NASA's moon-landing Artemis astronauts will explore 1 of these lunar locales

We now know where on the moon NASA astronauts will set foot after more than 50 years' absence. The agency announced 13 potential landing regions for its Artemis 3 mission during a news conference held on Friday (Aug. 19). All the candidates are clustered near the south pole of the moon, an area of key scientific and exploration interest alike. "They're of value to the scientific community and the technology community," Mark Kirasich, deputy associate administrator for the Artemis Campaign Development Division at NASA, said during the news conference. "People want and need to do things there." "We can do exciting science at all of them," said Sarah Noble, Artemis lunar science lead for NASA's Planetary Science Division. "Many of these are places that the science community has been talking about for years." The selected regions are: Faustini Rim A, Peak Near Shackleton, Connecting Ridge, Connecting Ridge Extension, two regions on the rim of de Gerlache Crater, de Gerlache-Kocher Massif, Haworth, Malapert Massif, Leibnitz Beta Plateau, two regions on the rim of Nobile Crater and Amundsen Rim. The agency has identified and will evaluate more than 10 specific landing sites within each region, all of which are within six degrees of latitude of the south pole of the moon.

A diagram shows the 13 candidate regions for the Artemis 3 moon landing. (Image credit: NASA)

The constraints NASA has focused on to date have been strictly logistical, including how the site is lit, how easily a team of astronauts can communicate with Earth from the site, and the terrain. And NASA isn't building the vehicle that will ferry astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface, SpaceX's Starship, so the discussions have been held with the company as well as government personnel.

"This will be the first time we will land a human lander at the south pole, it will be the first landing of the Starship, so we have to pay close attention to the engineering and safety constraints of the mission and the vehicle," Kirasich said.

Moreover, site selection is complicated because NASA can't simply choose a site and move on: None of the 13 regions are constantly accessible, so the mission's launch date will determine where the astronauts can touch down.

"We will have to have, likely even for a given launch date perhaps, one or two sites, but we will have a collection of sites that we can use along a launch period," Kirasich said. "Exactly how many, we don't know yet; we have a lot to learn between now and then."

But NASA won't be relying on any scouts for additional information. The agency's venerable Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has already provided the data that mission personnel need, according to Jacob Bleacher, chief exploration scientist at NASA. In fact, he said that at this point in LRO's mission, the spacecraft is in an orbit from which it can't observe these regions at all.

"But part of what went into some of our considerations for sites was the basis of availability of data," Bleacher said. "We can't target these locations again with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, but we have targeted them specifically in the past."

Whichever site Artemis 3 astronauts explore, their experience will be very different from that of the 12 men who have walked on the moon to date.

"This is a new part of the moon, it's a place that we've never explored," Noble said. "All six Apollo sites were in sort of the central part of the near side, and now we're going someplace completely different, with different and ancient geologic terrains."

And the south pole is a tantalizing destination because orbital observations show that frozen water is locked beneath the lunar surface in the stark cold of what scientists refer to as permanently shadowed regions.

Scientists hope that studying water and other "volatile" compounds that easily evaporate away will teach them about the moon's history and relationship with Earth. Meanwhile, the exploration-minded are interested in the ice because they hope it can support future humans on the moon or be made into rocket fuel.

Today's announcement comes just over a week before the targeted launch of Artemis 1, an uncrewed test flight for NASA's lunar exploration program. That mission's rocket stack is now on the launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, counting down to liftoff on Aug. 29.

Artemis 1 is meant to test the two key systems the moon exploration program will rely on: the Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket and the Orion crew capsule. If all goes well, NASA will send astronauts to lunar orbit on Artemis 2, targeting launch in 2024, before the new moon landing, which could occur in 2025 or 2026 if all goes well.

"I feel like we're on a roller coaster that's about to pass the top of the largest hill," Bleacher said. "Buckle up, everyone, we're going on a ride to the moon here."

Forget rockets – a lunar elevator is the future of Moon travel

What do you see when you look at the Moon? Beauty? Craters? Some people see dollar signs. You’ll occasionally see our only natural satellite billed as ‘Earth’s eighth continent’ because it’s full of resources that are hard to ignore. A rare form of helium, helium-3, could be used in fusion power stations here on Earth. Rare elements, such as neodymium, could be extracted and returned home for use in smartphones and other electronics. But how do we get them here without blowing all the profits on rockets? According to a study published in 2019, a lunar elevator could be the answer. A cable anchored to the lunar surface would stretch most of the 400,000km (250,000 miles) home. It couldn’t be directly attached to the Earth, due to the relative motions of the two objects, but it could terminate high in Earth orbit. That would have the added benefit of placing it above the bulk of our space junk, a growing problem as we launch ever more satellites. Solar-powered robotic shuttles could move up and down the cable, acting as a conveyor belt to ferry precious resources our way. It may sound like an outlandish prospect, but Zephyr Penoyre and Emily Sandford – the two University of Columbia astronomy PhD candidates behind the study – believe we could pull it off for a few billion US dollars. To put that into context, Jeff Bezos liquidates $1bn (over £700m) of his Amazon stock every year to fund his Blue Origin space tourism company. NASA’s Artemis programme, which is sending the first female astronaut and first astronaut of colour to the Moon later this decade, is costing $86bn (£60bn). Such is the value of the Moon’s resources, a separate study estimated that a lunar elevator would pay for itself within just 53 trips.

The cable, which would be no thicker than a pencil, would weigh 40 tonnes – well within the remit of modern rockets, such as SpaceX’s Starship. Unlike a space elevator that would travel from Earth’s surface into space, a lunar elevator stopping slightly shy of our planet wouldn’t have to contend with huge gravitational forces.

The Moon has no atmosphere either, which simplifies matters. That means the cable could be made from existing materials, such as Kevlar, instead of the yet-to-be-invented super-strong materials needed for an Earth-to-space elevator.

We could also combine the two. In April 2021, Chinese state-run media presented the country’s idea for a ‘Sky Ladder’. This would see a spacecraft winched up an elevator from Earth’s surface to a waiting space station, before being flung towards the Moon where it would meet another elevator that would lower it down to the lunar surface.

The idea of space elevators has been around for over a century without much progress. But if enough people – or, more likely, corporations – become enamoured with the chance of making big bucks, we could see the lunar equivalent of a gold rush in the decades ahead. Elevators could well turn out to be a way to keep costs down and profits literally sky-high.

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Spies Movement of Shadows Near the Moon’s South Pole

At the Moon’s North and South Poles, the Sun is never more than 1.5° above or below the horizon. The resulting pattern of daylight and shadows is unlike anywhere else on the Moon — or the Earth. After zooming in on a small lunar highland area near the South Pole, this visualization recreates the illumination conditions there over a period of two lunar days, equal to two months on Earth. This close to the pole, the Sun doesn’t rise and set. Instead, as the Moon rotates on its axis, the Sun skims the horizon, traveling a full 360 degrees around the terrain. Mountains as far as 75 miles (120 kilometers) away cast shadows across the landscape. With the Sun at such a low angle, it can never reach the floors of some deep craters. Places the Sun never reaches are known as permanently shadowed regions. They are the locations of some of the coldest spots in the solar system, and because of that, they trap volatile chemicals, including water ice, that would immediately sublimate (transform directly from a solid to a gas) in the harsh, airless sunshine that falls in most other places on the Moon.

The Sun appears to travel in a circle at the Earth’s poles, too, but it also travels through a range of altitudes. From spring equinox to summer solstice, for example, the Sun is climbing higher in the sky, reaching an altitude of 23.4°. It only hugs the horizon for a few days around the equinoxes. At the Moon’s poles, the Sun is always near the horizon, and the shadows are perpetually long, sweeping across the surface with the changing solar azimuth.

NASA Developing Sustainable Solar Power Sources for the Moon; Will Support Lunar Rovers, Missions by Decade-End

In a bid to establish artificial power sources on the Moon, American space agency NASA is working with several commercial companies in order to design vertically deployable solar array systems. Once deployed, this reliable, sustainable power source would support lunar habitats, rovers, and even construction systems for future robotic and crewed missions. These solar array systems will be autonomously deployable up to 32 feet high, and retractable for relocation if necessary. The designs will also be created in a way that ensures the systems remain stable on steep terrain, be resistant to abrasive lunar dust, and minimise both mass and packaged volume to aid in the system’s delivery to the lunar surface, as per the NASA statement. These vertically deployable systems will differ from the existing space-rated solar array structures and deployment systems, which are designed for horizontal surface deployment or microgravity usage. This is quite intentional, as the vertical position and the height of the energy source will help prevent loss of power at the lunar poles, where the Sun does not rise very far above the horizon. When low-angled sunlight hits rocky formations like hills and slopes near the lunar poles, it casts a shadow over the surface—shadows that can block horizontally structured solar arrays from obtaining light. A tall, vertical solar power structure, however, would increase the likelihood of getting uninterrupted light. Therefore, these solar power designs could help enable continuous power for habitats and operations, even in areas shaded by rocky features.

According to Chuck Taylor, who is leading vertical solar array development at NASA’s Langley Research Centre, exploring ways to make solar arrays more efficient when they encounter lunar shading is also driving possible applications on Earth. Therefore, home and business owners could end up benefiting from adapted designs, which increase the efficiency of rooftop solar arrays that are occasionally shaded due to trees or tall buildings.

Meanwhile, this power source technology will be a part of the Artemis program, wherein NASA will land the first woman and next man on the Moon by the year 2024, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before. This will not only establish humankind’s sustainable presence at the lunar South Pole, but also pave the way for sustainable exploration by the end of the decade.

NASA has selected five companies for base period contracts to complete their vertical solar array designs and conduct analysis. These include Astrobotic Technology, ATK Space Systems (Northrop Grumman), Honeybee Robotics, Lockheed Martin, and Space Systems Loral (Maxar Technologies).

“We are thrilled with the proposals received and even more excited to see the designs that result from the base effort,” said Niki Werkheiser, director of technology maturation in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD). “Having reliable power sources on the Moon is key to almost anything we do on the surface. By working with five different companies to design these prototype systems, we are effectively mitigating the risk that is inherent to developing such cutting-edge technologies.”

All five companies will submit their system designs, analysis, and data at the end of the 12-month fixed-price base contracts, valued at up to $700,000 each. NASA will then select up to two companies and provide them with additional funding of up to $7.5 million each to build prototypes and perform environmental testing.

The ultimate goal of this partnership will be to deploy one of the systems on the Moon’s South Pole near the end of this decade.

Chang'e 4 probe resumes work for 26th lunar day

The lander and rover of the Chang'e-4 probe have resumed work for the 26th lunar day on the far side of the moon. The lander woke up at 3:13 a.m. on Friday (Beijing time), and the rover Yutu-2, or Jade Rabbit-2, woke up at 10:29 a.m. on Thursday, according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration. Landing on the moon on Jan. 3, 2019, the Chang'e-4 probe has survived 736 Earth days on the moon. A lunar day is equal to about 14 days on Earth, and a lunar night is of the same length. The solar-powered probe switches to dormant mode during the lunar night. During the 26th lunar day, Yutu-2 will move northwest toward the basalt area or the impact craters with high reflectivity. Yutu-2 will take panoramic photos, and its infrared imaging spectrometer, neutral atom detector and lunar radar will continue to carry out scientific explorations. Research teams will analyze the detection data and release the scientific results.

Danes staying in origami-inspired 'Lunar' camp in Greenland end their mission

The two architects built the foldable futuristic-looking shelter as part of an experiment to establish whether ordinary people without training could survive in harsh conditions, including those on the Moon. Danish "space architects" Sebastian Aristotelis and Karl-Johan Sorensen have wrapped up their mission in Greenland aimed at testing a "Lunark" shelter - an origami-inspired camp designed to withstand lunar conditions. The shelter weighing 1,700 kilogrammes was designed by the SAGA Space Architects where Aristotelis and Sorensen are employees. The habitat can be folded so as to fit in a space rocket without occupying much space. It is also designed to weather temperatures as low as -45 Celsius and wind speeds up to 89 kilometres per hour. The intrepid Danes spent two months in the collapsible shelter in Greenland's uninhabited central region, surviving on protein shakes and water obtained from thawed ice. Heralding the possible era of space tourism, the experiment sought to find out how feasible it is to live in such a shelter in hostile environments. "We are civilians and if we are looking at a future with more civilians in space, that's one of the most important things for us as architects to figure out", Aristotelis told MailOnline upon returing to Copenhagen.

Lunar gold rush could create conflict on the ground if we don't act now

When it comes to the Moon, everyone wants the same things. Not in the sense of having shared goals, but in the sense that all players target the same strategic sites - state agencies and the private sector alike. That's because, whether you want to do science or make money, you will need things such as water and light. Many countries and private companies have ambitious plans to explore or mine the Moon. This won't be at some remote point in time but soon - even in this decade. As Martin Elvis, Alanna Krolikowski and I set out in a recent paper, published in the Transactions of the Royal Society, this will spark tension on the ground unless we find ways to manage the situation imminently. So far, much of the debate around exploring and mining the Moon has focused on tensions in space between state agencies and the private sector. But as we see it, the pressing challenge arises from limited strategic resources. Important sites for science are also important for infrastructure construction by state agencies or commercial users. Such sites include "peaks of eternal light" (where there is almost constant sunlight, and hence access to power), and continually shaded craters at the polar regions, where there's water ice. Each is rare, and the combination of the two - ice on the crater floor and a narrow peak of eternal light on the crater rim - is a prized target for different players. But they occur only in polar regions, rather than at the equatorial sites targeted by the Apollo programme in the 1960s and 1970s.

The recent successful landing of Chang'e 5 by China targeted a relatively smooth landing site on the lunar nearside, but it is part of a larger, phased programme due to take China's space agency down to the lunar south pole by 2024.

India tried a more direct polar route, with its failed Chandrayaan-2 lander crashing in the same region in 2019. The Russian Roscosmos, collaborating with the European Space Agency, is also targeting the south polar region for landings late in 2021 and, in 2023, at Boguslavsky crater, as a test mission. Next, Roscosmos will aim for the Aitken Basin in the same region in 2022 on the to prospect for water in permanently shadowed areas. A number of private companies also have ambitious plans for mining the Moon for resources.

Strategic resources that aren't in the polar regions tend to be concentrated rather than evenly distributed. Thorium and uranium, which could be used for radioactive fuel, are found together in 34 regions that are areas of less than 80km wide. Iron resulting from asteroid impacts can be found within broader territories, ranging from 30-300km across, but there are only around 20 such areas.

And then there is the poster boy of lunar resources, mined in dozens of science fiction films: Helium-3, for nuclear fusion. Seeded by the Sun in the powdery crushed rock of the lunar surface, it is present in wide areas across the Moon, but the highest concentrations are found in only about eight regions, all relatively small (less than 50km across).

These materials will be of interest both to those trying to establish infrastructure on the Moon and are later targeting Mars as well as commercial exploitation (mining), or science - for example creating telescopic arrays on the lunar far side, away from the growing noise of human communications.

How then do we deal with the problem? The Outer Space Treaty (1967) holds that "the exploration and use of outer space shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries and shall be the province of all mankind." States do not get to claim parts of the Moon as property, but they can still use them. Where this leaves disputes and extraction by private companies is unclear.

Proposed successors to the treatment, such as the Moon Agreement (1979), are seen as too restrictive, requiring a formal framework of laws and an ambitious international regulatory regime. The agreement has failed to gain support among key players, including the US, Russia and China. More recent steps, such as the Artemis Accords - a set of guidelines surrounding the Artemis Program for crewed exploration of the Moon - are perceived as heavily tied to the US programme.

In the worst case, this lack of framework could lead to heightened tensions on Earth. But it could also create unnecessary duplication of infrastructure, with everyone building their own stuff. That would drive up costs for individual organisations, which they would then have reasons to try to recoup in ways that could compromise opportunities for science and the legacy we leave for future generations.

Ways forward
Our best initial response may be modest, taking its cue from overlooked sites on Earth. Small terrestrial resource pools, such as lakes bordered by several villages, or fish stocks are often managed through approaches developed locally by the key players involved.

These suggest that a first step toward lunar-resource governance will be creating agreement among users. This should focus on the nature of the resources at stake, how their benefits should be distributed, and, crucially, the worst-case scenarios they seek to avoid. For example, actors will likely need to decide whether the peaks of eternal light should be managed as a patch of high-value real estate or as a volume of energy output to be shared. It may also be worth deciding on a case-by-case basis.

Another challenge will be fostering compliance with the governance arrangements that are devised. To that end, lunar users would be well advised to build shared installations, such as landing and supply facilities, to function as carrots that can be withheld from misbehaving actors. Such partial solutions will be difficult to add after a country or company has made irreversible investments in mission designs. Clearly, the time to devise these approaches is now.

NASA publishes Artemis plan to return Americans to Moon in 2024

Following a series of critical contract awards and hardware milestones, NASA has shared an update on its Artemis program, including the latest Phase 1 plans to land the first woman and the next man on the surface of the Moon in 2024. In the 18 months since NASA accepted a bold challenge to accelerate its exploration plans by more than four years and establish sustainable exploration by the end of the decade, the agency has continued to gain momentum toward sending humans to the Moon again for the first time since the last Apollo lunar mission in 1972. "With bipartisan support from Congress, our 21st century push to the Moon is well within America's reach," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. "As we've solidified more of our exploration plans in recent months, we've continued to refine our budget and architecture. We're going back to the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and inspiration for a new a generation of explorers. As we build up a sustainable presence, we're also building momentum toward those first human steps on the Red Planet." In its formal plan, NASA captures Artemis progress to date, identifying the key science, technology and human missions, as well as the commercial and international partnerships that will ensure we continue to lead in exploration and achieve our ambitious goal to land astronauts on the Moon. The agency's powerful new rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), and the Orion spacecraft are closer than ever to their first integrated launch. The spacecraft is complete while the core stage and its attached four engines are undergoing a final series of tests that will culminate in a critical hot fire test this fall.

Early Artemis Missions
Following a successful hot fire test, the core stage will be shipped to the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for integration with the spacecraft. NASA will launch an SLS and an Orion together on two flight tests around the Moon to check performance, life support, and communication capabilities. The first mission - known as Artemis I - is on track for 2021 without astronauts, and Artemis II will fly with crew in 2023.

In the Phase 1 plan, NASA notes additional details about conducting a new test during the Artemis II mission - a proximity operations demonstration. Shortly after Orion separates from the interim cryogenic propulsion stage, astronauts will manually pilot Orion as they approach and back away from the stage.

This demonstration will assess Orion's handling qualities and related hardware and software to provide performance data and operational experience that cannot be readily gained on the ground in preparation for rendezvous, proximity operations, and docking, as well as undocking operations in lunar orbit beginning on Artemis III.

While preparing for and carrying out these flight test missions, NASA already will be back on the Moon robotically - using commercial delivery services to send dozens of new science investigations and technology demonstrations to the Moon twice per year beginning in 2021.

In 2024, Artemis III will be humanity's return to the surface of the Moon. After launching on SLS, astronauts will travel about 240,000 miles to lunar orbit aboard Orion, at which point they will directly board one of the new commercial human landing systems, or dock to the Gateway to inspect it and gather supplies before boarding the landing system for their expedition to the surface.

Wearing modern spacesuits that allow for greater flexibility and movement than those of their Apollo predecessors, astronauts will collect samples and conduct a range of science experiments over the course of nearly seven days. Using the lander, they will return to lunar orbit before ultimately heading home to Earth aboard Orion.

Work is progressing rapidly on the Gateway. NASA will integrate the first two components to launch - the power and propulsion element and the habitation and logistics outpost - in 2023. This foundation for the Gateway will be able to operate autonomously, conducting remote science experiments when astronauts are not aboard. NASA has selected the first two science instrument suites to conduct space weather investigations in lunar orbit before crew visits.

While NASA has not made a final decision to use the Gateway for Artemis III, Artemis IV and beyond will send crew aboard Orion to dock to the Gateway, where two crew members can stay aboard the spaceship in orbit while two go to the surface. Over time, the outpost will evolve, with new modules added by international partners, allowing crew members to conduct increasingly longer lunar missions.

As detailed in the agency's concept for surface sustainability earlier this year, an incremental buildup of infrastructure on the surface will follow later this decade, allowing for longer surface expeditions with more crew. That concept calls for an Artemis Base Camp that would include new rovers, power systems, habitats, and more on the surface for long-term exploration of the Moon.

Throughout the Artemis program, robots and humans will search for, and potentially extract, resources such as water that can be converted into other usable resources, including oxygen and fuel. By fine-tuning precision landing technologies as well as developing new mobility capabilities, astronauts will travel farther distances and explore new regions of the Moon.

NASA to announce selection of company to fly VIPER rover to Moon

NASA will announce the commercial provider selected to deliver NASA's new water-hunting mobile robot, the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER), to the South Pole of the Moon during a media teleconference at 2:30 p.m. EDT Wednesday, June 10.As the first resource-mapping mission on the surface of another world, VIPER will help pave the way for a new era of human missions to the lunar surface and will bring NASA a step closer to developing a sustainable, long-term robotic and human presence on the Moon as part of the Artemis program. Members of the media may request to join the teleconference by emailing their name, affiliation, and phone number to Alison Hawkes at alison.hawkes@nasa.gov or Rachel Kraft at rachel.h.kraft@nasa.gov by 12:30 p.m. June 10. VIPER's delivery to the Moon is part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, an innovative, service-based, competitive acquisition approach that enables rapid, affordable, and frequent access to the lunar surface via a growing market of American commercial providers. The selected company will be responsible for end-to-end services for delivery of VIPER, including integration with its lander, launch from Earth, and landing in a polar region on the Moon in late 2023 VIPER's delivery to the Moon is part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, which will leverage the capabilities of commercial industry to send scientific instruments and technology demonstrations to the Moon quickly.

The selected company will be responsible for end-to-end services for delivery of VIPER, including integration with its lander, launch from Earth, and landing in a polar region on the Moon in late 2023.

The teleconference audio will stream live here

Northrop Grumman snags $187 million to design NASA's lunar Gateway habitat for astronauts

NASA has awarded Northrop Grumman $187 million to design the habitat module for the space agency's lunar Gateway, a planned moon-orbiting space station for astronauts. We learned last year that NASA had tapped Virginia-based Northrop Grumman to build Gateway's pressurized crew cabin, called the habitation and logistics outpost (HALO). The company will base HALO on its Cygnus spacecraft, which has been flying contracted robotic cargo missions to the International Space Station for NASA since 2014. On Friday (June 5), the space agency announced some terms of the deal: Northrop Grumman will receive $187 million to fund HALO's design through a key milestone called preliminary design review, which is expected to be complete by the end of this year. "This contract award is another significant milestone in our plan to build robust and sustainable lunar operations," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement. "The Gateway is a key component of NASA’s long-term Artemis architecture, and the HALO capability furthers our plans for human exploration at the moon in preparation for future human missions to Mars." Artemis is NASA's program of crewed lunar exploration, which aims to land two astronauts near the moon's south pole in 2024 and establish a sustainable human presence on and around the cosmic body by 2028. As Bridenstine noted, the agency envisions such work paving the way for the next giant leap: getting astronauts to Mars, which NASA aims to do in the 2030s.

Gateway likely won't be involved in the 2024 landing, but NASA sees the mini space station as crucial to its longer-term lunar plans. The outpost will serve as a jumping-off point for sorties, both crewed and uncrewed, to the lunar surface.

The current plan calls for launching Gateway's first two elements — HALO and the power and propulsion element (PPE), which will be built by Maxar Technologies — together in 2023. NASA expects to award Northrop Grumman a second contract by the end of the year, to build HALO and integrate it with the PPE, agency officials said.

Also key to the Artemis vision are NASA's Orion crew capsule and Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket, which together will get astronauts off the ground and on their way to deep space.

Orion has one flight under its belt, an uncrewed test mission to Earth orbit that took place in December 2014. SLS has not launched yet; it's scheduled to debut late next year on the Artemis 1 mission, which will send an uncrewed Orion on a test flight around the moon.

Orion will provide life support for astronauts aboard the Gateway, along with HALO, which will provide about as much living space as a small studio apartment.


Gateway, and the Artemis program overall, will leverage considerable cooperation from partners in the international community and the private sector. For example, the European Space Agency will provide Orion's service module, and the landers that ferry NASA astronauts from the outpost to the lunar surface will be privately built.

Research reveals possibly active tectonic system on the moon

Researchers have discovered a system of ridges spread across the nearside of the Moon topped with freshly exposed boulders. The ridges could be evidence of active lunar tectonic processes, the researchers say, possibly the echo of a long-ago impact that nearly tore the Moon apart. "There's this assumption that the Moon is long dead, but we keep finding that that's not the case," said Peter Schultz, a professor in Brown University's Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences and co-author of the research, which is published in the journal Geology. "From this paper it appears that the Moon may still be creaking and cracking - potentially in the present day - and we can see the evidence on these ridges." Most of the Moon's surface is covered by regolith, a powdery blanket of ground-up rock created by the constant bombardment of tiny meteorites and other impactors. Areas free of regolith where the Moon's bedrock is exposed are vanishingly rare. But Adomas Valantinas, a graduate student at the University of Bern who led the research while a visiting scholar at Brown, used data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) to spot strange bare spots within and surrounding the lunar maria, the large dark patches on the Moon's nearside. "Exposed blocks on the surface have a relatively short lifetime because the regolith buildup is happening constantly," Schultz said. "So when we see them, there needs to be some explanation for how and why they were exposed in certain locations."

For the study, Valantinas used the LRO's Diviner instrument, which measures the temperature of the lunar surface. Just as concrete-covered cities on Earth retain more heat than the countryside, exposed bedrock and blocky surfaces on the Moon stays warmer through the lunar night than regolith-covered surfaces. Using nighttime observations from Diviner, Valantinas turned up more than 500 patches of exposed bedrock on narrow ridges following a pattern across the lunar nearside maria.

A few ridges topped with exposed bedrock had been seen before, Schultz says. But those ridges were on the edges of ancient lava-filled impact basins and could be explained by continued sagging in response to weight caused by the lava fill.

But this new study discovered that the most active ridges are related to a mysterious system of tectonic features (ridges and faults) on the lunar nearside, unrelated to both lava-filled basins and other young faults that crisscross the highlands.

"The distribution that we found here begs for a different explanation," Schultz said.

Valantinas and Schultz mapped out all of the exposures revealed in the Diviner data and found an interesting correlation. In 2014, NASA's GRAIL mission found a network of ancient cracks in the Moon's crust. Those cracks became channels through which magma flowed to the Moon's surface to form deep intrusions. Valantinas and Schultz showed that the blocky ridges seemed to line up just about perfectly with the deep intrusions revealed by GRAIL.

"It's almost a one-to-one correlation," Schultz said. "That makes us think that what we're seeing is an ongoing process driven by things happening in the Moon's interior."

Schultz and Valantinas suggest that the ridges above these ancient intrusions arestill heaving upward. The upward movement breaks the surface and enables regolith to drain into cracks and voids, leaving the blocks exposed. Because bare spots on the Moon get covered over fairly quickly, this cracking must be quite recent, possibly even ongoing today. They refer to what they've found as ANTS, for Active Nearside Tectonic System.

The researchers believe that the ANTS was actually set in motion billions of years ago with a giant impact on the Moon's farside. In previous studies, Schultz and a co-worker proposed this impact, which formed the 1500-mile South Pole Aitken Basin, shattered the interior on the opposite side, the nearside facing the Earth.

Magma then filled these cracks and controlled the pattern of dikes detected in the GRAIL mission. The blocky ridges comprising the ANTS now trace the continuing adjustments along these ancient weaknesses.

"This looks like the ridges responded to something that happened 4.3 billion years ago," Schultz said. "Giant impacts have long lasting effects. The Moon has a long memory. What we're seeing on the surface today is testimony to its long memory and secrets it still holds."

NASA CubeSat Will Shine a Laser Light on the Moon's Darkest Craters

As astronauts explore the Moon during the Artemis program, they may need to make use of the resources that already exist on the lunar surface. Take water, for instance: Because it's a heavy and therefore expensive resource to launch from Earth, our future explorers might have to seek out ice to mine. Once excavated, it can be melted and purified for drinking and used for rocket fuel. But how much water is there on the Moon, and where might we find it? This is where NASA's Lunar Flashlight comes in. About the size of a briefcase, the small satellite - also known as a CubeSat - aims to detect naturally occurring surface ice believed to be at the bottom of craters on the Moon that have never seen sunlight. "Although we have a pretty good idea there's ice inside the coldest and darkest craters on the Moon, previous measurements have been a little bit ambiguous," said Barbara Cohen, principal investigator of the mission at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "Scientifically, that's fine, but if we're planning on sending astronauts there to dig up the ice and drink it, we have to be sure it exists." Managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the spacecraft is a technology demonstration: It will seek to achieve several technological firsts, including being the first mission to look for water ice using lasers. It will also be the first planetary spacecraft to use a "green" propellant, a new kind of fuel that is safer to transport and store than the commonly used spacecraft propellant hydrazine.

"A technology demonstration mission like Lunar Flashlight, which is lower cost and fills a specific gap in our knowledge, can help us better prepare for an extended NASA presence on the Moon as well as test key technologies that may be used in future missions," said John Baker, Lunar Flashlight project manager at JPL.

Peering Into the Shadows

Over the course of two months, Lunar Flashlight will swoop low over the Moon's South Pole to shine its lasers into permanently shadowed regions and probe for surface ice. Found near the North and South Poles, these dark craters are thought to be "cold traps" that accumulate molecules of different ices, including water ice. The molecules may have come from comet and asteroid material impacting the lunar surface and from solar wind interactions with the lunar soil.

"The Sun moves around the crater horizon but never actually shines into the crater," said Cohen, whose team includes scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles, John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory and the University of Colorado. "Because these craters are so cold, these molecules never receive enough energy to escape, so they become trapped and accumulate over billions of years."

Lunar Flashlight's four-laser reflectometer will use near-infrared wavelengths that are readily absorbed by water to identify any accumulations of ice on the surface. Should the lasers hit bare rock as they shine into the South Pole's permanently shadowed regions, their light will reflect back to the spacecraft, signaling a lack of ice. But if the light is absorbed, it would mean these dark pockets do indeed contain ice. The greater the absorption, the more widespread ice may be at the surface.

While the CubeSat can provide information only about the presence of ice on the surface, and not below it, Lunar Flashlight seeks to fill a critical gap in our understanding of how much water ice these regions possess. "We will also be able to compare the Lunar Flashlight data with the great data that we already have from other Moon-orbiting missions to see if there are correlations in signatures of water ice, thereby giving us a global view of surface ice distribution," added Cohen.

The mission is detailed in a new paper published in the April 2020 issue of IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine.

Lunar Flashlight is funded by the Small Spacecraft Technology program within NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate. The program is based at NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley. It will be one of 13 secondary payloads aboard the Artemis I mission, the first integrated flight test of NASA's Deep Space Exploration Systems, including the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket launching from the newly upgraded Exploration Ground Systems at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

USGS releases first-ever comprehensive geologic map of the moon

Have you ever wondered what kind of rocks make up those bright and dark splotches on the moon? Well, the USGS has just released a new authoritative map to help explain the 4.5-billion-year-old history of our nearest neighbor in space. For the first time, the entire lunar surface has been completely mapped and uniformly classified by scientists from the USGS, in collaboration with NASA and the Lunar Planetary Institute. The lunar map, called the "Unified Geologic Map of the Moon," will serve as the definitive blueprint of the moon's surface geology for future human missions and will be invaluable for the international scientific community, educators and the public-at-large. The digital map is available online now and shows the moon's geology in incredible detail (1:5,000,000 scale). "People have always been fascinated by the moon and when we might return," said current USGS Director and former NASA astronaut Jim Reilly. "So, it's wonderful to see USGS create a resource that can help NASA with their planning for future missions." To create the new digital map, scientists used information from six Apollo-era regional maps along with updated information from recent satellite missions to the moon. The existing historical maps were redrawn to align them with the modern data sets, thus preserving previous observations and interpretations. Along with merging new and old data, USGS researchers also developed a unified description of the stratigraphy, or rock layers, of the moon. This resolved issues from previous maps where rock names, descriptions and ages were sometimes inconsistent.

"This map is a culmination of a decades-long project," said Corey Fortezzo, USGS geologist and lead author. "It provides vital information for new scientific studies by connecting the exploration of specific sites on the moon with the rest of the lunar surface."

Elevation data for the moon's equatorial region came from stereo observations collected by the Terrain Camera on the recent SELENE (Selenological and Engineering Explorer) mission led by JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Topography for the north and south poles was supplemented with NASA's Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter data.

Xplore wins USAF award for innovative Cislunar commercial capabilities

Xplore Inc., a commercial space company has announced they have won an Air Force award to study positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) solutions for cislunar space. The award category, for commercial and technical innovations between the Earth and the Moon - is entirely new for the Air Force, which is investigating the capabilities necessary to extend operations beyond geosynchronous orbit to now include cislunar space. Today, Earth-orbiting satellites rely on the Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite constellation circling the Earth at an altitude of about 20,000 km (12,427 miles) - to know where they are and how to navigate to a destination. This GPS infrastructure, a public service provided by the U.S. Government, is essential to satellite operations and separately has become an integral part of our daily lives. Smartphones receive GPS signals that allow us to seamlessly perform a wide range of tasks such as planning travel itineraries, hailing a rideshare, viewing local weather or ordering a pizza and tracking its delivery in real-time. Beyond Earth orbit an equivalent positioning and navigation system does not exist. Given this, it can be extremely difficult for spacecraft, landers or rovers on the Moon or on Mars to identify their exact position. Navigation considerations have been an integral part of Xplore's development strategy since the company started rigorously developing its platform and multi-mission Xcraft - an ESPA-class space vehicle that will fly missions at destinations from Earth to the Moon, Mars, Venus, Lagrange points, near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) and other locations across the inner solar system.

Beyond the more obvious hardware requirements for operating in extreme environments, Xplore will maximize the full value of its orbital assets by designing a PNT architecture that mirrors the accessibility and reliability of GPS for cislunar space. The Xcraft's ability to operate across these vast distances provides tremendous value to customers in academia, industry, civil space and national security agencies.

Xplore Founder Lisa Rich said, "We understood the need to build navigation architectures beyond Earth orbit early in our development and are proud that our thought-leadership has been recognized. Xplore is among the first to win an Air Force award in this groundbreaking new category for missions and services around the Moon. We are uniquely qualified to provide innovative commercial solutions to the Air Force and rapidly advance space domain awareness now that cislunar space operations is a focal point."

She added, "Xplore is honored to respond to the growing and dynamic needs of our national security architecture beyond Earth orbit. We are poised to set new standards across the industry and our exceptional team is excited to provide these foundational capabilities and work with the USAF to ensure mission success."

Xplore's ability to design, built and test new PNT architectures beyond Earth orbit will expand the deep space ecosystem and will provide new opportunities for civilian space agencies, national security agencies, sovereign space agencies and commercial space companies to navigate in this challenging environment. Xplore can supply navigation capabilities for Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO) regimes where typical GPS receivers fail to pick up a signal.

Dr. Clive R. Neal, professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences at the University of Notre Dame, who has over 30 years of experience in advancing our understanding of the Moon said: "Xplore's solution has strong technical and programmatic merit, and it supports USAF objectives.

The company has created a strong plan to use its Xcraft asset to facilitate a precision positioning, navigation and timing architecture to service our growing civil and national security needs. Not only is it a step in obtaining security in the cislunar domain, it provides vital infrastructure for expanding humanity to the Moon, and for creation of a vibrant cislunar economy. This first opportunity for Xplore has good potential."

Xplore plans to accelerate innovation and commercialize deep space via higher cadence, low-cost missions to the inner solar system. The highly capable Xcraft, a modular next-generation spacecraft, is uniquely designed to service the needs of multiple customers on a single mission, and operate in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO), cislunar space and deep space.

Dr. Lou Friedman, founder of The Planetary Society and Advisor to Xplore said, "Xplore demonstrated tremendous foresight in their plans for deep space exploration as they build architectures to achieve positioning, navigation and timing between the Earth and the Moon. They understood early on that GPS doesn't work beyond the Earth, and to navigate beyond Earth, we must develop new technologies to perform in deep space environments."

Positioning, navigation and timing systems will directly benefit existing and future operations in cislunar and interplanetary space. As Xplore ventures beyond Earth orbit, their new infrastructure will support our nation's strategy and form essential building blocks for a sustainable cislunar economy.

China's lunar rover travels over 424 meters on moon's far side

China's lunar rover Yutu-2, or Jade Rabbit-2, has driven 424.455 meters on the far side of the moon to conduct scientific exploration of the virgin territory. Both the lander and the rover of the Chang'e-4 probe have ended their work for the 16th lunar day, and switched to dormant mode for the lunar night due to the lack of solar power, according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration. China's Chang'e-4 probe, launched on Dec. 8, 2018, made the first-ever soft landing on the Von Karman Crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon on Jan. 3, 2019. Yutu-2 has worked much longer than its three-month design life, becoming the longest-working lunar rover on the moon. The rover has helped scientists unveil the secrets buried deep under the surface on the far side of the moon, enriching human's understanding about the history of celestial collision and volcanic activities and shedding new light on the geological evolution on the moon. The scientific tasks of the Chang'e-4 mission include conducting low-frequency radio astronomical observations, surveying the terrain and landforms, detecting the mineral composition and shallow lunar surface structure and measuring neutron radiation and neutral atoms. The Chang'e-4 mission embodies China's hope to combine wisdom in space exploration with four payloads developed by the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden and Saudi Arabia.

China plans to launch its first Mars probe and the Chang'e-5 probe to bring lunar samples back to Earth later this year. CNSA said it was making all-out efforts to carry out the missions amid the coronavirus pandemic.

NASA suspends work on Moon rocket due to virus

NASA said it has suspended work on building and testing the rocket and capsule for its Artemis manned mission to the Moon due to the rising number of coronavirus cases in the community. The space agency is shutting down its Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, where the Space Launch System rocket is being built, and the nearby Stennis Space Center, administrator Jim Bridenstine said late Thursday. "The change at Stennis was made due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the community around the center, the number of self-isolation cases within our workforce there, and one confirmed case among our Stennis team," he said. "NASA will temporarily suspend production and testing of Space Launch System and Orion hardware. The NASA and contractors teams will complete an orderly shutdown that puts all hardware in a safe condition until work can resume." The Space Launch System is a powerful deep space rocket to transport astronauts to the Moon and beyond while Orion is the crew module. The virus outbreak could hit US plans to return to the Moon by 2024. "We realize there will be impacts to NASA missions, but as our teams work to analyze the full picture and reduce risks we understand that our top priority is the health and safety of the NASA workforce," Bridenstine said.

A manned return to the Moon is the first part of the Artemis program to set up a long-term colony and test technologies for a crewed mission to Mars in the 2030s.

India says it will try again to land on moon

The Indian Space Research Organization chairman Kailasavadivoo Sivan said the country will move ahead with a new space mission to the moon despite a failed attempt in 2019. The Chandrayaan-3 space mission, set to take place no later than early 2021, will include an upgraded space vehicle with a new propulsion module, moon lander and rover, Sivan said on Wednesday. India will be trying to become the fourth country to make a "soft landing" on the moon, behind the United States, the former Soviet Union and China. The unmanned lunar landing is part of India's bigger goal of launching its own astronauts into space by 2022. India's Minister of State Jitendra Singh said India gathered a great deal of information from the Chandrayaan-2 mission that will help it in the space agency's upcoming mission. "Yes, the lander and rover mission will most likely happen in 2020," Singh said. "However, as I have said before, the Chandrayaan-2 mission cannot be called a failure as we have learned a lot from it. "There is no country in the world that has landed on its first attempt. The U.S. took several attempts. But we will not need so many attempts." India already has scored a number of firsts for Asian nations. It became the first to reach Mars in 2014 when it placed one of its probes in orbit around Earth's neighbor. India then put a record of 104 satellites in space on one mission.

The country then touted its space defense capabilities when it announced in 2019 that it shot down one of its own satellites as a test of the anti-satellite protocol.

NASA wants international partners to go to Moon too

As it looks to return to the Moon, NASA is open to the idea of international participation, which could mean a non-American setting foot on Earth's natural satellite for the first time in history, global space chiefs said Monday. "I think there's lots of room on the Moon, and we need all our international partners to go with us to the Moon," NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine told reporters at the 70th International Astronautical Congress held in Washington. "If we can come to agreements on the contributions of all the nations and how they're going to be a part of the architecture, then certainly I would, I would see that there'd be no reason we can't have all of our international partners with us on the Moon," he added. The Americans are developing a spacecraft (Orion) and a mini space station (Gateway) that will remain in lunar orbit, which will in theory be used for a first crewed mission in 2024, Artemis 3. Only one element of the mission will be produced outside the US: the Orion service module that will supply it with electricity, propulsion, thermal control, air and water in space and is being delivered by the European Space Agency (ESA). Only once the Gateway is expanded will non-Americans be able to make the journey too. "We are in discussion also with NASA, so that we have European astronauts on the surface of the Moon -- this is of course the European intention," said Jan Worner, head of the ESA, at the same press conference. "2024 is for sure something which is purely American," he later told AFP. For Europeans, it could be "2027, 2028, something like that."

For its part, Japan also wants to take advantage of the new US program to write a new chapter in its own history.

"It's a very simple question to me because JAXA would like to send Japanese astronauts to the surface of the Moon," said Hiroshi Yamakawa, president of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

The building of the ISS in the late 1990s and 2000s appeared to usher in a new era of space cooperation between the US and Russia following the Cold War, but this time around, Washington is in no mood to work with geopolitical rivals.

Specifically, the US Congress has explicitly prohibited any cooperation with China, the world's biggest economy and an emerging space power.

During his speech inaugurating the weeklong conference, Vice President Mike Pence repeated seven times that the US wanted to work with "freedom-loving nations."

NASA opens call for Artemis lunar landers

NASA is seeking proposals for human lunar landing systems designed and developed by American companies for the Artemis program, which includes sending the first woman and next man to the surface of the Moon by 2024. The final call to industry comes after NASA issued two drafts on July 19 and Aug. 30, encouraging companies to send comments to help shape a key component of the agency's human exploration Artemis partnerships. NASA is expected to make multiple awards to industry to develop and demonstrate a human landing system. The first company to complete its lander will carry astronauts to the surface in 2024, and the second company will land in 2025. Proposals to build a landing system are due Nov. 1-an ambitious timeline consistent with the sequence of events leading to this point-however, companies have been preparing for, reviewing, and commenting on several drafts of NASA's broad agency announcement since mid-July and should be ready for this tight timeline. "In order to best accelerate our return to the Moon and prepare for Mars, we collaborated with industry on ideas to streamline the procurement process," said Marshall Smith, director of the Human Lunar Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The private sector was eager to provide us feedback throughout this process, and we received more than 1,150 comments on the draft solicitations issued over the summer." Typical spaceflight hardware can take six to eight years to develop. With less than five years to land astronauts on the Moon, every word and requirement counts.

After reviewing the comments, NASA removed requirements that industry perceived as potential barriers to speed while preserving all the agency's human safety measures. For example, industry stated that delivery of a high number of formal technical reports would require a company to spend considerable resources and incur undue schedule risk.

Taking this into consideration, NASA has designed a less formal insight model that will be used for accessing critical contractor data while minimizing administrative overhead. As a result, NASA reduced the number of required contract deliverables from 116 to 37.

"Reports still are valuable and necessary, but to compromise and ease the bulk of the reporting burden on industry, we are asking for access to the companies' systems to monitor progress throughout development," said Nantel Suzuki, the Human Landing System program executive at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

"To maximize our chances of successfully returning to the Moon by 2024, we also are making NASA's engineering workforce available to contractors and asking proposers to submit a collaboration plan."

When called to accelerate its return to the Moon, NASA said it would meet this ambitious goal by "any means necessary."

The agency's preferred approach to a lunar landing is for the crew in the Orion spacecraft and the uncrewed human landing system to launch separately and meet in lunar orbit at the Gateway, which is critical to long-term exploration of the Moon. NASA wants to explore all options to achieve the 2024 mission and remains open to alternative, innovative approaches.

Another shift centered around how to best achieve sustainability on the Moon by 2028. In addition to greater performance, such as global lunar surface access and higher payload mass capacity, NASA originally required the Human Landing System to be refuelable as a means to ensure a more sustainable exploration architecture.

Multiple companies had concerns about this requirement, and NASA agreed to remove it so that industry has greater flexibility to address the more fundamental attribute of sustainability, which is long-term affordability.

"They were absolutely right," said Lisa Watson-Morgan, the Human Landing System program manager at NASA's Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. "We are operating on a timeline that requires us to be flexible to encourage innovation and alternate approaches. We still welcome the option to refuel the landing system, but we removed it as a requirement."

NASA's Artemis program includes sending a suite of new science instruments and technology demonstrations to study the Moon, landing the first woman and next man on the lunar surface by 2024, and establishing a sustained presence by 2028. The agency will leverage its Artemis experience and technologies to prepare for the next giant leap - sending astronauts to Mars.

Kentucky companies give NASA Artemis missions a boost

When American astronauts set foot on the Moon's surface in 2024, men and women across Kentucky can say they helped to make it possible. NASA recognized three Kentucky businesses - Parker Hannifin Corp., American Synthetic Rubber Co., a Michelin company; and Eckart America Corp. - in Lexington and Louisville Sept. 18-19 for their continued support in supplying critical elements and tools for the twin solid rocket boosters of NASA's powerful Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. "It is exciting to watch as NASA leads this new era of space exploration," said Kentucky Lt. Gov. Jenean Hampton. "I am proud the three businesses we're recognizing today play key roles in our nation's return to the Moon and beyond. Every worker who helps produce the seals, polymers, pigments and parts for NASA's new rocket systems should be proud of their contribution. Kentucky's aerospace and aviation industry stands ready to assist as NASA pushes the boundaries of research, exploration and innovation." Working with Northrop Grumman, the SLS booster lead contractor, each of the suppliers has played a role in manufacturing and producing the rocket's boosters that will be used for the Artemis missions. 

+ American Synthetic Rubber Co. is the only manufacturer in the United States of a unique liquid polymer that serves as the binder, or glue, in the SLS propellant that powers the rocket boosters. The polymer enhances the strength of the propellant while it is under pressure, helping the propellant withstand ignition forces.

+ Eckart produces the aluminum powder used in the SLS propellant.

+ Parker Hannifin's O-ring and Engineered Seals Division provides elastomer sealing that is a key component for the SLS boosters as well as the Mars 2020 Rover, which will search for signs of habitable conditions on Mars.

American Synthetic Rubber Co. and Parker Hannifin were each presented with the Space Launch System Program Manager's Commendation award by retired NASA astronaut Col. William "Bill" McArthur on behalf of the agency. NASA and Northrop Grumman personnel toured each of the facilities to meet the men and women helping to build the boosters for the SLS rocket.

"NASA and Northrop Grumman earlier this year completed casting all 10 of the booster motor segments for both the first and second Artemis lunar missions," said Mark Olsen of Northrop Grumman. "Men and women here in Kentucky and across the U.S. are providing vital services to build the SLS rocket as efficiently as possible."

Based on the booster design from NASA's Space Shuttle Program, the five-segment SLS booster is the largest, most powerful solid propellant booster ever built for flight. Each booster produces more than 3.6 million pounds of thrust to send SLS and NASA's Orion spacecraft to the Moon. Together, the twin boosters produce more than 75 percent of the total SLS thrust at launch.

American Synthetic Rubber Co., Parker Hannifin and Eckart supplied elements for the production of the boosters during the space shuttle program.

"The boosters for SLS were adapted from the space shuttle booster with the addition of a fifth propellant segment," said Hank Miller, SLS booster element deputy manager. "That additional motor segment enables the SLS to lift more weight and travel farther than the shuttle."

Sending American astronauts to the Moon by 2024 takes power, precision and the combined efforts from companies across the United States. More than 3,800 businesses in all 50 states support the production of SLS and Orion for the Artemis lunar missions.

Kentucky is a leader in America's aerospace industry, ranking second as the top aerospace export state in the country. With more than 600 Kentucky companies in the aerospace and defense business, the state had more than $12 billion in aerospace and defense exports in 2018. Additionally, NASA astronauts Randy Bresnik and Terri Wilcutt, the agency's chief of safety and mission assurance and former space shuttle pilot, are from Kentucky.