Tag: Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS)

Electrodynamic Dust Shield Heading to Moon on Firefly Lander

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Inside of the Electrostatics and Surface Physics Laboratory at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, an electrodynamic dust shield (EDS) is in view on Jan. 18, 2023. The dust shield is one of the payloads that will fly aboard Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. NASA/Cory Huston Defeating dust may be a small concern for most people on Earth, but for astronauts and spacecraft destined for the Moon or Mars, it is a significant hazard that must be mitigated. That’s…

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NASA Names Adam Schlesinger as Commercial Lunar Payload Services Project Manager

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Official portrait of Adam Schlesinger. NASA/Bill Stafford NASA has selected Adam Schlesinger as manager for CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services). Schlesinger previously served as the Gateway Program habitation and logistics outpost project lead engineer at Johnson Space Center. “I am honored and tremendously excited to take on this new role as NASA continues to enable a growing lunar economy while leveraging the entrepreneurial innovation of the commercial space industry,” Schlesinger said. Schlesinger brings more than 20 years’ experience to NASA human space flight programs. Prior to supporting Gateway, Mr. Schlesinger managed…

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NASA’s LEXI Will Provide X-Ray Vision of Earth’s Magnetosphere

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5 min read NASA’s LEXI Will Provide X-Ray Vision of Earth’s Magnetosphere A NASA X-ray imager is heading to the Moon as part of NASA’s Artemis campaign, where it will capture the first global images of the magnetic field that shields Earth from solar radiation. The Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-ray Imager, or LEXI, instrument is one of 10 payloads aboard the next lunar delivery through NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative, set to launch from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida no earlier than mid-January, with Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost…

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NASA Anticipates Lunar Findings From Next-Generation Retroreflector

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3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Next Generation Lunar Retroreflector, or NGLR-1, is one of 10 payloads set to fly aboard the next delivery for NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative in 2025. NGLR-1, outfitted with a retroreflector, will be delivered to the lunar surface to reflect very short laser pulses from Earth-based lunar laser ranging observatories. Photo courtesy Firefly Aerospace Apollo astronauts set up mirror arrays, or “retroreflectors,” on the Moon to accurately reflect laser light beamed at them from Earth with minimal…

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NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Looks to Thrive in 2025

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Photographers at NASA capture the sunset on Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024, near the headquarters building of the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA/Ben Smegelsky As NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida wraps up a year that will see more than 90 government, commercial, and private missions launch from Florida’s Space Coast, a look to 2025 shows the missions, partnerships, projects, and programs at the agency’s main launch site will continue innovating, inspiring, and pushing the boundaries of exploration for the benefit of humanity. “The next year promises to be…

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NASA Kennedy Top 24 Stories of 2024

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A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket carrying NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 12:06 p.m. EDT on Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. SpaceX From sending crew members to the International Space Station to launching a spacecraft to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa to determine if it could support life, 2024 was a busy record setting year for NASA and its partners at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. JANUARYFirst Lunar Lander Takes Flight The first flight of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload…

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NASA Explores Industry, Partner Interest in Using VIPER Moon Rover

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2 min read NASA Explores Industry, Partner Interest in Using VIPER Moon Rover NASA’s VIPER robotic Moon rover is seen here in a clean room at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA/Helen Arase Vargas As part of its commitment to a robust, sustainable lunar exploration program for the benefit of all, NASA issued a Request for Information Friday to seek interest from American companies and institutions in conducting a mission using the agency’s VIPER Moon rover. VIPER, short for Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, was designed to map the…

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CADRE Rovers’ Test Drive in the Mars Yard

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NASA/JPL-Caltech Two full-scale development model rovers, part of NASA’s Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration (CADRE) technology demonstration, drive in the Mars Yard at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California in this image from August 2023. The project is designed to show that a group of robotic spacecraft can work together as a team to accomplish tasks and record data autonomously – without explicit commands from mission controllers on Earth. A series of Mars Yard tests with the development models confirmed CADRE hardware and software can work together to…

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NASA Collects First Surface Science in Decades via Commercial Moon Mission

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For the first time in more than 50 years, NASA was able to collect data from new science instruments and technology demonstrations on the Moon. The data comes from the first successful landing of a delivery through NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign. The six instruments ceased science and technology operations eight days after landing in the lunar South Pole region aboard Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus, meeting pre-launch projected mission operations. Known as IM-1, this was the first U.S. soft landing on the Moon in decades, touching…

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NASA Tech Contributes to Soft Moon Landing, Agency Science Underway

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On Feb. 22, 2024, Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lunar lander captures a wide field of view image of Schomberger crater on the Moon approximately 125 miles (200 km) uprange from the intended landing site, at approximately 6 miles (10 km) altitude. Credit: Intuitive Machines Editor’s note: This release was updated Feb. 23, 2024, to add an image from the news conference and participant titles. For the first time in more than 50 years, new NASA science instruments and technology demonstrations are operating on the Moon following the first successful delivery of…

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