NASA has announced a dozen science and technology payloads that will be at the core of the nation’s mission to put humans back on the moon by 2024, and two of them are led by investigators based in Boulder, while a third also has local ties.
Artemis is the name given by NASA to the project to fulfill President Donald Trump’s directive that the U.S. achieve a manned landing on the moon by 2024 and a sustainable human presence there by 2028, as part of an effort to develop the science to support putting humans on Mars.
The 12 science investigations picked by NASA to serve as the foundation of Artemis will go to the moon on future flights through NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services project, which will allow rapid acquisition of lunar delivery services for payloads that advance capabilities for science, exploration, or commercial development of the moon, according to the agency.
Many of the projects that were selected incorporate existing hardware, such as parts or models designed for missions that have already flown. Seven of the dozen selections are focused on answering questions in planetary science or heliophysics, while five will demonstrate new technologies.
“The selected lunar payloads represent cutting-edge innovations, and will take advantage of early flights through our commercial services project,” Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, said in a statement. “Each demonstrates either a new science instrument or a technological innovation that supports scientific and human exploration objectives, and many have broader applications for Mars and beyond.”
‘Cutting-edge innovations’
The three payloads with Boulder connections that were selected involve scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder, Ball Aerospace and Southwest Research Institute.
The Lunar Compact Infrared Imaging System, called L-CIRiS, will deploy a radiometer, a device that measures infrared wavelengths of light, to explore the moon’s surface composition, map its surface temperature distribution, and show the instrument’s viability for future lunar resource utilization initiatives.
It will ride along with one of three robotic landers that will alight on the moon’s surface in the next few years, which are important steps toward NASA’s goal of the manned landing by 2024. It’s principal investigator is Paul Hayne, a planetary scientist at CU Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. It was developed in partnership with Ball Aerospace.
A second Boulder-based contribution to the NASA program is the Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder, designed to characterize the structure and composition of the moon’s crust, by studying electric and magnetic fields. The investigation will make use of a flight-spare magnetometer, a device that measures magnetic fields, originally made for the MAVEN spacecraft — another mission with direct Boulder ties — which is currently orbiting Mars.
Its principal investigator is Robert Grimm of Southwest Research Institute.
In an email on Tuesday, Hayne said “I’m thrilled that NASA selected L-CIRiS, and grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the Artemis program. We’ve developed a great instrument in a small package.
“My team and I are looking forward to getting the first thermal infrared images from the lunar surface.”
It’s not known when Hayne’s contribution will head for the moon. He said the delivery schedule requires him to deliver it to NASA within two years, and that with an anticipated start date later this year, a launch could come as early as mid-2021.
Finally, CU Boulder’s Jack Burns is a co-investigator on the Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment, which will be the first radio telescope on the Moon’s surface. The lead investigator on that one is Stuart Bale at the University of California Berkeley.
“It is exciting to see so many lunar science instruments originating here in Boulder,” said Burns, a CU Boulder professor of astrophysics and planetary science and also vice president emeritus for academic affairs and research at the university. “We are quickly becoming a center for moon-based science to match Colorado’s leadership in Mars studies with MAVEN.”
To the moon’s polar regions
Much remains unknown about the formation of the moon, and Hayne believes his experiment could help unravel the mystery.
“There is little debate that the Moon formed through the impact of a Mars-sized planet with the early Earth,” he said. “What happened afterwards is still debated. One theory is that the Moon’s crust formed on top of a global ‘magma ocean,’ followed by volcanic eruptions producing the dark lava plains we see on the nearside. L-CIRiS will make compositional measurements that will help identify the rocky remnants of the magma ocean, volcanism, and impact cratering.”
Hayne said his project will make the first infrared maps from the lunar surface, using thermal images to determine the physical properties of its surface materials, leading to an understanding of how the moon’s surface interacts with its space environment. Resulting data also will help plan future missions by identifying hazardous rocks and low-density soil.
“We are also hopeful that L-CIRiS might go on a lander to the Moon’s polar regions, where we can locate cold shadows where water ice deposits may exist,” Hayne said.
Grimm, director of space studies at Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, could not be reached for comment. But on his website he describes himself as a geophysicist with interests in both planetary and terrestrial exploration, whose past work includes study of the geodynamics of Venus and the thermal collisional and hydrogeological histories of meteorite parent bodies.
“I am interested in developing new instruments and missions, particularly for Mars exploration, Grimm states on his website. “Supporting facilities provide laboratory and field ground-truth for instrument development and testing. My current research focuses on the geophysics and hydrogeology of Mars and asteroids, and electromagnetic sounding of planetary interiors.”
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