Spacecraft, Landers, Rovers and Payloads

Abstract

There are now many activities underway concerning Artemis, including those of NASA Centers and its aerospace contractors, extending from the ground up; that is, from the Mission Control and tracking facilities world-wide to launch vehicles, spacecraft and the crews. This book will describe as many of them as the number of pages permit, primarily focusing on those that are required to get astronauts to the ISS and then to the surface of the Moon in the next 5 years or so.Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) is a NASA program to contract transportation services to send small robotic landers and rovers to the Moon's surface; some, but not all, to the South Polar Region known for its water ice. One of the top targets for landing site selection is the South Pole-Aitken Basin called Shackleton Crater. The goal is to search for resources that can be exploited using In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) technology, and conduct lunar science in support of the Artemis lunar program. CLPS is intended to buy end-to-end payload services between Earth and the lunar surface using fixed priced contracts. 10 teams have been funded to mature spacecraft-based instruments for use by future lander missions, including those provided by commercial ventures by the CLPS contracts. Such instruments are expected to achieve a high level of technology readiness by the time funding ends in 3 years.