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By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Next Generation Lunar Retroreflector, or NGLR-1, is one of 10 payloads set to fly aboard the next delivery for NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative in 2025. NGLR-1, outfitted with a retroreflector, will be delivered to the lunar surface to reflect very short laser pulses from Earth-based lunar laser ranging observatories. Photo courtesy Firefly Aerospace Apollo astronauts set up mirror arrays, or “retroreflectors,” on the Moon to accurately reflect laser light beamed at them from Earth with minimal scattering or diffusion. Retroreflectors are mirrors that reflect the incoming light back in the same incoming direction. Calculating the time required for the beams to bounce back allowed scientists to precisely measure the Moon’s shape and distance from Earth, both of which are directly affected by Earth’s gravitational pull. More than 50 years later, on the cusp of NASA’s crewed Artemis missions to the Moon, lunar research still leverages data from those Apollo-era retroreflectors.
As NASA prepares for the science and discoveries of the agency’s Artemis campaign, state-of-the-art retroreflector technology is expected to significantly expand our knowledge about Earth’s sole natural satellite, its geological processes, the properties of the lunar crust and the structure of lunar interior, and how the Earth-Moon system is changing over time. This technology will also allow high-precision tests of Einstein’s theory of gravity, or general relativity.
That’s the anticipated objective of an innovative science instrument called NGLR (Next Generation Lunar Retroreflector), one of 10 NASA payloads set to fly aboard the next lunar delivery for the agency’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative. NGLR-1 will be carried to the surface by Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost 1 lunar lander.
Developed by researchers at the University of Maryland in College Park, NGLR-1 will be delivered to the lunar surface, located on the Blue Ghost lander, to reflect very short laser pulses from Earth-based lunar laser ranging observatories, which could greatly improve on Apollo-era results with sub-millimeter-precision range measurements. If successful, its findings will expand humanity’s understanding of the Moon’s inner structure and support new investigations of astrophysics, cosmology, and lunar physics – including shifts in the Moon’s liquid core as it orbits Earth, which may cause seismic activity on the lunar surface.
“NASA has more than half a century of experience with retroreflectors, but NGLR-1 promises to deliver findings an order of magnitude more accurate than Apollo-era reflectors,” said Dennis Harris, who manages the NGLR payload for the CLPS initiative at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Deployment of the NGLR payload is just the first step, Harris noted. A second NGLR retroreflector, called the Artemis Lunar Laser Retroreflector (ALLR), is currently a candidate payload for flight on NASA’s Artemis III mission to the Moon and could be set up near the lunar south pole. A third is expected to be manifested on a future CLPS delivery to a non-polar location.
“Once all three retroreflectors are operating, they are expected to deliver unprecedented opportunities to learn more about the Moon and its relationship with Earth,” Harris said.
Under the CLPS model, NASA is investing in commercial delivery services to the Moon to enable industry growth and support long-term lunar exploration. As a primary customer for CLPS deliveries, NASA aims to be one of many customers on future flights. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the development of seven of the 10 CLPS payloads carried on Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander.
Learn more about. CLPS and Artemis at:
https://www.nasa.gov/clps
Alise Fisher
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-2546
Alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-2546
Alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov
Corinne Beckinger
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256-544-0034
corinne.m.beckinger@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Jan 02, 2025 EditorBeth RidgewayContactCorinne M. Beckingercorinne.m.beckinger@nasa.govLocationMarshall Space Flight Center Related Terms
Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) Artemis Marshall Space Flight Center Explore More
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By NASA
2 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy and Deputy Associate Administrator Casey Swails visit the American Airlines Integrated Operations Center near Dallas Fort Worth International Airport on a recent trip to see NASA’s digital tools for aviation efficiency in operational use.American Airlines It’s the holiday season — which means many are taking to the skies to join their loved ones.
If you’ve ever used an app to navigate on a road trip, you’ve probably noticed how it finds you the most efficient route to your destination, even before you depart. To that end, NASA has been working to make flight departures out of major international airports more efficient — thereby saving fuel and reducing delays — in close collaboration with the aviation industry and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The savings are possible thanks to a NASA-developed tool called Collaborative Digital Departure Rerouting.
This tool determines where potential time savings could be gained by slightly altering a departure route, based on existing data about delays. The software presents its proposed more-efficient route in real time to an airline, who can then decide whether or not to use it and coordinate with air traffic control through a streamlined digital process.
The capability is being tested thoroughly at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and Love Field Airport in Texas in collaboration with several major air carriers, including American Airlines, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest, and United.
Now, these capabilities are expanding out of the Dallas area to other major airports in Houston for further research.
“We’re enabling the use of digital services to greatly improve aviation efficiency,” said Shivanjli Sharma, manager of NASA’s Air Traffic Management — eXploration project which oversees the research on aviation services. “Streamlining airline operations, reducing emissions, and saving time are all part of making an efficient next-generation airspace system.”
NASA / Maria Werries The animation above shows the savings Collaborative Digital Departure Rerouting is responsible for at just a single airport. As the tool is expanded to be used at other airports, the savings begin to add up even more.
It’s all part of NASA’s vision for transforming the skies above our communities to be more sustainable, efficient, safer, and quieter.
Collaborative Digital Departure Rerouting is one of a series of new cloud-based digital air traffic management tools NASA and industry plan to develop and demonstrate as part of the agency’s Sustainable Flight National Partnership. These new flight management capabilities will contribute to the partnership’s goal of accelerating progress towards aviation achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
About the Author
John Gould
Aeronautics Research Mission DirectorateJohn Gould is a member of NASA Aeronautics' Strategic Communications team at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. He is dedicated to public service and NASA’s leading role in scientific exploration. Prior to working for NASA Aeronautics, he was a spaceflight historian and writer, having a lifelong passion for space and aviation.
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Last Updated Dec 20, 2024 Related Terms
Aeronautics Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate Air Traffic Management – Exploration Air Traffic Solutions Airspace Operations and Safety Program Ames Research Center Green Aviation Tech Sustainable Flight National Partnership View the full article
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By NASA
A rendering of Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander and a rover developed for the company’s third mission to the Moon as part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative.Credit: Firefly Aerospace NASA continues to advance its campaign to explore more of the Moon than ever before, awarding Firefly Aerospace $179 million to deliver six experiments to the lunar surface. This fourth task order for Firefly will target landing in the Gruithuisen Domes on the near side of the Moon in 2028.
As part of the agency’s broader Artemis campaign, Firefly will deliver a group of science experiments and technology demonstrations under NASA’s CLPS initiative, or Commercial Lunar Payload Services, to these lunar domes, an area of ancient lava flows, to better understand planetary processes and evolution. Through CLPS, NASA is furthering our understanding of the Moon’s environment and helping prepare for future human missions to the lunar surface, as part of the agency’s Moon to Mars exploration approach.
“The CLPS initiative carries out U.S. scientific and technical studies on the surface of the Moon by robot explorers. As NASA prepares for future human exploration of the Moon, the CLPS initiative continues to support a growing lunar economy with American companies,” said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Understanding the formation of the Gruithuisen Domes, as well as the ancient lava flows surrounding the landing site, will help the U.S. answer important questions about the lunar surface.”
Firefly’s first lunar delivery is scheduled to launch no earlier than mid-January 2025 and will land near a volcanic feature called Mons Latreille within Mare Crisium, on the northeast quadrant of the Moon’s near side. Firefly’s second lunar mission includes two task orders: a lunar orbit drop-off of a satellite combined with a delivery to the lunar surface on the far side and a delivery of a lunar orbital calibration source, scheduled in 2026.
This new delivery in 2028 will send payloads to the Gruithuisen Domes and the nearby Sinus Viscositatus. The Gruithuisen Domes have long been suspected to be formed by a magma rich in silica, similar in composition to granite. Granitic rocks form easily on Earth due to plate tectonics and oceans of water. The Moon lacks these key ingredients, so lunar scientists have been left to wonder how these domes formed and evolved over time. For the first time, as part of this task order, NASA also has contracted to provide “mobility,” or roving, for some of the scientific instruments on the lunar surface after landing. This will enable new types of U.S. scientific investigations from CLPS.
“Firefly will deliver six instruments to understand the landing site and surrounding vicinity,” said Chris Culbert, manager of the CLPS initiative at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “These instruments will study geologic processes and lunar regolith, test solar cells, and characterize the neutron radiation environment, supplying invaluable information as NASA works to establish a long-term presence on the Moon.”
The instruments, collectively expected to be about 215 pounds (97 kilograms) in mass, include:
Lunar Vulkan Imaging and Spectroscopy Explorer, which consists of two stationary and three mobile instruments, will study rocks and regoliths on the summit of one of the domes to determine their origin and better understand geologic processes of early planetary bodies. The principal investigator is Dr. Kerri Donaldson Hanna of the University of Central Florida, Orlando. Heimdall is a flexible camera system that will be used to take pictures of the landing site from above the horizon to the ground directly below the lander. The principal investigator is Dr. R. Aileen Yingst of the Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, Arizona. Sample Acquisition, Morphology Filtering, and Probing of Lunar Regolith is a robotic arm that will collect samples of lunar regolith and use a robotic scoop to filter and isolate particles of different sizes. The sampling technology will use a flight spare from the Mars Exploration Rover project. The principal investigator is Sean Dougherty of Maxar Technologies, Westminster, Colorado. Low-frequency Radio Observations from the Near Side Lunar Surface is designed to observe the Moon’s surface environment in radio frequencies, to determine whether natural and human-generated activity near the surface interferes with science. The project is headed up by Natchimuthuk Gopalswamy of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Photovoltaic Investigation on the Lunar Surface will carry a set of the latest solar cells for a technology demonstration of light-to-electricity power conversion for future missions. The experiment will also collect data on the electrical charging environment of the lunar surface using a small array of solar cells. The principal investigator is Jeremiah McNatt from NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. Neutron Measurements at the Lunar Surface is a neutron spectrometer that will characterize the surface neutron radiation environment, monitor hydrogen, and provide constraints on elemental composition. The principal investigator is Dr. Heidi Haviland of NASA’s Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Through the CLPS initiative, NASA purchases lunar landing and surface operations services from American companies. The agency uses CLPS to send scientific instruments and technology demonstrations to advance capabilities for 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 the entrepreneurial innovation of the commercial space industry. Two upcoming CLPS flights scheduled to launch in early 2025 will deliver NASA payloads to the Moon’s near side and south polar region, respectively.
Learn more about CLPS and Artemis at:
https://www.nasa.gov/clps
-end-
Alise Fisher
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-2546
alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov
Natalia Riusech / Nilufar Ramji
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
natalia.s.riusech@nasa.gov / nilufar.ramji@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Dec 18, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) Artemis View the full article
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By European Space Agency
Video: 00:11:10 In 2024, ESA continued to drive Europe’s innovation and excellence in space, equipping the continent with advanced tools and knowledge to address global and local challenges. The year saw pioneering missions, cutting-edge satellites and the pivotal restoration of Europe’s independent access to space.
The first Ariane 6 launch was perhaps ‘the’ highlight of the year but it was only one of many achievements. We saw the last Vega launch and then the return to flight of Vega-C, the more powerful, upgraded version carrying Sentinel-1C.
Far away in our Solar System, the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo spacecraft performed twoMercury flybys in 2024, needed so that it can enter orbit around Mercury in 2026. Juice also performed a crucial gravity assist, this time becoming the first spacecraft to conduct a Moon-Earth double flyby on its way to Jupiter.
Twenty years after ESA’s Rosetta was launched and 10 years since its historic arrival at the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, we launched another spacecraft to a small body, the Hera planetary defence mission to investigate asteroid Dimorphos.
2024 was an important year for Europe’s Galileo constellation which continued to expand with the launch of four new satellites and an updated Galileo ground system. The year also saw the launch of ESA’s Proba-3 mission: two precision formation-flying satellites forming a solar coronagraph to study the Sun’s faint corona.
In human spaceflight, Europe continues to contribute to science from the ISS as Andreas Mogensen’s Huginn mission continued into 2024. Andreas even met up in space with ESA project astronaut Marcus Wandt who was launched on his Muninn mission, making it the first time two Scandinavians were in space together.
Meanwhile the latest class of ESA astronauts completed basic training and graduated in April. Two of them, Sophie and Raphaël, were then assigned to long-duration missions to the ISS in 2026.
We made crucial steps for Europe in gaining access to the Moon: the inauguration of our LUNA facility with DLR, and the delivery of a third European Service Module for NASA’s Orion spacecraft as part of the Artemis programme.
Europe is also contributing to the international Lunar Gateway and developing and ESA lunar lander called Argonaut. These landers will rely on ESA Moonlight, the programme to establish Europe’s first dedicated satellite constellation for lunar communication and navigation.
As 2024 draws to a close, ESA’s achievements this year have reinforced Europe’s role in space. ESA’s journey continues to explore new frontiers, shaping the space landscape for generations to come.
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