NASA plans to send a landing and a rover to the beautiful Gruithuisen domes, as seen in this controlled mosaic, and LROC images will help guide the way. The domes are at 36.3 ° N, 319.8 ° E. Image 55 km (34 miles) wide, north is up. Credit: NASA / GSFC / Arizona State University
NASA has important plans for exploring the Moon under the Artemis Program. While one of the main goals is to send astronauts to establish the first long-term presence on the moon and know what it takes to send the first astronauts to Mars, there is also a lot of scientific research on the agenda.
In fact, this list is growing as NASA has just selected two new instruments for the priority science of Artemis on the Moon. One is called Lunar Vulkan Imaging and Spectroscopy Explorer (Lunar-VISE) and its goal is to explore the mysterious Gruithuisen domes. What makes these geological features so puzzling to scientists is that they appear to have been formed by silica-rich magma, similar in composition to granite.
How did these siliceous magmas form on the Moon, when siliceous volcanoes on Earth normally form in the presence of water and tectonic plates?
Adding to the growing list of commercial deliveries planned to explore more of the Moon than ever under Artemis, NASA has selected two new suites of scientific instruments, including one that will study the mysterious Gruithuisen domes for the first time.
These payload suites mark the second selection through the agency’s call for proposals for payloads and lunar surface research (PRISM). Both payloads will be delivered to the lunar surface on future flights through NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, which is part of the agency’s largest lunar exploration architecture planned for this decade.
“The two selected studies will address important scientific issues related to the Moon,” said Joel Kearns, associate associate administrator for exploration at NASA’s Scientific Mission Directorate. “The first will study the geological processes of the first planetary bodies conserved on the Moon, investigating a rare form of lunar volcanism. The second will study the effects of the Moon’s low-gravity and radiation environment on yeast, a model organism. which is used to understand the response and repair of DNA damage.
A tagged version of the previous scene. The Gamma and Delta domes are separated by a relatively flat basaltic plain. Gruithuisen Domes controlled mosaic created from NAC images M1096764863, M1096743429, M1096757719, M1096750574. Credit: NASA / GSFC / Arizona State University
The Lunar Vulkan Imaging and Spectroscopy Explorer (Lunar-VISE) research consists of a set of five instruments, two of which will be mounted on a stationary landing and three mounted on a mobile rover that will be provided as a service by the CLPS vendor.
Over 10 Earth days (a lunar day), Lunar-VISE will explore the summit of one of Gruithuisen’s domes. It is suspected that these domes were formed by sticky magma rich in silica, of similar composition to granite. On Earth, formations like these need oceans of liquid water and plate tectonics to form, but without these key ingredients on the moon, lunar scientists have been left wondering how these formed and evolved. domes over time.
By analyzing the lunar regolith at the top of one of these domes, the data collected and returned by the Lunar-VISE instruments will help scientists answer fundamental open questions about how these formations were. The data will also help inform future robotic and human missions to the moon. Dr. Kerri Donaldson Hanna of the University of Central Florida will lead this payload suite.
The second selected research, the Lunar Explorer Instrument for Space Biology Applications (LEIA) scientific suite, is a small CubeSat-based device. LEIA will provide biological research on the Moon, which cannot be simulated or replicated with high fidelity to Earth or the International Space Station, by delivering the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to the lunar surface and studying its response to lunar radiation and gravity. S. cerevisiae is an important model of human biology, especially in the areas of genetics, cell and molecular replication, and division processes, and the response to DNA damage to environmental factors such as radiation. Data returned by LEIA, along with pre-existing data from other biological studies, could help scientists answer a decades-long question of how partial gravity and actual deep space radiation in combination influence biological processes. . Dr. Andrew Settles of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California, will lead the payload suite LEIA.
With these selections in place, NASA will work with the CLPS office at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to issue work orders to deliver these payload suites to the moon in the 2026 time period.
For these payload sets, the agency has also selected two project scientists to coordinate the scientific activities of the selected instrument sets, including working with payloads in landing site selection, concept development of operations and the archive of scientific data acquired during surface operations. Dr. John Karcz of NASA’s Ames Research Center in California will coordinate the Lunar-VISE research suite for delivery to the Gruithuisen Domes, and Dr. Cindy Young of NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, will coordinate the LEIA research suite for delivery.
CLPS is a key part of NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration plans. The loads of science and technology sent to the surface of the Moon will help lay the groundwork for human missions to and around the Moon. The agency has awarded seven assignment orders to CLPS suppliers for lunar deliveries in the early 2020s, with more delivery awards scheduled until 2028.