three scientific instruments will make significant progress in answering key questions about what minerals and volatiles are present on and under the surface of the Moon,” said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for Exploration, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. “With these instruments riding on the LTV and in orbit, we will be able to characterize the surface not only where astronauts explore, but also across the south polar region of the Moon, offering exciting opportunities for scientific discovery and exploration for years to come.”
Leading up to these instrument selections, NASA has worked with all three lunar terrain vehicle vendors – Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost, and Venturi Astrolab – to complete their preliminary design reviews. This review demonstrates that the initial design of each commercial lunar rover meets all of NASA’s system requirements and shows that the correct design options have been selected, interfaces have been identified, and verification methods have been described. NASA will evaluate the task order proposals received from each LTV vendor and make a selection decision on the demonstration mission by the end of 2025.
Through Artemis, NASA will address high priority science questions, focusing on those that are best accomplished by on-site human explorers on and around the Moon by using robotic surface and orbiting systems. The Artemis missions will send astronauts to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.
To learn more about Artemis, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/artemis
-end-
Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov
Share
Details
Last Updated Jul 10, 2025 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Artemis Earth's Moon Science Mission Directorate View the full article
-
By NASA
6 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA instruments and aircraft are helping identify potential sources of critical minerals across vast swaths of California, Nevada, and other Western states. Pilots gear up to reach altitudes about twice as high as those of a cruising passenger jet.NASA NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey have been mapping the planets since Apollo. One team is searching closer to home for minerals critical to national security and the economy.
If not for the Joshua trees, the tan hills of Cuprite, Nevada, would resemble Mars. Scalded and chemically altered by water from deep underground, the rocks here are earthly analogs for understanding ancient Martian geology. The hills are also rich with minerals. They’ve lured prospectors for more than 100 years and made Cuprite an ideal place to test NASA technology designed to map the minerals, craters, crusts, and ices of our solar system.
Sensors that discovered lunar water, charted Saturn’s moons, even investigated ground zero in New York City were all tested and calibrated at Cuprite, said Robert Green, a senior research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. He’s honed instruments in Nevada for decades.
One of Green’s latest projects is to find and map rocky surfaces in the American West that could contain minerals crucial to the nation’s economy and security. Currently, the U.S. is dependent on imports of 50 critical minerals, which include lithium and rare earth elements used in everything from rechargeable batteries to medicine.
Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) are searching nationwide for domestic sources. NASA is contributing to this effort with high-altitude aircraft and sensors capable of detecting the molecular fingerprints of minerals across vast, treeless expanses in wavelengths of light not visible to human eyes.
The hills of Cuprite, Nevada, appear pink and tan to the eye (top image) but they shine with mica, gypsum, and alunite among other types of minerals when imaged spectroscopically (lower image). NASA sensors used to study Earth and other rocky worlds have been tested there.USGS/Ray Kokaly The collaboration is called GEMx, the Geological Earth Mapping Experiment, and it’s likely the largest airborne spectroscopic survey in U.S. history. Since 2023, scientists working on GEMx have charted more than 190,000 square miles (500,000 square kilometers) of North American soil.
Mapping Partnership Started During Apollo
As NASA instruments fly in aircraft 60,000 feet (18,000 meters) overhead, Todd Hoefen, a geophysicist, and his colleagues from USGS work below. The samples of rock they test and collect in the field are crucial to ensuring that the airborne observations match reality on the ground and are not skewed by the intervening atmosphere.
The GEMx mission marks the latest in a long history of partnerships between NASA and USGS. The two agencies have worked together to map rocky worlds — and keep astronauts and rovers safe — since the early days of the space race.
For example, geologic maps of the Moon made in the early 1960s at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona, helped Apollo mission planners select safe and scientifically promising sites for the six crewed landings that occurred from 1969 to 1972. Before stepping onto the lunar surface, NASA’s Moon-bound astronauts traveled to Flagstaff to practice fieldwork with USGS geologists. A version of those Apollo boot camps continues today with astronauts and scientists involved in NASA’s Artemis mission.
Geophysicist Raymond Kokaly, who leads the GEMx campaign for USGS, is pictured here conducting ground-based hyperspectral imaging of rock in Cuprite, Nevada, in April 2019.USGS/Todd Hoefen The GEMx mission marks the latest in a long history of partnerships between NASA and USGS. The two agencies have worked together to map rocky worlds — and keep astronauts and rovers safe — since the early days of the space race.
Rainbows and Rocks
To detect minerals and other compounds on the surfaces of rocky bodies across the solar system, including Earth, scientists use a technology pioneered by JPL in the 1980s called imaging spectroscopy. One of the original imaging spectrometers built by Robert Green and his team is central to the GEMx campaign in the Western U.S.
About the size and weight of a minifridge and built to fly on planes, the instrument is called AVIRIS-Classic, short for Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer. Like all imaging spectrometers, it takes advantage of the fact that every molecule reflects and absorbs light in a unique pattern, like a fingerprint. Spectrometers detect these molecular fingerprints in the light bouncing off or emitted from a sample or a surface.
In the case of GEMx, that’s sunlight shimmering off different kinds of rocks.
Compared to a standard digital camera, which “sees” three color channels (red, green, and blue), imaging spectrometers can see more than 200 channels, including infrared wavelengths of light that are invisible to the human eye.
NASA spectrometers have orbited or flown by every major rocky body in our solar system. They’ve helped scientists investigate methane lakes on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, and study Pluto’s thin atmosphere. One JPL-built spectrometer is currently en route to Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter, to help search for chemical ingredients necessary to support life.
“One of the cool things about NASA is that we develop technology to look out at the solar system and beyond, but we also turn around and look back down,” said Ben Phillips, a longtime NASA program manager who led GEMx until he retired in 2025.
The Newest Instrument
More than 200 hours of GEMx flights are scheduled through fall 2025. Scientists will process and validate the data, with the first USGS mineral maps to follow. During these flights, an ER-2 research aircraft from NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, will cruise over the Western U.S. at altitudes twice as high as a passenger jet flies.
At such high altitudes, pilot Dean Neeley must wear a spacesuit similar to those used by astronauts. He flies solo in the cramped cockpit but will be accompanied by state-of-the-art NASA instruments. In the belly of the plane rides AVIRIS-Classic, which will be retiring soon after more than three decades in service. Carefully packed in the plane’s nose is its successor: AVIRIS-5, taking flight for the first time in 2025.
Together, the two instruments provide 10 times the performance of the older spectrometer alone, but even by itself AVIRIS-5 marks a leap forward. It can sample areas ranging from about 30 feet (10 meters) to less than a foot (30 centimeters).
“The newest generation of AVIRIS will more than live up to the original,” Green said.
More About GEMx
The GEMx research project will last four years and is funded by the USGS Earth Mapping Resources Initiative. The initiative will capitalize on both the technology developed by NASA for spectroscopic imaging, as well as the agency’s expertise in analyzing the datasets and extracting critical mineral information from them.
Data collected by GEMx is available here.
News Media Contacts
Andrew Wang / Jane J. Lee
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
626-379-6874 / 818-354-0307
andrew.wang@jpl.nasa.gov / jane.j.lee@jpl.nasa.gov
Karen Fox / Elizabeth Vlock
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / elizabeth.a.vlock@nasa.gov
Written by Sally Younger
2025-086
Share
Details
Last Updated Jul 10, 2025 Related Terms
Earth Science Earth Jet Propulsion Laboratory NASA Aircraft Explore More
3 min read NASA Aircraft, Sensor Technology, Aid in Texas Flood Recovery Efforts
Article 22 hours ago 2 min read Polar Tourists Give Positive Reviews to NASA Citizen Science in Antarctica
Citizen science projects result in an overwhelmingly positive impact on the polar tourism experience. That’s…
Article 1 day ago 4 min read NASA Mission Monitoring Air Quality from Space Extended
Article 7 days ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics
Missions
Humans in Space
Climate Change
Solar System
View the full article
-
By NASA
On June 14 and 16, technicians installed solar panels onto NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, one of the final steps in assembling the observatory. Collectively called the Solar Array Sun Shield, these panels will power and shade the observatory, enabling all the mission’s observations and helping keep the instruments cool.
In this photo, technicians install solar panels onto the outer portion of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Roman’s inner portion is in the background just left of center. By the end of the year, technicians plan to connect the two halves and complete the Roman observatory. Credit: NASA/Sydney Rohde “At this point, the observatory is about 90% complete,” said Jack Marshall, the Solar Array Sun Shield lead at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “We just need to join two large assemblies, and then we’ll run the whole Roman observatory through a series of tests. We’re currently on track for launch several months earlier than the promised date of no later than May 2027.” The team is working toward launch as early as fall 2026.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
Over the course of two days, eight technicians installed Roman's solar panels onto the outer portion of NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Each of the six panels is about 23 by 33 feet (7 by 10 meters), fitted with photovoltaic cells which will harness energy from sunlight to power the observatory. The solar panels were designed, built, and installed at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.Credit: NASA/Sophia Roberts The Solar Array Sun Shield is made up of six panels, each covered in solar cells. The two central panels will remain fixed to the outer barrel assembly (the observatory’s outer shell) while the other four will deploy once Roman is in space, swinging up to align with the center panels.
The panels will spend the entirety of the mission facing the Sun to provide a steady supply of power to the observatory’s electronics. This orientation will also shade much of the observatory and help keep the instruments cool, which is critical for an infrared observatory. Since infrared light is detectable as heat, excess warmth from the spacecraft’s own components would saturate the detectors and effectively blind the telescope.
The solar panels on NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope are covered in a total of 3,902 solar cells that will convert sunlight directly into electricity much like plants convert sunlight to chemical energy. When tiny bits of light, called photons, strike the cells, some of their energy transfers to electrons within the material. This jolt excites the electrons, which start moving more or jump to higher energy levels. In a solar cell, excited electrons create electricity by breaking free and moving through a circuit, sort of like water flowing through a pipe. The panels are designed to channel that energy to power the observatory.Credit: NASA/Sydney Rohde “Now that the panels have been installed, the outer portion of the Roman observatory is complete,” said Goddard’s Aaron Vigil, a mechanical engineer working on the array. Next, technicians will test deploy the solar panels and the observatory’s “visor” (the deployable aperture cover). The team is also testing the core portion of the observatory, assessing the electronics and conducting a thermal vacuum test to ensure the system operates as planned in the harsh space environment.
This will keep the project on track to connect Roman’s inner and outer segments in November, resulting in a whole observatory by the end of the year that can then undergo pre-launch tests.
Now that the solar panels are installed on the outer portion of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, technicians are readying the assembly for vibration testing to ensure it will withstand the extreme shaking experienced during launch.Credit: NASA/Sydney Rohde To virtually tour an interactive version of the telescope, visit: https://roman.gsfc.nasa.gov/interactive/
Download high-resolution video and images from NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is managed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, with participation by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California; Caltech/IPAC in Pasadena, California; the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore; and a science team comprising scientists from various research institutions. The primary industrial partners are BAE Systems Inc. in Boulder, Colorado; L3Harris Technologies in Rochester, New York; and Teledyne Scientific & Imaging in Thousand Oaks, California.
By Ashley Balzer
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Share
Details
Last Updated Jul 10, 2025 EditorAshley BalzerContactAshley Balzerashley.m.balzer@nasa.govLocationGoddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Dark Energy Dark Matter Goddard Space Flight Center Goddard Technology NASA Centers & Facilities Technology The Universe Explore More
6 min read NASA’s Roman Mission Shares Detailed Plans to Scour Skies
Article 3 months ago 4 min read Core Components for NASA’s Roman Space Telescope Pass Major Shake Test
Article 1 month ago 6 min read Team Preps to Study Dark Energy via Exploding Stars With NASA’s Roman
Article 4 months ago View the full article
-
By NASA
Former Johnson Director Jefferson Howell July 3, 2025
Jefferson Davis Howell, Jr., former director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, died July 2, in Bee Cave, Texas. He was 85 years old.
Howell was a champion of the construction of the International Space Station, working on a deadline to complete the orbiting lab by 2004. He oversaw four space shuttle crews delivering equipment and hardware to reach that goal. He also served as director during a pivotal moment for the agency: the loss of STS-107 and the crew of space shuttle Columbia. He made it his personal responsibility to meet with the families, look after them, and attend memorial services, all while keeping the families informed of the accident investigation as it unfolded.
“Gen. Howell led NASA Johnson through one of the most difficult chapters in our history, following the loss of Columbia and her crew,” said acting associate administrator Vanessa Wyche. “He brought strength and steady direction, guiding the workforce with clarity and compassion. He cared deeply for the people behind the mission and shared his leadership skills generously with the team. We extend our heartfelt condolences to his family and all who knew and loved him.”
At the time of his selection as director, he was serving as senior vice president with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) as the program manager for the safety, reliability, and quality assurance contract at Johnson. Following the accident, he made it his mission to improve the relationship between the civil servant and contractor workforce. He left his position and the agency, in October 2005, shortly after the Return-to-Flight mission of STS-114.
“General Howell stepped into leadership at Johnson during a pivotal time, as the International Space Station was just beginning to take shape. He led and supported NASA’s successes not only in space but here on the ground — helping to strengthen the center’s culture and offering guidance through both triumph and tragedy,” said Steve Koerner, Johnson Space Center’s acting director. “On behalf of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, we offer our deepest sympathies to his family, friends, and all those who had the privilege of working alongside him. The impact of his legacy will continue to shape Johnson for decades to come.”
The Victoria, Texas, native was a retired lieutenant general in the U.S. Marine Corps with a decorated military career prior to his service at NASA. He flew more than 300 combat missions in Vietnam and Thailand.
Howell is survived by his wife Janel and two children. A tree dedication will be held at NASA Johnson’s memorial grove in the coming year.
-end-
Chelsey Ballarte
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
chelsey.n.ballarte@nasa.gov
View the full article
-
By NASA
Explore This Section Perseverance Home Mission Overview Rover Components Mars Rock Samples Where is Perseverance? Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Mission Updates Science Overview Objectives Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Perseverance Raw Images Images Videos Audio More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions Mars Home 3 min read
An Update From the 2025 Mars 2020 Science Team Meeting
A behind-the-scenes look at the annual Mars 2020 Science Team Meeting
Members of the Mars 2020 Science Team examine post-impact sediments within the Gardnos impact structure, northwest of Oslo, Norway, as part of the June 2025 Science Team Meeting. NASA/Katie Stack Morgan Written by Katie Stack Morgan, Mars 2020 Acting Project Scientist
The Mars 2020 Science Team gathered for a week in June to discuss recent science results, synthesize earlier mission observations, and discuss future plans for continued exploration of Jezero’s crater rim. It was also an opportunity to celebrate what makes this mission so special: one of the most capable and sophisticated science missions ever sent to Mars, an experienced and expert Science Team, and the rover’s many science accomplishments this past year.
We kicked off the meeting, which was hosted by our colleagues on the RIMFAX team at the University of Oslo, with a focus on our most recent discoveries on the Jezero crater rim. A highlight was the team’s in-depth discussion of spherules observed at Witch Hazel Hill, features which likely provide us the best chance of determining the origin of the crater rim rock sequence.
On the second day, we heard status updates from each of the science instrument teams. We then transitioned to a session devoted to “traverse-scale” syntheses. After 4.5 years of Perseverance on Mars and more than 37 kilometers of driving (more than 23 miles), we’re now able to analyze and integrate science datasets across the entire surface mission, looking for trends through space and time within the Jezero rock record. Our team also held a poster session, which was a great opportunity for in-person and informal scientific discussion.
The team’s modern atmospheric and environmental investigations were front and center on Day 3. We then rewound the clock, hearing new and updated analyses of data acquired during Perseverance’s earlier campaigns in Jezero’s Margin unit, crater floor, and western fan. The last day of the meeting was focused entirely on future plans for the Perseverance rover, including a discussion of our exploration and sampling strategy during the Crater Rim Campaign. We also looked further afield, considering where the rover might explore over the next few years.
Following the meeting, the Science Team took a one-day field trip to visit Gardnos crater, a heavily eroded impact crater with excellent examples of impact melt breccia and post-impact sediment fill. The team’s visit to Gardnos offered a unique opportunity to see and study impact-generated rock units like those expected on the Jezero crater rim and to discuss the challenges we have recognizing similar units with the rover on Mars. Recapping our Perseverance team meetings has been one of my favorite yearly traditions (see summaries from our 2022, 2023, and 2024 meetings) and I look forward to reporting back a year from now. As the Perseverance team tackles challenges in the year to come, we can seek inspiration from one of Norway’s greatest polar explorers, Fridtjof Nansen, who said while delivering his Nobel lecture, “The difficult is that which can be done at once; the impossible is that which takes a little longer.”
Share
Details
Last Updated Jul 01, 2025 Related Terms
Blogs Explore More
2 min read Curiosity Blog, Sols 4584–4585: Just a Small Bump
Article
1 hour ago
4 min read Curiosity Blog, Sols 4582-4583: A Rock and a Sand Patch
Article
3 days ago
2 min read Curiosity Blog, Sols 4580-4581: Something in the Air…
Article
5 days ago
Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, and the seventh largest. It’s the only planet we know of inhabited…
All Mars Resources
Explore this collection of Mars images, videos, resources, PDFs, and toolkits. Discover valuable content designed to inform, educate, and inspire,…
Rover Basics
Each robotic explorer sent to the Red Planet has its own unique capabilities driven by science. Many attributes of a…
Mars Exploration: Science Goals
The key to understanding the past, present or future potential for life on Mars can be found in NASA’s four…
View the full article
-
-
Check out these Videos
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.