On June 2, NASA announced the winners of the PRISM competition – offering their options for payloads that will go to the moon by private companies under the CLPS program.

More on what to send to the moon

The authors of the first project proposed exploring the shield volcano Gamma Gruituisen. Located in the Rainy Sea on the visible side of the satellite, this object will be studied over 10 Earth days (or one month) using five Lunar-VISE (Lunar Vulcan Imaging and Spectroscopy Explorer) instruments: three will travel on a small rover, and two will remain in the landing module.

The second project is dedicated to biological science: ordinary baker’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) will be sent to the moon as part of an experiment called LEIA (Lunar Rover Vehicle for Space Biology Applications). The authors of the project offered to look at their development and growth under the conditions of lunar gravity and radiation exposure – this will provide new insights into how these conditions can affect living organisms at the cellular and molecular levels.

In addition, as part of the previous PRISM competition, a seismograph will travel to the opposite side of the moon and a lunar rover and drilling rig to the south polar region.

Briefly about the CLPS program

The CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) program has been running at NASA for four years, and with the help of US private space, a variety of automated vehicles, moonwalkers, scientific instruments and cargo are competitively developed and delivered to the moon. companies. The goal of the program is to reduce the cost of research and speed up the delivery time of equipment to the moon, including the Artemis program, as well as helping companies develop new technologies.