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By NASA
2 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Nemanja Jovanovic, lead instrument scientist at Caltech, presents at the Emerging Technologies for Astrophysics workshop, held at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. The workshop brought together experts in astrophysics to discuss how advanced technologies could impact future mission planning.NASA/Donald Richey The future of astrophysics research could unlock the secrets of the universe, and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, quantum sensing, and advanced materials may hold the key to faster, more efficient discovery. Advancements and implementations of new technologies are imperative for observational astrophysics to achieve the next level of detection.
NASA’s Emerging Technologies for Astrophysics workshop brought together subject matter experts from industry, government, and academia to explore the state of new and disruptive technologies. The meeting was an effort to identify specific applications for astrophysics missions and better understand how their infusion into future NASA space telescopes could be accelerated.
The workshop took place at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley,. supporting the agency’s efforts to make partnership with public and private industry and collaborative mission planning possible.
“The profound questions about the nature of our universe that astrophysics at NASA answers require giant leaps in technology,” explained Mario Perez, chief technologist for the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Spotting potential in early-stage tech by encouraging discussions between imaginative researchers helps expand the scope of science and lessen the time required to achieve the next generation of astrophysics missions.”
Emerging technologies like artificial intelligence can support the design and optimization of future missions, and participants focused efforts on combining technologies to push research further. “Cross-pollination” of advanced materials like composites with advanced manufacturing, metamaterials, and photonic chips could support advancement in imaging missions beyond existing mechanical stability needs.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has dubbed 2025 the “International Year of Quantum Science and Technology” in recognition of a century of quantum mechanics. Workshop participants discussed how quantum sensing could enable more precise measurements, achieve “super resolution” by filling in missing details in lower resolution images, and provide greater capabilities in forthcoming space telescopes.
“This gathering of experts was an opportunity to find ways where we can increase the capabilities of future space instrumentation and accelerate technology development for infusion into NASA astrophysics missions,” said Naseem Rangwala, astrophysics branch chief at NASA Ames. “We can speed up the process of how we develop these future projects by using the emerging technologies that are incubated right here in Silicon Valley.”
The findings from this workshop and ongoing discussions will support efforts to study and invest in technologies to advance astrophysics missions with greater speed and efficiency.
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Tara Friesen
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Last Updated Apr 29, 2025 Related Terms
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By NASA
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
An artist’s concept depicts one of NASA’s Voyager probes. The twin spacecraft launched in 1977.NASA/JPL-Caltech The farthest-flung human-made objects will be able to take their science-gathering even farther, thanks to these energy-conserving measures.
Mission engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California turned off the cosmic ray subsystem experiment aboard Voyager 1 on Feb. 25 and will shut off Voyager 2’s low-energy charged particle instrument on March 24. Three science instruments will continue to operate on each spacecraft. The moves are part of an ongoing effort to manage the gradually diminishing power supply of the twin probes.
Launched in 1977, Voyagers 1 and 2 rely on a radioisotope power system that generates electricity from the heat of decaying plutonium. Both lose about 4 watts of power each year.
“The Voyagers have been deep space rock stars since launch, and we want to keep it that way as long as possible,” said Suzanne Dodd, Voyager project manager at JPL. “But electrical power is running low. If we don’t turn off an instrument on each Voyager now, they would probably have only a few more months of power before we would need to declare end of mission.”
The two spacecraft carry identical sets of 10 science instruments. Some of the instruments, geared toward collecting data during planetary flybys, were turned off after both spacecraft completed their exploration of the solar system’s gas giants.
The instruments that remained powered on well beyond the last planetary flyby were those the science team considered important for studying the solar system’s heliosphere, a protective bubble of solar wind and magnetic fields created by the Sun, and interstellar space, the region outside the heliosphere. Voyager 1 reached the edge of the heliosphere and the beginning of interstellar space in 2012; Voyager 2 reached the boundary in 2018. No other human-made spacecraft has operated in interstellar space.
Last October, to conserve energy, the project turned off Voyager 2’s plasma science instrument, which measures the amount of plasma — electrically charged atoms — and the direction it is flowing. The instrument had collected only limited data in recent years due to its orientation relative to the direction that plasma flows in interstellar space. Voyager 1’s plasma science instrument had been turned off years ago because of degraded performance.
Interstellar Science Legacy
The cosmic ray subsystem that was shut down on Voyager 1 last week is a suite of three telescopes designed to study cosmic rays, including protons from the galaxy and the Sun, by measuring their energy and flux. Data from those telescopes helped the Voyager science team determine when and where Voyager 1 exited the heliosphere.
Scheduled for deactivation later this month, Voyager 2’s low-energy charged particle instrument measures the various ions, electrons, and cosmic rays originating from our solar system and galaxy. The instrument consists of two subsystems: the low-energy particle telescope for broader energy measurements, and the low-energy magnetospheric particle analyzer for more focused magnetospheric studies.
Both systems use a rotating platform so that the field of view is 360 degrees, and the platform is powered by a stepper motor that provides a 15.7-watt pulse every 192 seconds. The motor was tested to 500,000 steps — enough to guarantee continuous operation through the mission’s encounters with Saturn, which occurred in August 1980 for Voyager 2. By the time it is deactivated on Voyager 2, the motor will have completed more than 8.5 million steps.
“The Voyager spacecraft have far surpassed their original mission to study the outer planets,” said Patrick Koehn, Voyager program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Every bit of additional data we have gathered since then is not only valuable bonus science for heliophysics, but also a testament to the exemplary engineering that has gone into the Voyagers — starting nearly 50 years ago and continuing to this day.”
Addition Through Subtraction
Mission engineers have taken steps to avoid turning off science instruments for as long as possible because the science data collected by the twin Voyager probes is unique. With these two instruments turned off, the Voyagers should have enough power to operate for about a year before the team needs to shut off another instrument on both spacecraft.
In the meantime, Voyager 1 will continue to operate its magnetometer and plasma wave subsystem. The spacecraft’s low-energy charged particle instrument will operate through the remainder of 2025 but will be shut off next year.
Voyager 2 will continue to operate its magnetic field and plasma wave instruments for the foreseeable future. Its cosmic ray subsystem is scheduled to be shut off in 2026.
With the implementation of this power conservation plan, engineers believe the two probes could have enough electricity to continue operating with at least one science instrument into the 2030s. But they are also mindful that the Voyagers have been weathering deep space for 47 years and that unforeseen challenges could shorten that timeline.
Long Distance
Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 remain the most distant human-made objects ever built. Voyager 1 is more than 15 billion miles (25 billion kilometers) away. Voyager 2 is over 13 billion miles (21 billion kilometers) from Earth.
In fact, due to this distance, it takes over 23 hours to get a radio signal from Earth to Voyager 1, and 19½ hours to Voyager 2.
“Every minute of every day, the Voyagers explore a region where no spacecraft has gone before,” said Linda Spilker, Voyager project scientist at JPL. “That also means every day could be our last. But that day could also bring another interstellar revelation. So, we’re pulling out all the stops, doing what we can to make sure Voyagers 1 and 2 continue their trailblazing for the maximum time possible.”
For more information about NASA’s Voyager missions, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager
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DC Agle / Calla Cofield
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-653-6297 / 626-808-2469
agle@jpl.nasa.gov / calla.e.cofield@jpl.nasa.gov
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By NASA
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands vertical on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025, at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center ahead of Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission as part of the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative and Artemis campaign. SpaceX Sending instruments to the Moon supports a growing lunar economy on and off Earth, and the next flight of NASA science and technology is only days away. NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative is a lunar delivery service that sends NASA science and technology instruments to various geographic locations on the Moon using American companies. These rapid, cost-effective commercial lunar missions at a cadence of about two per year improve our understanding of the lunar environment in advance of future crewed missions to the Moon as part of the agency’s broader Artemis campaign.
Of the 11 active CLPS contracts, there have been three CLPS launches to date: Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission One, which collected data in transit but experienced an anomaly that prevented it from landing on the Moon; Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 mission, which landed, tipped over, and operated on the lunar surface; and Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission One that is currently enroute and scheduled to land in early March 2025. The CLPS contract awards cover end-to-end commercial payload delivery services, including payload integration, launch from Earth, landing on the surface of the Moon, and mission operations.
NASA’s fourth CLPS flight is from Intuitive Machines with their IM-2 mission. The IM-2 mission is carrying NASA science and technology instruments to Mons Mouton, a lunar plateau just outside of 5 degrees of the South Pole of the Moon, closer to the pole than any preceding lunar mission.
Scheduled to launch no earlier than Wednesday and land approximately eight days later, Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander, named Athena, will carry three NASA instruments to the lunar South Pole region – the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1) suite and the Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA).
The PRIME-1 suite consists of two instruments, the TRIDENT drill (The Regolith Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain) and MSolo (Mass Spectrometer observing lunar operations), which will work together to extricate lunar soil samples, known as regolith, from the subsurface and analyze their composition to further understand the lunar environment and gain insight on potential resources that can be extracted for future examination.
The meter-long TRIDENT drill is designed to extract lunar regolith, up to about three feet below the surface. It will also measure soil temperature at varying depths below the surface, which will help to verify existing lunar thermal models that are used for ice stability calculations and resource mapping. By drilling into the lunar regolith, information is gathered to help answer questions about the lunar regolith geotechnical properties, such as soil strength, both at the surface and in the subsurface that will help inform Artemis infrastructure objectives. The data will be beneficial when designing future systems for on-site resource utilization that will use local resources to create everything from landing pads to rocket fuel. The lead development organization for TRIDENT is Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin Company.
The MSOLO instrument is a mass spectrometer capable of identifying and quantifying volatiles (or gasses that easily evaporate) found at or beneath the lunar surface, including– if it’s present in the regolith within the drill’s reach – water and oxygen, brought to the surface by the TRIDENT drill. This instrument can also detect any gases that emanate from the lander, drilling process, and other payloads conducting operations on the surface. Using MSolo to study the volatile gases found on the Moon can help us understand how the lander’s presence might alter the local environment. The lead development organization is INFICON of Syracuse, New York, in partnership with NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
NASA’s LRA is a collection of eight retroreflectors that enable precision laser ranging, which is a measurement of the distance between the orbiting or landing spacecraft to the reflector on the lander. The LRA instrument is passive, meaning it does not power on. It will function as a permanent location marker on the Moon for decades to come, similar to its predecessors. The lead development organization is NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
In addition to the CLPS instruments, two technology demonstrations aboard IM-2 were developed through NASA’s Tipping Point opportunity. These are collaborations with the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and industry that support development of commercial space capabilities and benefit future NASA missions.
Intuitive Machines developed a small hopping robot, Grace, named after Grace Hopper, computer scientist and mathematician. Grace will deploy as a secondary payload from the lander and enable high-resolution imaging and science surveying of the lunar surface, including permanently shadowed craters around the landing site. Grace is designed to bypass obstacles such as steep inclines, boulders, and craters to cover a lot of terrain while moving quickly, which is a valuable capability to support future missions on the Moon and other planets, including Mars.
Nokia will test a Lunar Surface Communications System that employs the same cellular technology here on Earth. Reconceptualized by Nokia Bell Labs to meet the unique requirements of a lunar mission, this tipping point technology aims to demonstrate proximity communications between the lander, a Lunar Outpost rover, and the hopper.
Launching as a rideshare alongside the IM-2 mission, NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft also will begin its journey to lunar orbit where it will map the distribution of water – and other forms of water – on the Moon.
Future CLPS flights will continue to send payloads to the near side, far side, and South Pole regions of the Moon where investigations and exploration are informed by each area’s unique characteristics. With a pool of 13 American companies under CLPS, including a portfolio of 11 lunar deliveries by five vendors sending more than 50 individual science and technology instruments to lunar orbit and the surface of the Moon, NASA continues to advance long-term exploration of the Moon, and beyond to Mars.
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By NASA
Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander getting encapsulated in SpaceX’s rocket fairing ahead of the planned liftoff for 1:11 a.m. EST Jan. 15 from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in FloridaSpaceX As part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign, the agency is preparing to fly ten instruments aboard Firefly Aerospace’s first delivery to the Moon. These science payloads and technology demonstrations will help advance our understanding of the Moon and planetary processes, while paving the way for future crewed missions on the Moon and beyond, for the benefit of all.
Firefly’s lunar lander, named Blue Ghost, is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Wednesday, Jan.15, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. After a 45-day cruise phase, Blue Ghost is targeted to land near a volcanic feature called Mons Latreille within Mare Crisium, a basin approximately 340 miles wide (550 kilometers) located in the northeast quadrant of the Moon’s near side.
How can we enable more precise navigation on the Moon? How do spacecraft interact with the lunar surface? How does Earth’s magnetic field influence the effects of space weather on our home planet? NASA’s instruments on this flight will conduct first-of-their-kind demonstrations to help answer these questions and more, including testing regolith sampling technologies, lunar subsurface drilling capabilities, increasing precision of positioning and navigation abilities, testing radiation tolerant computing, and learning how to mitigate lunar dust during lunar landings.
The ten NASA payloads aboard Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander include:
Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity (LISTER) will measure heat flow from the Moon’s interior by measuring the thermal gradient, or changes in temperature at various depths, and thermal conductivity, or the subsurface material’s ability to let heat pass through it. LISTER will take several measurements up to 10 feet deep using pneumatic drilling technology with a custom heat flow needle instrument at its tip. Data from LISTER will help scientists retrace the Moon’s thermal history and understand how it formed and cooled. Lead organization: Texas Tech University
Lunar PlanetVac (LPV) is designed to collect regolith samples from the lunar surface using a burst of compressed gas to drive the regolith into a sample chamber (sieving) for collection and analysis by various instruments. Additional instrumentation will then transmit the results back to Earth. The LPV payload is designed to help increase the science return from planetary missions by testing low-cost technologies for collecting regolith samples in-situ. Lead organization: Honeybee Robotics
Next Generation Lunar Retroreflector (NGLR) serves as a target for lasers on Earth to precisely measure the distance between Earth and the Moon by reflecting very short laser pulses from Earth-based Lunar Laser Ranging Observatories. The laser pulse transit time to the Moon and back is used to determine the distance. Data from NGLR could improve the accuracy of our lunar coordinate system and contribute to our understanding of the inner structure of the Moon and fundamental physics questions. Lead organization: University of Maryland
Regolith Adherence Characterization (RAC) will determine how lunar regolith sticks to a range of materials exposed to the Moon’s environment throughout the lunar day. RAC will measure accumulation rates of lunar regolith on surfaces (for example, solar cells, optical systems, coatings, and sensors) through imaging to determine their ability to repel or shed lunar dust. The data captured will help test, improve, and protect spacecraft, spacesuits, and habitats from abrasive regolith. Lead organization: Aegis Aerospace
Radiation Tolerant Computer (RadPC) will demonstrate a computer that can recover from faults caused by ionizing radiation. Several RadPC prototypes have been tested aboard the International Space Station and Earth-orbiting satellites, but this flight will provide the biggest trial yet by demonstrating the computer’s ability to withstand space radiation as it passes through Earth’s radiation belts, while in transit to the Moon, and on the lunar surface. Lead organization: Montana State University
Electrodynamic Dust Shield (EDS) is an active dust mitigation technology that uses electric fields to move and prevent hazardous lunar dust accumulation on surfaces. EDS is designed to lift, transport, and remove particles from surfaces with no moving parts. Multiple tests will demonstrate the feasibility of the self-cleaning glasses and thermal radiator surfaces on the Moon. In the event the surfaces do not receive dust during landing, EDS has the capability to re-dust itself using the same technology. Lead organization: NASA’s Kennedy Space Center
Lunar Environment heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI) will capture a series of X-ray images to study the interaction of solar wind and Earth’s magnetic field that drives geomagnetic disturbances and storms. Deployed and operated on the lunar surface, this instrument will provide the first global images showing the edge of Earth’s magnetic field for critical insights into how space weather and other cosmic forces surrounding our planet impact Earth. Lead organizations: Boston University, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, and Johns Hopkins University
Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder (LMS) will characterize the structure and composition of the Moon’s mantle by measuring electric and magnetic fields. This investigation will help determine the Moon’s temperature structure and thermal evolution to understand how the Moon has cooled and chemically differentiated since it formed. Lead organization: Southwest Research Institute
Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) will demonstrate the possibility of acquiring and tracking signals from GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) constellations, specifically GPS and Galileo, during transit to the Moon, during lunar orbit, and on the lunar surface. If successful, LuGRE will be the first pathfinder for future lunar spacecraft to use existing Earth-based navigation constellations to autonomously and accurately estimate their position, velocity, and time. Lead organizations: NASA Goddard, Italian Space Agency
Stereo Camera for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies (SCALPSS) will use stereo imaging photogrammetry to capture the impact of the rocket exhaust plume on lunar regolith as the lander descends on the Moon’s surface. The high-resolution stereo images will aid in creating models to predict lunar regolith erosion, which is an important task as bigger, heavier spacecraft and hardware are delivered to the Moon in close proximity to each other. This instrument also flew on Intuitive Machines’ first CLPS delivery. Lead organization: NASA’s Langley Research Center
Through the CLPS initiative, NASA purchases lunar landing and surface operations services from American companies. The agency uses CLPS to send scientific instruments and technology demonstrations to advance capabilities for science, exploration, or commercial development of the Moon. By supporting a robust cadence of lunar deliveries, NASA will continue to enable a growing lunar economy while leveraging the entrepreneurial innovation of the commercial space industry.
Learn more about CLPS and Artemis at: http://www.nasa.gov/clps
Alise Fisher
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-2546
alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov
Natalia Riusech / Nilufar Ramji
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
natalia.s.riusech@nasa.gov / nilufar.ramji@nasa.gov
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By NASA
Technicians have successfully integrated NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s payload – the telescope, instrument carrier, and two instruments – to the spacecraft that will deliver the observatory to its place in space and enable it to function while there.
“With this incredible milestone, Roman remains on track for launch, and we’re a big step closer to unveiling the cosmos as never before,” said Mark Clampin, acting deputy associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “It’s been fantastic to watch the team’s progress throughout the integration phase. I look forward to Roman’s transformative observations.”
Technicians recently integrated the payload – telescope, instrument carrier, and two instruments – for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope in the big clean room at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. NASA/Chris Gunn The newly joined space hardware will now undergo extensive testing. The first test will ensure each major element operates as designed when integrated with the rest of the observatory and establish the hardware’s combined performance. Then environmental tests will subject the payload to the electromagnetic, vibration, and thermal vacuum environments it will experience during launch and on-orbit operations. These tests will ensure the hardware and the launch vehicle will not interfere with each other when operating, verify the communications antennas won’t create electromagnetic interference with other observatory hardware, shake the assembly to make sure it will survive extreme vibration during launch, assess its performance across its expected range of operating temperatures, and make sure the instruments and mirrors are properly optically aligned.
Meanwhile, Roman’s deployable aperture cover will be integrated with the outer barrel assembly, and then the solar panels will be added before spring. Then the structure will be joined to the payload and spacecraft this fall.
The Roman mission remains on track for completion by fall 2026 and launch no later than May 2027.
Virtually tour an interactive version of the telescope By Ashley Balzer
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
301-286-1940
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Last Updated Jan 08, 2025 EditorAshley BalzerContactAshley Balzerashley.m.balzer@nasa.govLocationGoddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
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