NASA Artemis Mission: 16 Payloads Announced For Scientific Study Of Lunar Surface

Commercialization of space travel is on the cards and NASA has a green signal for it. In fact, the premier space agency is pushing big for commercial spaceflight in partnership with SpaceX, Boeing, to name a few. NASA has just unveiled 16 scientific experiments and tech demonstrations that will ride to the Moon.

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NASA Moon Exploration

NASA will be sending two landers, built by two private companies, namely Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines. These landers will carry the 16 scientific payloads to the Moon, a mission slated to take off in July 2021.

The Peregrine lander from Astrobotic will take off on the Vulcan Centaur rocket built by the United Launch Alliance. It will carry scientific equipment to study and observe several aspects of the Moon's habitat. The lander will play a crucial role to prepare for the arrival of astronauts as part of the NASA Artemis program.

The lander built by Intuitive Machines will fly aboard Space X's Falcon 9 and carry equipment that will test the autonomous orbital and surface navigation. Communication experiments and a monitoring camera to check the spacecraft's landing plume will also be sent with this lander. This is a crucial part of the experiment for future missions, including the mission to Mars.

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NASA Artemis Mission

Altogether, NASA has prepped up 16 equipment to explore the Moon. They will observe the chemistry of materials in the lunar regolith. The data could be crucial for future astronauts, including the radiation environment, which is one of the biggest obstacles for human survival on the Moon.

The newly announced NASA payloads come under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, a big part of the Artemis program and landing of astronauts near the Moon's south pole in 2024.

"The innovation of America's aerospace companies, wedded with our big goals in science and human exploration, are going to help us achieve amazing things on the moon and feed forward to Mars," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said while announcing the CLPS program.