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## Lunar Surface Instrument and Technology Payloads (LSITP)

In preparation for sending humans to Mars for the first time, NASA’s Artemis program will send astronauts back to the Moon by 2024.  Twelve new science and technology payloads have been selected as part of this program that will help us study the lunar surface.

The selected investigations will go to the Moon on future flights through NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) project. The CLPS project allows rapid acquisition of lunar delivery services for payloads like these that advance capabilities for cutting-edge innovations in science, exploration, and commercial development of the Moon. Many of the new selections incorporate existing hardware, such as parts or models designed for missions that have already flown. Seven of the new selections are focused on answering questions in planetary science or heliophysics, while five will demonstrate new technologies. Each supports scientific and human exploration objectives, and many have broader applications for Mars and beyond.

NASA’s lunar exploration plans are based on a two-phase approach: the first is focused on speed – landing astronauts on the Moon by 2024 – while the second will establish a sustained human presence on the Moon by 2028. The agency will use what we learn on the Moon to prepare for the next giant leap – sending astronauts to Mars.

**The selected investigations are:**

### The Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment (LuSEE)

LuSEE will integrate flight-spare and repurposed hardware from the NASA Parker SolarProbe FIELDS experiment, the STEREO/Waves instrument, and the MAVEN mission tomake comprehensive measurements of electromagnetic phenomena on the surface ofthe Moon.

### The Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder

The Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder is designed to characterize the structure andcomposition of the Moon’s mantle by studying electric and magnetic fields. Theinvestigation will make use of a flight-spare magnetometer, a device that measuresmagnetic fields, originally made for the MAVEN spacecraft, which is currently orbitingMars.

### The Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity (LISTER)

LISTER is an instrument designed to measure heat flow from the interior of the Moon.The probe will attempt to drill 7 to 10 feet (2 to 3 meters) into the lunar regolith toinvestigate the Moon’s thermal properties at different depths.

### The Lunar Interior Temperature and Materials Suite (LITMS)

LITMS is a payload suite that consists of the Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder (LMS) andthe Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity (LISTER).For LITMS, LISTER remains a near-replica of its LSITP implementation. LMS is now a“virtual” instrument, comprising the Lunar Telluric Currents (LTC) instrument derivedfrom LSITP but operating in concert with the LuSEE instrument, a separate payload onthe mission.

### The Farside Seismic Suite (FSS)

FSS will deliver two seismometers (both flight-proven through the InSight mission toMars) to the Schrödinger Crater. The vertical Very BroadBand seismometer is the mostsensitive flight-ready seismometer ever built, while the Short Period (SP) sensor is themost sensitive and mature compact triaxial sensor available for space application.Packaged as a self-sufficient payload, with independent power, communications andthermal control allowing overnight survival, FSS will outlive the lander, and provideseismic measurements for approximately three months beyond the life of the lander andother payloads.

### The Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment at Night (LuSEE Night)

LuSEE Night is a follow-on to LuSEE and partners with the Department of Energy(DOE) to aim to make pathfinding measurements of the redshifted 21-cm absorptionsignals imprinted during the earliest portion of the dark-ages when the cosmicmicrowave background first started free-streaming through neutral hydrogen. Theseobservations can only be made away from the radio-dark atmosphere, and out of sightof the radio-loud surface of the Earth. LuSEE Night will land and operate on the far-sideof the Moon with standalone operations through the Lunar night.

### Mission 19D: (LEXI, RadPC, RAC, NGLR, LPV)

Launch date: August 2024

### Next Generation Lunar Retroreflectors (NGLR)

NGLR will serve as a target for lasers on Earth to precisely measure the Earth-Moondistance. They are designed to provide data that could be used to constrain variousaspects of the lunar interior and address questions of fundamental physics.

### The Lunar Environment heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI)

The LEXI instrument is a telescope designed to capture images of the interaction ofEarth’s magnetosphere with the flow of charged particles from the Sun, called the solarwind. The telescope observes these interactions thought the observation ofwavelengths in the soft X-ray region of the spectrum and will allow the team tounderstand the interactions between Earths magnetosphere and the charged particlesfrom the sun. Are the interactions temporarily continuous or more randomly high andlow. The planned observations will help to answer questions about the fundamentaldynamics and coupling of the Earths magnetosphere in response to solar inputs.

### RadPC

RadPC (formerly Lunar Demonstration of a Reconfigurable, Radiation TolerantComputer System) aims to demonstrate a radiation-tolerant computing technology. Dueto the Moon’s lack of atmosphere and magnetic field, radiation from the Sun will be achallenge for electronics. This investigation also will characterize the radiation effects onthe lunar surface.

### Regolith Adherence Characterization (RAC) Payload

RAC will determine how lunar regolith sticks to a range of materials exposed to theMoon’s environment at different phases of flight. Components of this experiment arederived from the Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE) – acommercial payload facility – currently on the International Space Station.

### Lunar PlanetVac (LPV)

LPV is designed to collect regolith samples from the Lunar surface using a burst ofcompressed gas to drive the regolith into a sample chamber (sieving) for collection andanalysis by various instruments and then transmitting the results back to earth. Thismission is designed to demonstrate pneumatic sample collection and support NASA’splan for sample collection and return abilities for future missions.

### Mission CP11: (LVx)

Launch date: March 2024

### Lunar Vertex (LVx)

The LVx suite (5 instruments) will investigate the mysterious lunar swirl area in theReiner Gamma region the moon. Measuring the strength and direction of the magneticfields as well as the ion and electron flux in the area. The suite consists of 3 landerinstruments (magnetometer, cameras, and ion spectrometer) and a mobile rovercarrying a magnetometer and multispectral microscope. The investigation is applicableto other solar system planetary bodies in the areas of planetary magnetism and airlessbody surface processes.

### The Lunar Compact InfraRed Imaging System (L-CIRiS)

L-CIRiS is targeted to deploy a radiometer, a device that measures infraredwavelengths of light, to explore the Moon’s surface composition, map its surfacetemperature distribution, and demonstrate the instrument’s feasibility for future lunarresource utilization activities.

### Lunar Advanced Filter Observing Radiometer for Geologic Exploration (LAFORGE)

The science objectives of the LAFORGE investigation focus on understanding the lunarsurface thermal environment, detailed mapping and characterization of cold traps wherevolatiles may be stable, constraining the physical properties of the surface regolith androcks, and investigating relative differences in composition and soil maturity.

### Lunar Explorer Instrument for space biology Applications (LEIA)

LEIA is a space biology payload that will perform autonomous biological experiments ona set of model organisms to reveal the effects of lunar surface radiation on biology. TheLEIA biological payload subassembly is a radiation biosensor using model organisms togauge the genetic DNA damage and repair caused by lunar radiation, and a radiationdosimeter that will help correlate genetic damage to the radiation environment.

### SAMPLR: Sample Acquisition, Morphology Filtering, and Probing of Lunar Regolith

SAMPLR is a sample acquisition technology that will be used to explore Earth’s Moonby acquiring samples and determining the geotechnical properties of lunar regolith.SAMPLR will be the first robotic arm on the Moon in more than 50 years.

### Heimdall

Heimdall is a flexible camera system intended to model the properties of the Moon’sregolith – the soil and other material that makes up the top later of the lunar surface –and characterize and map geologic features, as well characterize potential landing ortrafficability hazards, among other goals. This innovation for commercial vehiclesincludes a single digital video recorder and four cameras: a wide-angle descent imager,a narrow-angle regolith imager, and two wide-angle panoramic imagers.

### MoonRanger

MoonRanger is a small, fast-moving rover that has the capability to drive beyondcommunications range with a lander and then return to it. This will enable investigationswithin a 0.6-mile (1 kilometer) range from the lander. MoonRanger will aim to continuallymap the terrain it traverses and transmit data for future system improvement.

### L-VISE

The Lunar Vulkan Imaging and Spectroscopy Explorer (Lunar-VISE) determines thecomposition and rock type of the Gruithuisen domes, placing critical constraints on theirformation mechanism. The 10-day science investigation uses straightforward rover andlander operations to collect surface spectral and imaging measurements at high spatialresolutions, for both pristine regolith and exposed boulders on a dome summit. Theseprovide a critical link to existing orbital data sets, extending what we learn at Gruithuisento other non-mare silicic spots, building an understanding of late-stage silicic volcanismon the Moon. Lunar-VISE observations are used, for the first time, to map compositionand thermophysical surface properties with orbital spectral signatures and make in-situgamma ray and neutron spectroscopy (GRNS).

### Artemis Deployables

Artemis Deployed Instruments (ADI) are both standalone instruments and instrumentsuites that conduct high-priority science investigations that can be uniquelyaccomplished by human deployment of payloads on the surface of the Moon duringArtemis III. Deployed instruments consist of autonomous instrument packages installedon the lunar surface by astronauts during extravehicular activities (EVAs).