Project
NASA program that contracts US companies to deliver science and technology payloads to the Moon on commercial landers.
Voyager's Griffin-1 lander passed environmental tests at JPL and is expected to fly 455 kg to Nobile Crater on a Falcon Heavy later this year. The tests covered launch vibration, acoustics, thermal vacuum and electromagnetic interference, NASA's release says.
Reality
NASA picked a Planetary Science Institute team to test whether the Moon's Marius Hills pit opens into a lava tube, with a commercial lander and rover. PSI says such a cave could one day shelter astronauts from radiation and extreme temperature swings.
Perspective Coverage
3 publishersReality
NASA selected three PRISM science payloads to fly on commercial CLPS landers and survey lunar ice, a possible lava tube and surface hazards for Moon Base. Their findings are meant to shape where and how crews live at an outpost NASA is already planning.
Reality
Chang'e-7 launches Aug. 24 with an orbiter, a rover and a six-legged hopper meant to jump into permanently dark craters. What it measures will constrain where anyone builds a base.
Reality
A new preprint proposes a radio telescope on the lunar far side and argues the site's shielding from human transmitters expires around 2030, when orbiters and landers arrive to stay.
Reality