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By NASA
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands vertical on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025, at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center ahead of Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission as part of the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative and Artemis campaign. SpaceX Sending instruments to the Moon supports a growing lunar economy on and off Earth, and the next flight of NASA science and technology is only days away. NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative is a lunar delivery service that sends NASA science and technology instruments to various geographic locations on the Moon using American companies. These rapid, cost-effective commercial lunar missions at a cadence of about two per year improve our understanding of the lunar environment in advance of future crewed missions to the Moon as part of the agency’s broader Artemis campaign.
Of the 11 active CLPS contracts, there have been three CLPS launches to date: Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission One, which collected data in transit but experienced an anomaly that prevented it from landing on the Moon; Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 mission, which landed, tipped over, and operated on the lunar surface; and Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission One that is currently enroute and scheduled to land in early March 2025. The CLPS contract awards cover end-to-end commercial payload delivery services, including payload integration, launch from Earth, landing on the surface of the Moon, and mission operations.
NASA’s fourth CLPS flight is from Intuitive Machines with their IM-2 mission. The IM-2 mission is carrying NASA science and technology instruments to Mons Mouton, a lunar plateau just outside of 5 degrees of the South Pole of the Moon, closer to the pole than any preceding lunar mission.
Scheduled to launch no earlier than Wednesday and land approximately eight days later, Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander, named Athena, will carry three NASA instruments to the lunar South Pole region – the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1) suite and the Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA).
The PRIME-1 suite consists of two instruments, the TRIDENT drill (The Regolith Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain) and MSolo (Mass Spectrometer observing lunar operations), which will work together to extricate lunar soil samples, known as regolith, from the subsurface and analyze their composition to further understand the lunar environment and gain insight on potential resources that can be extracted for future examination.
The meter-long TRIDENT drill is designed to extract lunar regolith, up to about three feet below the surface. It will also measure soil temperature at varying depths below the surface, which will help to verify existing lunar thermal models that are used for ice stability calculations and resource mapping. By drilling into the lunar regolith, information is gathered to help answer questions about the lunar regolith geotechnical properties, such as soil strength, both at the surface and in the subsurface that will help inform Artemis infrastructure objectives. The data will be beneficial when designing future systems for on-site resource utilization that will use local resources to create everything from landing pads to rocket fuel. The lead development organization for TRIDENT is Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin Company.
The MSOLO instrument is a mass spectrometer capable of identifying and quantifying volatiles (or gasses that easily evaporate) found at or beneath the lunar surface, including– if it’s present in the regolith within the drill’s reach – water and oxygen, brought to the surface by the TRIDENT drill. This instrument can also detect any gases that emanate from the lander, drilling process, and other payloads conducting operations on the surface. Using MSolo to study the volatile gases found on the Moon can help us understand how the lander’s presence might alter the local environment. The lead development organization is INFICON of Syracuse, New York, in partnership with NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
NASA’s LRA is a collection of eight retroreflectors that enable precision laser ranging, which is a measurement of the distance between the orbiting or landing spacecraft to the reflector on the lander. The LRA instrument is passive, meaning it does not power on. It will function as a permanent location marker on the Moon for decades to come, similar to its predecessors. The lead development organization is NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
In addition to the CLPS instruments, two technology demonstrations aboard IM-2 were developed through NASA’s Tipping Point opportunity. These are collaborations with the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and industry that support development of commercial space capabilities and benefit future NASA missions.
Intuitive Machines developed a small hopping robot, Grace, named after Grace Hopper, computer scientist and mathematician. Grace will deploy as a secondary payload from the lander and enable high-resolution imaging and science surveying of the lunar surface, including permanently shadowed craters around the landing site. Grace is designed to bypass obstacles such as steep inclines, boulders, and craters to cover a lot of terrain while moving quickly, which is a valuable capability to support future missions on the Moon and other planets, including Mars.
Nokia will test a Lunar Surface Communications System that employs the same cellular technology here on Earth. Reconceptualized by Nokia Bell Labs to meet the unique requirements of a lunar mission, this tipping point technology aims to demonstrate proximity communications between the lander, a Lunar Outpost rover, and the hopper.
Launching as a rideshare alongside the IM-2 mission, NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft also will begin its journey to lunar orbit where it will map the distribution of water – and other forms of water – on the Moon.
Future CLPS flights will continue to send payloads to the near side, far side, and South Pole regions of the Moon where investigations and exploration are informed by each area’s unique characteristics. With a pool of 13 American companies under CLPS, including a portfolio of 11 lunar deliveries by five vendors sending more than 50 individual science and technology instruments to lunar orbit and the surface of the Moon, NASA continues to advance long-term exploration of the Moon, and beyond to Mars.
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By NASA
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Sunlight gleams off NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer as the dishwasher-size spacecraft orbits the Moon in this artist’s concept. The mission will discover where the Moon’s water is, what form it is in, and how it changes over time, producing the best-yet maps of water on the lunar surface.Lockheed Martin Space The small satellite mission will map the Moon to help scientists better understand where its water is, what form it’s in, how much is there, and how it changes over time.
Launching no earlier than Wednesday, Feb. 26, NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer will help resolve an enduring mystery: Where is the Moon’s water? After sharing a ride on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 launch — part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative — the small satellite will take several months to arrive in lunar orbit.
Here are six things to know about the mission.
1. Lunar Trailblazer will produce high-resolution maps of water on the lunar surface.
One of the biggest lunar discoveries in recent decades is that the Moon’s surface has quantities of water, but little about its nature is known. To investigate, Lunar Trailblazer will decipher where the water is, what form it is in, how much is there, and how it changes over time. The small satellite will produce the best-yet maps of water on the lunar surface. Observations gathered during the two-year prime mission will also contribute to the understanding of water cycles on airless bodies throughout the solar system.
2. The small satellite will use two state-of-the-art science instruments.
Key to achieving these goals are the spacecraft’s two science instruments: the High-resolution Volatiles and Minerals Moon Mapper (HVM3) infrared spectrometer and the Lunar Thermal Mapper (LTM) infrared multispectral imager. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California provided the HVM3 instrument, while LTM was built by the University of Oxford and funded by the UK Space Agency.
HVM3 will detect and map the spectral fingerprints, or wavelengths of reflected sunlight, of minerals and the different forms of water on the lunar surface. The LTM instrument will map the minerals and thermal properties of the same landscape. Together they will create a picture of the abundance, location, and form of water while also tracking how its distribution changes over time and temperature.
Fueled and attached to an adaptor used for secondary payloads, NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer is seen at SpaceX’s payload processing facility within NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in early February 2025. The small satellite is riding along on Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 launch.SpaceX 3. Lunar Trailblazer will take a long and winding road to the Moon.
Weighing only 440 pounds (200 kilograms) and measuring 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) wide with its solar panels fully deployed, Lunar Trailblazer is about the size of a dishwasher and relies on a relatively small propulsion system. To make the spacecraft’s four-to-seven-month trip to the Moon (depending on the launch date) as efficient as possible, the mission’s design and navigation team has planned a looping trajectory that will use the gravity of the Sun, Earth, and Moon to guide Lunar Trailblazer to its final science orbit — a technique called low-energy transfer.
4. The spacecraft will peer into the darkest parts of the Moon’s South Pole.
Lunar Trailblazer’s science orbit positions it to peer into the craters at the Moon’s South Pole using the HVM3 instrument. What makes these craters so intriguing is that they harbor cold traps that may not have seen direct sunlight for billions of years, which means they’re a potential hideout for frozen water. The HVM3 spectrometer is designed to use faint reflected light from the walls of craters to see the floor of even permanently shadowed regions. If Lunar Trailblazer finds significant quantities of ice at the base of the craters, those locations could be pinpointed as a resource for future lunar explorers.
5. Lunar Trailblazer is a high-risk, low-cost mission.
Lunar Trailblazer was a 2019 selection of NASA’s SIMPLEx (Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration), which provides opportunities for low-cost science spacecraft to ride-share with selected primary missions. To maintain a lower overall cost, SIMPLEx missions have a higher risk posture and lighter requirements for oversight and management. This higher risk acceptance allows NASA to enable science missions that could not otherwise be done.
6. Future missions will benefit from Lunar Trailblazer’s data.
Mapping the Moon’s water supports future human and robotic lunar missions. With knowledge from Lunar Trailblazer of where water is located, astronauts could process lunar ice to create water for human use, breathable oxygen, or fuel. And they could conduct science by sampling the ice for later study to determine the water’s origins.
More About Lunar Trailblazer
Lunar Trailblazer is led by Principal Investigator Bethany Ehlmann of Caltech in Pasadena, California. Caltech also leads the mission’s science investigation, and Caltech’s IPAC leads mission operations, which includes planning, scheduling, and sequencing of all spacecraft activities. NASA JPL manages Lunar Trailblazer and provides system engineering, mission assurance, the HVM3 instrument, and mission design and navigation. JPL is managed by Caltech for NASA. Lockheed Martin Space provided the spacecraft, integrated the flight system, and supports operations under contract with Caltech. The University of Oxford developed and provided the LTM instrument, funded by the UK Space Agency. Lunar Trailblazer, part of NASA’s Lunar Discovery Exploration Program, is managed by NASA’s Planetary Mission Program Office at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
News Media Contact
Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov
Ian J. O’Neill
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-2649
ian.j.oneill@jpl.nasa.gov
Isabel Swafford
Caltech IPAC
626-216-4257
iswafford@ipac.caltech.edu
2025-027
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Last Updated Feb 26, 2025 Related Terms
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By NASA
The Propulsion Bus Module of Gateway’s Power and Propulsion Element undergoes assembly and installations at Maxar Space Systems in Palo Alto, California.Maxar Space Systems NASA’s Artemis IV astronauts will be the first to inhabit the Gateway lunar space station, opening the door to greater exploration of the Moon and paving the way to Mars. Gateway’s Power and Propulsion Element, which will make the station the most powerful solar electric spacecraft ever flown, takes shape at Maxar Space Systems. In lunar orbit, Gateway will allow NASA to conduct unique science and exploration while preparing astronauts to go to the Red Planet.
Technicians install key hardware on the element’s Propulsion Bus Module following installation of both electric propulsion and chemical propulsion control modules. The image highlights a propellant tank exposed on the right, positioned within the central cylinder of the element.
The Power and Propulsion Element will launch with Gateway’s HALO (Habitation and Logistics Outpost) ahead of NASA’s Artemis IV mission. During Artemis IV, V, and VI, international crews of astronauts will assemble the lunar space station around the Moon and embark on expeditions to the Moon’s South Pole region.
The Power and Propulsion Element is managed out of NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland and built by Maxar Space Systems in Palo Alto, California.
Gateway is an international collaboration to establish humanity’s first lunar space station as a central component of the Artemis architecture designed to return humans to the Moon for scientific discovery and chart a path for the first human missions to Mars.
The Propulsion Bus Module of Gateway’s Power and Propulsion Element undergoes assembly and installations at Maxar Space Systems in Palo Alto, California.Maxar Space Systems An artist’s rendering of the Gateway lunar space station, including its Power and Propulsion Element, shown here with its solar arrays deployed. Gateway will launch its initial elements to lunar orbit ahead of the Artemis IV mission. NASA/Alberto Bertolin An artist’s rendering of Gateway with the Power and Propulsion Element’s advanced thrusters propelling the lunar space station to the Moon. NASA/Alberto Bertolin Learn More About Gateway Facebook logo @NASAGateway @NASA_Gateway Instagram logo @nasaartemis Share
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Last Updated Feb 25, 2025 ContactJacqueline Minerdjacqueline.minerd@nasa.govLocationGlenn Research Center Related Terms
Artemis Artemis 4 Earth's Moon Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate Gateway Program Gateway Space Station Glenn Research Center Humans in Space Technology Technology for Space Travel Explore More
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