NASA Awards Firefly Aerospace $ 177 million for 1st Multi-Rover Mission to the South Pole of Moon

When you buy through links on our articles, future and its syndication partners can earn a committee.

NASA has awarded Firefly Aerospace a contract of $ 176.7 million to deliver a few robbers and three scientific instruments to the South Pole of the Moon.

The mission is aimed at landing in 2029 and will be the first under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative to wear several robbers and instruments in one flight. They will explore some of the heaviest environments of the moon for the presence of useful means to support future moon excursions, including crew plen.

The newly announced prize marks the fifth CLPS task order of Firefly and the fourth planned lunar mission. CLPS is the NASA program for buying robot -like delivery services on the surface of the moon of commercial American companies to enable more frequent, cheaper access to the moon surface.

CLPS is an integral part of the NASA Artemis program to establish a sustainable human presence on the Moon, so that the space agency can study the environment in detail that future astronauts will investigate.

“Through CLPs, NASA embraces a new era of lunar survey, with commercial companies that are at the forefront,” said Joel Kearns, deputy -associate administrator for exploration in Nasa’s Science Mission Directorate, in a statement.

The selection of Firefly for this new CLPS task order contract contracts to offer full service to the moon surface “with a period of performance of [July 29, 2025] Until March 29, 2030, “says the statement.

Firefly successfully completed its first Lunar Landing and CLPS mission in March of this year and delivered 10 NASA payloads on the near side of the moon. The second mission of the company based in Texas is planned for 2026 and will try a barrier landing after deploying a moon orbiter. Another mission, planned for 2028, will study the volcanic site of the Gruithuisen Domes region in the moon.

This newly assigned task order includes contributions from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the University of Bern in Switzerland. The science package of the mission combines mobile exploration, advanced imaging and regolithhanalysis to study the geology and environmental sources of the South Pole. Here is a brief overview of what will fly on the mission:

• Moonranger -A autonomous Microrover of the NASA Ames research center, Carnegie Mellon University and the Pittsburgh company Astrobotic, equipped with a neutron spectrometer system for mapping hydrogen-bearing volatile substances and characterizing regolite.

• Stereo Plume cameras – an advanced imaging system to observe how rocket outlet interacts with the moon surface during the descent; Developed by NASA’s Laney Research Center in Virginia.

• Laser Retroreflector Array – Passive optically reflective markers to make precision phase range measurements from a job to enable the job of Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

• CSA Rover – able to permanently explore craters in the shade, to measure radiation and look for water ice; Equipped with several imagers and spectrometers.

• Laserionization mass spectrometer -Aalyzes Regolith-Chemie using a Firly-built robot arm and excavation system Robotic Arm Excavation System (University of Bern).

The South Pole of the Moon is the home base of permanently shady areas that are assumed to contain large quantities of water ice – a critical resource that can be used for a wide range of applications, from drinking water to rocket fuel. NASA hopes to use data collected by the robbers and instruments to guide the best Artemis landing sites for future missions.

The mission will also study environmental hazards, such as radiation and surface erosion. In the NASA statement, Johnson Space Center CLPS manager Adam Schlesinger said: “While NASA sends both people and robots to further explore the moon, CLPS deliveries to the Lunar Zuidpool region will offer a better insight into the exploration environment, which accelerates the progress, as well as a long-durable human presence on the Moon.”