2021-02-04
WASHINGTON, February 4, 2021 / PRNewswire / – NASA is on Firefly Aerospace de Cedar Park, Texas, around $ 93.3 million to deliver a series of 10 science studies and technology demonstrations to the Moon in 2023. The delivery, planned for Mare Crisium, a low-lying lagoon near the Moon, will explore a number of lunar surface conditions and facilities. Such studies will help prepare for human missions to the lunar surface.
The award is part of the organization’s Commercial Lunar Services (CLPS) initiative, in which NASA is consolidating the service of commercial partners to bring science and technology payloads swiftly to the lunar surface. The campaign is a key part of NASA Artemis program. Firefly Aerospace will be responsible for end-to-end delivery services, including payload integration, launch from Earth, landing on the Moon, and mission operations. This is the sixth award for lunar surface delivery under the CLPS initiative.
“We are thrilled that another CLPS provider has won the first action order award. With this initiative, we will seek to develop ways to develop new science and technology using a service-based model,” he said. Thomas Zurbuchen, an associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This will allow U.S. retailers to not only demonstrate their ability to safely deliver payloads to our celestial neighbor, but also extend this capability to others who wish to take advantage of the method. This is a modern way to study the Moon. “
This is the first delivery to Firefly Aerospace, which delivers the lunar delivery service using the Blue Ghost domain, which the company designed and developed at its Cedar Park facility. This facility will also be home to the unification of NASA and any non-NASA payloads, and will also serve as the company’s mission operations center for 2023 delivery.
“The payment burdens we impose as part of this delivery service span a number of areas, from studying the lunar soil and testing sample capture technology, to giving us information about the moon ‘s thermal buildings and magnetic field, “he said Chris Culbert, CLPS mission manager at NASA ‘s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Mare Crisium, where Firefly Aerospace’s Ghost Blue lands on land, is a 300-mile-wide basin where instruments collect data to provide a view of the lunar regiment – a scattered and scattered rock and soil – properties, geophysical properties, and interactions of solar wind and Earth’s magnetic field.
The payloads, expected to weigh 207 pounds (94 kg), include:
- Regolith maintenance character (RAC), which determines how a lunar regolith adheres to a range of materials that are exposed to the lunar environment during landing and lander work. Components come from the International Space Station Materials Testing (MISSE) facility currently on the International Space Station.
- Next Generation Lunar Retroreflectors (NGLR), which will be a target for lasers on Earth to measure the distance between the Earth and the Moon. The retroreflector that flies on this mission also provides data that can be used to understand various aspects of the lunar interior and to address fundamental questions about physics.
- Heliospheric Lunar Environment (LEXI) X-ray image, which captures images of the Earth’s magnetosphere interaction with the flow of charged particles from the Sun, known as the solar wind.
- The redesigned Tolerant (RadPC) radiation redesigned computer system, which aims to detect radiation – tolerant computing technology. Due to the lack of atmosphere and the magnetic field of the moon, radiation from the Sun will be a challenge for electronics. This study will also identify the effects of radiation on the lunar surface.
- The Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder (LMS), which is designed to identify the healthy structure and shape of the moon by studying electric and magnetic fields. The study will require a magnetometer in addition to flight, a device that measures magnetic fields, originally designed for the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft currently orbiting Mars.
- A Lunar Instrument for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity (LISTER), designed to measure the flow of heat from inside the moon. The probe will attempt to drill 7 to 10 feet (2 to 3 meters) into the lunar regiment to study the thermal properties of the moon at different depths.
- The Lunar PlanetVac (LPV), designed to retrieve a lunar regolith from the surface and transfer it to other instruments that would study the material or be placed in a ship that could take another spacecraft back to Earth.
- Stereo CAmeras for Lunar Plum Surface Surveys (SCALPSS 1.1), which capture still video and images of the area under the surface from when the engine plug first disturbs the lunar surface through engine shutdown. Long-focus cameras determine the landscape of a pre-laid surface. Photogrammetry is used to reconstruct the variable surface at landing. Understanding the physics of rocket launching on the regiment, and the movement of dust, gravel and rocks is essential to understand how best to avoid surface materials during the final stage of flight / landing. the Moon and other square bodies.
- The Electrodynamic Dust Shield (EDS), which generates a non-uniform electric field using a high voltage variable on multiple electrodes. This travel range, in turn, removes the particles and has potential applications in thermal radiators, spaceuit wear, visors, camera lenses, solar panels, and many other technologies.
- GNSS Lunar Receiver Test (LuGRE), which is based on GPS. LuGRE will continue to expand the reach of GPS signals and, if successful, will be the first to detect GPS signals at lunar distances.
The CLPS initiative is a key part of NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration efforts. The payloads of science and technology deployed to the lunar surface as part of the mission will help lay the foundation for human missions and a sustainable human presence on the lunar surface.
For more information on CLPS, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/CLPS
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