LEMS builds on a legacy of lunar seismic tracking that began with Apollo. Astronauts deployed a network of seismometers on the Moon’s nearside equatorial region between 1969 and 1972, and those instruments operated until 1977, recording about 13,000 moonquakes and other ground vibrations that helped scientists begin to understand the composition of the Moon’s interior. For decades, researchers have hoped to spread more seismometers, updated with new technologies, across the lunar surface.<\/p>\n
The instrument package contains two seismometers that will monitor ground vibrations from moonquakes and meteorite impacts, giving scientists insight into the Moon’s interior and the seismic hazards astronauts might encounter. NASA describes the sensors as the most compact, sensitive, and energy-efficient seismometers ever built for planetary exploration. LEMS weighs 11 pounds in the Moon’s low gravity and carries everything it needs to operate independently after deployment, including a lightweight, flexible solar array, autonomous operation on a preset plan, and monthly data transmission to Earth.<\/p>\n
Over the past five months, engineers subjected LEMS to environmental and operational tests, verifying it can endure the shaking of launch, the journey to the lunar surface, and the Moon’s temperature and radiation environment. The team also showed the instrument’s mechanical and electrical design is safe for astronaut handling. Unlike past lunar surface instruments that relied on radioisotope heaters, LEMS uses advanced insulation, low-thermal-conductivity cables, and a thermal regulator to survive temperatures that dip to minus 400 degrees Fahrenheit and to operate through the two-week lunar night without external power or a heat source. The payload will remain in a clean room at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, until it is assigned to an Artemis mission.<\/p>\n
Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, called the completion “a major step in a new era of lunar surface science,” adding that innovative experiments “will uncover, measure, and reveal the Moon’s secrets while astronauts open new frontiers for discovery.” Mehdi Benna, a University of Maryland Baltimore County scientist who leads LEMS from NASA Goddard, described the instrument as “a scientific buoy for the Moon,” designed to be easy to build, adaptable to different scientific objectives, and capable of operating independently for years. NASA says the thermal and power innovations reduce mass and set the stage for lighter, energy-efficient instruments at future Artemis landing sites and the NASA-led Moon Base.<\/p>\n
The LEMS payload is led by University of Maryland Baltimore County and University of Maryland College Park, with technical implementation led by NASA Goddard. The University of Arizona, partnering with Silicon Audio, Inc., supplied the two seismometers. Morehead State University in Kentucky provided the telecommunication system and will operate the instrument on the surface, while Washington University in St. Louis will manage data processing and dissemination.<\/p>\n
With hardware complete, LEMS now needs a ride to the Moon. Its deployment will come once it is assigned to an Artemis surface mission, following NASA’s Artemis II crewed flight around the Moon in April 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LEMS builds on a legacy of lunar seismic tracking that began with Apollo. Astronauts deployed a network of seismometers on the Moon’s nearside equatorial region between 1969 and 1972, and those instruments operated until 1977, recording about 13,000 moonquakes and other ground vibrations that helped scientists begin to understand the composition of the Moon’s interior. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":77017,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[10049,137,190],"class_list":["post-76992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-lems","tag-lunar","tag-nasa"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76992"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76992"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77018,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76992\/revisions\/77018"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}