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NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
October 29, 2024
NGC 602: Stars Versus Pillars from Webb
Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, P. Zeidler, E. Sabbi, A. Nota, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)
Explanation: The stars are destroying the pillars. More specifically, some of the newly formed stars in the image center are emitting light so energetic that is evaporating the gas and dust in the surrounding pillars. Simultaneously, the pillars themselves are still trying to form new stars. The whole setting is the star cluster NGC 602, and this new vista was taken by the Webb Space Telescope in multiple infrared colors. In comparison, a roll-over image shows the same star cluster in visible light, taken previously by the Hubble Space Telescope. NGC 602 is located near the perimeter of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a small satellite galaxy of our Milky Way galaxy. At the estimated distance of the SMC, the featured picture spans about 200 light-years. A tantalizing assortment of background galaxies are also visible mostly around the edges that are at least hundreds of millions of light-years beyond.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
New NASA Instrument for Studying Snowpack Completes Airborne Testing
Oct 29, 2024
Summer heat has significant effects in the mountainous regions of the western United States.
Melted snow washes from snowy peaks into the rivers, reservoirs, and streams that supply millions of Americans with freshwater—as much as 75% of the annual freshwater supply for some states.
But as climate change brings winter temperatures to new highs, these summer rushes of freshwater can sometimes slow to a trickle.
“The runoff supports cities most people wouldn’t expect,” explained Chris Derksen, a glaciologist and Research Scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.
“Big cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles get water from snowmelt.”
To forecast snowmelt with greater accuracy, NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) and a team of researchers from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, are developing SNOWWI, a dual-frequency synthetic aperture radar that could one day be the cornerstone of future missions dedicated to measuring snow mass on a global scale – something the science community lacks.
SNOWWI aims to fill this technology gap.
In January and March 2024, the SNOWWI research team passed a key milestone, flying their prototype for the first time aboard a small, twin-engine aircraft in Grand Mesa, Colorado, and gathering useful data on the area’s winter snowfields.
"I'd say the big development is that we've gone from pieces of hardware in a lab to something that makes meaningful data," explained Paul Siqueira, professor of engineering at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and principal investigator for SNOWWI.
SNOWWI stands for Snow Water-equivalent Wide Swath Interferometer and Scatterometer.
The instrument probes snowpack with two Ku-band radar signals: a high-frequency signal that interacts with individual snow grains, and a low-frequency signal that passes through the snowpack to the ground.
The high-frequency signal gives researchers a clear look at the consistency of the snowpack, while the low-frequency signal helps researchers determine its total depth.
“Having two frequencies allows us to better separate the influence of the snow microstructure from the influence of the snow depth,” said Derksen, who participated in the Grand Mesa field campaign.
“One frequency is good, two frequencies are better.” As both of those scattered signals interact with the snowpack and bounce back towards the instrument, they lose energy.
SNOWWI measures that lost energy, and researchers later correlate those losses to features within the snowpack, especially its depth, density, and mass.
From an airborne platform with an altitude of 2.5 miles (4 kilometers), SNOWWI could map 40 square miles (100 square kilometers) of snowy terrain in just 30 minutes.
From space, SNOWWI’s coverage would be even greater. Siqueira is working with Capella Space to develop a space-ready SNOWWI for satellite missions.
But there’s still much work to be done before SNOWWI visits space. Siqueira plans to lead another field campaign, this time in the mountains of Idaho.
Grand Mesa is relatively flat, and Siqueira wants to see how well SNOWWI can measure snowpack tucked in the folds of complex, asymmetrical terrain.
For Derksen, who spends much of his time quantifying the freshwater content of snowpack in Canada, having a reliable database of global snowpack measurements would be game-changing.
“Snowmelt is money. It has intrinsic economic value,” he said. “If you want your salmon to run in mountain streams in the spring, you must have snowmelt. But unlike other natural resources, at this time, we really can’t monitor it very well.”
For information about opportunities to collaborate with NASA on novel, Earth-observing instruments, see ESTO’s catalog of open solicitations with its Instrument Incubator Program here.
https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/science-enabling-technology/new-nasa-instrument-for-studying-snowpack-completes-airborne-testing/
Gateway: Centering Science
Oct 29, 2024
Stephanie Dudley sits at the intersection of human spaceflight and science for Gateway, humanity’s first lunar space station that will host astronauts and unique scientific investigations.
Gateway’s mission integration and utilization manager, Dudley recently posed for this photo in a high-fidelity mockup of the space station’s HALO (Habitation and Logistics Outpost), where astronauts will live, conduct science, and prepare for missions to investigate the lunar South Pole region.
Dudley works with NASA’s partner space agencies and academia to identify science opportunities on Gateway.
HALO will host various science experiments, including the Heliophysics Environmental and Radiation Measurement Experiment Suite, led by NASA, and the Internal Dosimeter Array, led by ESA (European Space Agency) and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency).
The heliophysics experiment will fly on HALO’s exterior, and the dosimeter will be housed inside Gateway in a series of racks, mockups of which are shown to the right of Dudley in the image above.
Both experiments will study solar and cosmic radiation to help the science community better understand how to protect astronauts and hardware during deep space travels to places like Mars.
“We are building [Gateway] for a 15-year lifespan, but definitely hope that we go longer than that,” Dudley recently said on Houston We Have a Podcast.
“And so that many years of scientific study in a place where humans have never worked and lived long-term, Gateway is going to allow us to do that.”
Dudley pulls double duty as a deputy director for the Exploration Operations Office within NASA’s Moon to Mars Program, a role that connects her to Artemis science beyond Gateway, including science investigations on the Orion and Human Landing System spacecraft and lunar terrain vehicle.
“My work…is helping to make sure that across all of the six [Artemis] programs, including Gateway, we’re all focusing on utilization in the same way,” Dudley said.
Dudley’s team coordinates science payloads for Artemis II, the first mission to send humans to the Moon since 1972, and Artemis III, the first landing in the lunar South Pole region that is of keen interest to the global science community.
Gateway’s HALO will launch with the space station’s Power and Propulsion Element ahead of the Artemis IV mission in 2028, the first lunar mission to include an orbiting space station.
“Gateway sounds so science fiction, but it’s real,” Dudley recently said. “And we’re building it. And in a few years, it’s going to be around the Moon and that’s when the real work, the fun work in my opinion, is going to begin and science will never be the same.”
Gateway is humanity’s first lunar space station as a central component of the Artemis campaign that will return humans to the Moon for scientific discovery and chart a path for the first human missions to Mars.
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/artemis/gateway/gateway-centering-science/
Sols 4345-4347: Contact Science is Back on the Table
Oct 28, 2024
The changes to the plan Wednesday, moving the drive a sol earlier, meant that we started off planning this morning about 18 meters (about 59 feet) farther along the western edge of Gediz Vallis and with all the data we needed for planning.
This included the knowledge that once again one of Curiosity’s wheels was perched on a rock.
Luckily, unlike on Wednesday, it was determined that it was safe to still go ahead with full contact science for this weekend.
This consisted of two targets “Mount Brewer” and “Reef Lake,” two targets on the top and side of the same block.
Aside from the contact science, Curiosity has three sols to fill with remote imaging. The first two sols include “targeted science,” which means all the imaging of specific targets in our current workspace.
Then, after we drive away on the second sol, we fill the final sol of the plan with “untargeted science,” where we care less about knowing exactly where the rover is ahead of time.
A lot of the environmental team’s (or ENV) activities fall under this umbrella, which is why our dedicated “ENV Science Block” (about 30 minutes of environmental activities one morning every weekend) tends to fall at the end of a weekend plan.
But that’s getting ahead of myself. The weekend plan starts off with two ENV activities — a dust devil movie and a suprahorizon cloud movie.
While cloud movies are almost always pointed in the same direction, our dust devil movie has to be specifically targeted. Recently we’ve been looking southeast toward a more sandy area (which you can see above), to see if we can catch dust lifting there.
After those movies we hand the reins back over to the geology team (or GEO) for ChemCam observations of Reef Lake and “Poison Meadow.”
Mastcam will follow this up with its own observations of Reef Lake and the AEGIS target from Wednesday’s plan.
The rover gets some well-deserved rest before waking up for the contact science I talked about above, followed by a late evening Mastcam mosaic of “Fascination Turret,” a part of Gediz Vallis ridge that we’ve seen before.
We’re driving away on the second sol, but before that we have about another hour of science.
ChemCam and Mastcam both have observations of “Heaven Lake” and the upper Gediz Vallis ridge, and ENV has a line-of-sight observation, to see how much dust is in the crater, and a pre-drive deck monitoring image to see if any dust moves around on the rover deck due to either driving or wind. Curiosity gets a short nap before a further drive of about 25 meters (about 82 feet).
The last sol of the weekend is a ChemCam special. AEGIS will autonomously choose a target for imaging, and then ChemCam has a passive sky observation to examine changing amounts of atmospheric gases. The weekend doesn’t end at midnight, though — we wake up in the morning for the promised morning ENV block, which we’ve filled with two cloud movies, another line-of-sight, and a tau observation to see how dusty the atmosphere is.
https://science.nasa.gov/blog/sols-4345-4347-contact-science-is-back-on-the-table/
Perseverance's Mid-Climb View of Jezero Crater
Oct. 28, 2024
This enhanced-color, high-resolution mosaic showing Mars' Jezero Crater was taken by the Mastcam-Z instrument on NASA's Perseverance as the rover climbed the crater's western wall. Many of the landmarks visited by the rover during its 3½-year exploration of Jezero can be seen, and the vehicle's tracks are also visible.
The 44 frames used to generate the mosaic were acquired on Sept. 27, 2024, the 1,282nd Martian day, or sol, of Perseverance's mission. The rover was near a location the Perseverance science team calls "Faraway Rock," about halfway up the climb.
Figure A is a version of the enhanced-color mosaic with annotations showing the distance (in kilometers) between the rover and nearly 50 labeled points of interest.
The locations labeled include, from left:
Tuff Cliff, a rocky outcrop located in the same river channel (and about 480 meters east of) where Perseverance discovered the "Cheyava Falls" rock
Ingenuity's final airfield, which is called "Valinor Hills"
"Beehive Geyser," located on the eastern side of the "Margin Unit" and adjacent to the Neretva Vallis channel
"Bunsen Peak" is where Perseverance extracted its 21st rock core
"Jurabi Point" is a "triple junction" where the boulder-rich unit, upper fan sedimentary rock, and Margin Unit intersect
Both Perseverance and Ingenuity operated at "Gnaraloo Bay" is a "triple junction" where the boulder-rich unit, upper fan sedimentary rock, and Margin Unit intersect
" in December 2023
"Mandu Wall" is where the rover began its fourth science campaign on Sept. 7, 2023
"Hans Amundsen M.W.," which stands for "memorial workspace," is where Perseverance collected the "Pelican Point" cored rock sample on Sept. 25, 2023
"Three Forks" is the name of the location where Perseverance deposited 10 of its filled tubes in December 2022 and January 2023
Belva Crater was imaged by Perseverance on April 22, 2023
"Pinestand" is an isolated hill that mission scientists think was formed billions of years ago by a deep, fast-moving river. Composed of sedimentary layers stacked on top of one another, this site was imaged but not visited by the rover.
The landing site is where the rover touched down on Feb. 18, 2021
"Cape Nukshak" is a river channel the mission considered as a route to get to the river delta. The team decided to use another river-channel route called "Hawksbill Gap."
"Enchanted Lake" is where the mission first got its first up-close look at sedimentary rocks
The flat-topped hill nicknamed "Kodiak" was imaged by the rover on April 18, 2021
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/pia26378-perseverances-mid-climb-view-of-jezero-crater/
Planets Beware: NASA Unburies Danger Zones of Star Cluster
Oct 28, 2024
Most stars form in collections, called clusters or associations, that include very massive stars.
These giant stars send out large amounts of high-energy radiation, which can disrupt relatively fragile disks of dust and gas that are in the process of coalescing to form new planets.
A team of astronomers used NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, in combination with ultraviolet, optical, and infrared data, to show where some of the most treacherous places in a star cluster may be, where planets’ chances to form are diminished.
The target of the observations was Cygnus OB2, which is the nearest large cluster of stars to our Sun — at a distance of about 4,600 light-years.
The cluster contains hundreds of massive stars as well as thousands of lower-mass stars. The team used long Chandra observations pointing at different regions of Cygnus OB2, and the resulting set of images were then stitched together into one large image.
The deep Chandra observations mapped out the diffuse X-ray glow in between the stars, and they also provided an inventory of the young stars in the cluster.
This inventory was combined with others using optical and infrared data to create the best census of young stars in the cluster.
In this new composite image, the Chandra data (purple) shows the diffuse X-ray emission and young stars in Cygnus OB2, and infrared data from NASA’s now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope (red, green, blue, and cyan) reveals young stars and the cooler dust and gas throughout the region.
In these crowded stellar environments, copious amounts of high-energy radiation produced by stars and planets are present.
Together, X-rays and intense ultraviolet light can have a devastating impact on planetary disks and systems in the process of forming.
Planet-forming disks around stars naturally fade away over time. Some of the disk falls onto the star and some is heated up by X-ray and ultraviolet radiation from the star and evaporates in a wind.
The latter process, known as “photoevaporation,” usually takes between 5 and 10 million years with average-sized stars before the disk disappears.
If massive stars, which produce the most X-ray and ultraviolet radiation, are nearby, this process can be accelerated.
The researchers using this data found clear evidence that planet-forming disks around stars indeed disappear much faster when they are close to massive stars producing a lot of high-energy radiation.
The disks also disappear more quickly in regions where the stars are more closely packed together.
For regions of Cygnus OB2 with less high-energy radiation and lower numbers of stars, the fraction of young stars with disks is about 40%.
For regions with more high-energy radiation and higher numbers of stars, the fraction is about 18%. The strongest effect — meaning the worst place to be for a would-be planetary system — is within about 1.6 light-years of the most massive stars in the cluster.
A separate study by the same team examined the properties of the diffuse X-ray emission in the cluster.
They found that the higher-energy diffuse emission comes from areas where winds of gas blowing away from massive stars have collided with each other.
This causes the gas to become hotter and produce X-rays. The less energetic emission probably comes from gas in the cluster colliding with gas surrounding the cluster.
Two separate papers describing the Chandra data of Cygnus OB2 are available.
The paper about the planetary danger zones, led by Mario Giuseppe Guarcello (National Institute for Astrophysics in Palermo, Italy), appeared in the November 2023 issue of the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, and is available here.
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4365/acdd67
The paper about the diffuse emission, led by Juan Facundo Albacete-Colombo (University of Rio Negro in Argentina) was published in the same issue of Astrophysical Journal Supplement, and is available here.
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4365/acdd65
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/planets-beware-nasa-unburies-danger-zones-of-star-cluster/
Space Biology, Ultra-High-Res Camera Start Work Week on Station
October 28, 2024
Space biology and an ultra-high-resolution camera demonstration topped the research schedule aboard the International Space Station at the beginning of the week.
Spacesuit checks, cargo transfers, and lab maintenance tasks rounded out the day for the Expedition 72 crew.
New science experiments are due to be launched to the orbiting lab soon aboard the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft.
One of those experiments seeks to overcome space-caused immune dysfunction as well as prevent aging conditions on Earth.
NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit began configuring research hardware in the Kibo laboratory module on Monday to accommodate the upcoming investigation.
Flight Engineer Butch Wilmore and Commander Suni Williams, both NASA astronauts, assisted Pettit setting up components inside Kibo to house the study’s biological samples.
Wilmore went on and tested the Sphere Camera-2 for its ability to capture live action, ultra-high-resolution imagery in microgravity.
The footage and hardware will be returned to Earth to evaluate the space-hardened camera and a newer version for their potential to capture future planetary and mission photography.
Williams swapped desiccants that absorb moisture inside a variety of science freezers ensuring the preservation of samples.
The duo then joined each other at the end of the day for a conference with mission controllers on the ground.
NASA Flight Engineer Nick Hague began his shift with cargo duties inside the Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft.
Next, the two-time station visitor wore the Canadian Space Agency’s Bio-Monitor vest and headband filled with sensors to record his health data as he worked throughout the rest of the day.
Afterward, Hague serviced life support hardware and other components on a spacesuit inside the Quest airlock.
Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin, on his third station mission, worked in the Progress 89 cargo craft installing air ducts and transferring fluids to and from the Zvezda service module.
Flight Engineer Aleksandr Gorbunov jogged on the Tranquility module’s treadmill after an equipment training session from Williams.
Flight Engineer Ivan Vagner spent his day on inspection activities inside the aft end of Zvezda.
https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2024/10/28/space-biology-ultra-high-res-camera-start-work-week-on-station/
NASA Announces STEM Engagement Lead, Chief Economist Retirements
Oct 28, 2024
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced Monday Mike Kincaid, associate administrator, Office of STEM Engagement (OSTEM), and Alexander MacDonald, chief economist, will retire from the agency.
Following Kincaid’s departure on Nov. 30, Kris Brown, deputy associate administrator for strategy and integration in OSTEM, will serve as acting associate administrator for that office beginning Dec. 1, and after MacDonald’s departure on Dec. 31, research economist Dr. Akhil Rao from NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy and Strategy will serve as acting chief economist.
“I’d like to express my sincere gratitude to Mike Kincaid and Alex MacDonald for their service to NASA and our country,” said Nelson.
“Both have been essential members of the NASA team – Mike since his first days as an intern at Johnson Space Center and Alex in his many roles at the agency.
I look forward to working with Kris Brown and Dr. Akhil Rao in their acting roles and wish Mike and Alex all the best in retirement.”
As associate administrator of NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement, Kincaid led the agency’s efforts to inspire and engage Artemis Generation students and educators in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
He also chaired NASA’s STEM Board, which assesses the agency’s STEM engagement functions and activities, as well as served as a member of Federal Coordination in STEM, a multiagency committee focused on enhancing STEM education efforts across the federal government.
In addition, Kincaid was NASA’s representative on the International Space Education Board, leading global collaboration in space education, sharing best practices, and uniting efforts to foster interest in space, science, and technology among students worldwide.
Having served at NASA for more than 37 years, Kincaid first joined the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston as an intern in 1987, and eventually led organizations at Johnson in various capacities including, director of education, deputy director of human resources, deputy chief financial officer and director of external relations.
Kincaid earned a bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M and a master’s degree from University of Houston, Clear Lake.
MacDonald served as the first chief economist at NASA. He was previously the senior economic advisor in the Office of the Administrator, as well as the founding program executive of NASA’s Emerging Space Office within the Office of the Chief Technologist.
MacDonald has made significant contributions to the development of NASA’s Artemis and Moon to Mars strategies, NASA’s strategy for commercial low Earth orbit development, NASA’s Earth Information Center, and served as the program executive for the International Space Station National Laboratory, leading it through significant leadership changes.
He also is the author and editor of several NASA reports, including “Emerging Space: The Evolving Landscape of 21st Century American Spaceflight,” “Public-Private Partnerships for Space Capability Development,” “Economic Development of Low Earth Orbit,” and NASA’s biennial Economic Impact Report.
As chief economist, MacDonald has guided NASA’s economic strategy, including increasing engagement with commercial space companies, and influenced the agency’s understanding of space as an engine of economic growth.
MacDonald began his career at NASA’s Ames Research Center in the Mission Design Center, and served at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory as an executive staff specialist on commercial space before moving to NASA Headquarters.
MacDonald received his bachelor’s degree in economics from Queen’s University in Canada, his master’s degree in economics from the University of British Columbia, and obtained his doctorate on the long-run economic history of American space exploration from the University of Oxford.
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-announces-stem-engagement-lead-chief-economist-retirements/
NASA Successfully Integrates Coronagraph for Roman Space Telescope
Oct 28, 2024
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team has successfully completed integration of the Roman Coronagraph Instrument onto Roman’s Instrument Carrier, a piece of infrastructure that will hold the mission’s instruments, which will be integrated onto the larger spacecraft at a later date.
The Roman Coronagraph is a technology demonstration that scientists will use to take an important step in the search for habitable worlds, and eventually life beyond Earth.
This integration took place at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, where the space telescope is located and in development.
This milestone follows the coronagraph’s arrival at the center earlier this year from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California where the instrument was developed, built, and tested.
The Roman Coronagraph Instrument is a technology demonstration that will launch aboard the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, NASA’s next flagship astrophysics mission.
Roman will have a field of view at least 100 times larger than the agency’s Hubble Space Telescope and explore scientific mysteries surrounding dark energy, exoplanets, and infrared astrophysics. Roman is expected to launch no later than May 2027.
The mission’s coronagraph is designed to make direct observations of exoplanets, or planets outside of our solar system, by using a complex suite of masks and active mirrors to obscure the glare of the planets’ host stars, making the planets visible.
Being a technology demonstration means that the coronagraph’s goal is to test this technology in space and showcase its capabilities.
The Roman Coronagraph is poised to act as a technological stepping stone, enabling future technologies on missions like NASA’s proposed Habitable Worlds Observatory, which would be the first telescope designed specifically to search for signs of life on exoplanets.
“In order to get from where we are to where we want to be, we need the Roman Coronagraph to demonstrate this technology,” said Rob Zellem, Roman Space Telescope deputy project scientist for communications at NASA Goddard.
“We’ll be applying those lessons learned to the next generation of NASA flagship missions that will be explicitly designed to look for Earth-like planets.”
The coronagraph was successfully integrated into Roman’s Instrument Carrier, a large grid-like structure that sits between the space telescope’s primary mirror and spacecraft bus, which will deliver the telescope to orbit and enable the telescope’s functionality upon arrival in space. Assembly of the mission’s spacecraft bus was completed in September 2024.
The Instrument Carrier will hold both the coronagraph and Roman’s Wide Field Instrument, the mission’s primary science instrument, which is set to be integrated later this year along with the Roman telescope itself.
“You can think of [the Instrument Carrier] as the skeleton of the observatory, what everything interfaces to,” said Brandon Creager, lead mechanical engineer for the Roman Coronagraph at JPL.
The integration process began months ago with mission teams from across NASA coming together to plan the maneuver. Additionally, after its arrival at NASA Goddard, mission teams ran tests to prepare the coronagraph to be joined to the spacecraft bus.
During the integration itself, the coronagraph, which is roughly the size and shape of a baby grand piano (measuring about 5.5 feet or 1.7 meters across), was mounted onto the Instrument Carrier using what’s called the Horizontal Integration Tool.
First, a specialized adapter developed at JPL was attached to the instrument, and then the Horizontal Integration Tool was attached to the adapter.
The tool acts as a moveable counterweight, so the instrument was suspended from the tool as it was carefully moved into its final position in the Instrument Carrier.
Then, the attached Horizontal Integration Tool and adapter were removed from the coronagraph. The Horizontal Integration Tool previously has been used for integrations on NASA’s Hubble and James Webb Space Telescope.
As part of the integration process, engineers also ensured blanketing layers were in place to insulate the coronagraph within its place in the Instrument Carrier.
The coronagraph is designed to operate at room temperature, so insulation is critical to keep the instrument at the right temperature in the cold vacuum of space.
This insulation also will provide an additional boundary to block stray light that could otherwise obscure observations.
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/roman-space-telescope/nasa-successfully-integrates-coronagraph-for-roman-space-telescope/
NASA Provides Update on Artemis III Moon Landing Regions
Oct 28, 2024
As NASA prepares for the first crewed Moon landing in more than five decades, the agency has identified an updated set of nine potential landing regions near the lunar South Pole for its Artemis III mission.
These areas will be further investigated through scientific and engineering study. NASA will continue to survey potential areas for missions following Artemis III, including areas beyond these nine regions.
“Artemis will return humanity to the Moon and visit unexplored areas.
NASA’s selection of these regions shows our commitment to landing crew safely near the lunar South Pole, where they will help uncover new scientific discoveries and learn to live on the lunar surface,” said Lakiesha Hawkins, assistant deputy associate administrator, Moon to Mars Program Office.
NASA’s Cross Agency Site Selection Analysis team, working closely with science and industry partners, added, and excluded potential landing regions, which were assessed for their science value and mission availability.
The refined candidate Artemis III lunar landing regions are, in no priority order:
Peak near Cabeus B
Haworth
Malapert Massif
Mons Mouton Plateau
Mons Mouton
Nobile Rim 1
Nobile Rim 2
de Gerlache Rim 2
Slater Plain
These regions contain diverse geological characteristics and offer flexibility for mission availability.
The lunar South Pole has never been explored by a crewed mission and contains permanently shadowed areas that can preserve resources, including water.
“The Moon’s South Pole is a completely different environment than where we landed during the Apollo missions,” said Sarah Noble, Artemis lunar science lead at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
“It offers access to some of the Moon’s oldest terrain, as well as cold, shadowed regions that may contain water and other compounds.
Any of these landing regions will enable us to do amazing science and make new discoveries.”
To select these landing regions, a multidisciplinary team of scientists and engineers analyzed the lunar South Pole region using data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and a vast body of lunar science research.
Factors in the selection process included science potential, launch window availability, terrain suitability, communication capabilities with Earth, and lighting conditions.
Additionally, the team assessed the combined trajectory capabilities of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, the Orion spacecraft, and Starship HLS (Human Landing System) to ensure safe and accessible landing sites.
The Artemis III geology team evaluated the landing regions for their scientific promise.
Sites within each of the nine identified regions have the potential to provide key new insights into our understanding of rocky planets, lunar resources, and the history of our solar system.
“Artemis III will be the first time that astronauts will land in the south polar region of the Moon.
They will be flying on a new lander into a terrain that is unique from our past Apollo experience,” said Jacob Bleacher, NASA’s chief exploration scientist.
“Finding the right locations for this historic moment begins with identifying safe places for this first landing, and then trying to match that with opportunities for science from this new place on the Moon.”
NASA’s site assessment team will engage the lunar science community through conferences and workshops to gather data, build geologic maps, and assess the regional geology of eventual landing sites.
The team also will continue surveying the entire lunar South Pole region for science value and mission availability for future Artemis missions.
This will include planning for expanded science opportunities during Artemis IV, and suitability for the LTV (Lunar Terrain Vehicle) as part of Artemis V.
The agency will select sites within regions for Artemis III after it identifies the mission’s target launch dates, which dictate transfer trajectories, or orbital paths, and surface environment conditions.
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-provides-update-on-artemis-iii-moon-landing-regions/