Tag: ISRU
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Instinct Space Pivots From Lunar Navigation to Low-Cost Moon Landers
Instinct Space has announced a major strategic shift, moving away from plans to develop a lunar navigation constellation and instead focusing on low-cost lunar landers designed to provide more affordable access to the Moon. The London-based startup, which joined Y Combinator in 2025 to develop a GPS-like navigation network around the Moon, said challenges surrounding…
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NASA Lunabotics 2026 Competition Tests Student Lunar Mining Tech
What makes NASA’s 2026 Lunabotics Competition critical for lunar operations? NASA’s 2026 Lunabotics Challenge will field over 80 university teams competing May 19-21 at Kennedy Space Center’s Astronauts Memorial Foundation Center for Space Education, testing autonomous robots designed to excavate and transport lunar regolith. The competition directly feeds into NASA’s Artemis Program requirements for In-Situ…
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NASA Develops On-Demand IV Fluid Production for Deep Space Missions
Can astronauts produce their own IV fluids during deep space missions? NASA has developed technology to produce IV fluids on-demand during crewed missions beyond low Earth orbit, addressing a critical medical supply constraint for Artemis Program lunar missions and eventual Mars expeditions. The agency’s new system can manufacture saline solution using purified water and sodium…
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Methalox race likely to be won in 2022, but winner not yet clear
Right now, several methane-fueled rockets are in a race to orbit. With Starship from SpaceX, Vulcan from United Launch Alliance (ULA), and Neutron from Rocket Lab, all of the most active US launch providers are committed to using methalox-methane and oxygen. Upcoming launchers such as New Glenn from Blue Origin and the Terran family from…
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In another first, NASA’s Perseverance rover generates oxygen on Mars
This view from the Perseverance rover’s navigation cameras shows the “Mars 2020” and “Perseverance” name plates on the vehicle’s robotic arm. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech In another first, an instrument inside NASA’s Perseverance rover has made oxygen out of carbon dioxide sucked in from the atmosphere of Mars, officials said Wednesday. The technology could help future astronauts…
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Water molecules detected on moon’s sunlit surface, adding impetus to Artemis
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION This illustration highlights the Moon’s Clavius Crater with an illustration depicting water trapped in the lunar soil there, along with an image of NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) that found sunlit lunar water. Credits: NASA/Daniel Rutter Water molecules have been directly detected across sunlit regions of…
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NASA challenges companies to mine lunar soil
Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani NASA announced Thursday it plans to purchase lunar soil from a commercial company, an effort the agency’s top official said is intended to set a precedent for the transfer of ownership of extraterrestrial material and stimulate a market harvesting resources from bodies throughout the solar system. The initiative is starting small, but…
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NASA’s VIPER rover in development for scouting mission to moon’s south pole
NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, is a mobile robot that will roam around the moon’s south pole looking for water ice. Credit: NASA Ames/Daniel Rutter Building on a mission canceled last year, NASA is developing a mobile robot named VIPER for launch in 2022 to scout for water ice at the moon’s…
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Mars 2020 rover on track for launch next July
In this image, taken July 19 in the clean room of the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, the rover’s 7-foot-long (2.1-meter-long) arm maneuvers its 88-pound (40-kilogram) sensor-laden turret as it moves from a deployed to a stowed configuration. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech The launch of NASA’s Mars 2020 rover is less than…