Elements

Four people gather around in front of the Research and Development of Intuitive Machines’ lunar lander. The man second from the right, Time Crain, speaks while his hand is raised towards the lander to the others around him. Thomas Zurbuchen, second from the left, looks at the lunar lander that is twice his size while Crain is talking to the group. The lander has a black outer shell with silver structures that are resting within.
Tim Crain, second from the right, speaks with Thomas Zurbuchen, second from the left, about the lunar lander pictured. Crain is the vice president of Research and Development of Intuitive Machines which is one of three companies that will provide the first lunar landers for the Artemis program’s lunar surface exploration. Zurbuchen is the NASA Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) and he met Crain at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. Image credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani

The Lunar Discovery and Exploration Program (LDEP) has several coordinated and focused elements to facilitate study and exploration of the Moon. LDEP supports industry partnerships and innovative approaches to accomplishing exploration and science goals, including the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS). The LDEP portfolio includes science instrument suites that will fly on commercial landers through CLPS, Artemis surface instruments and the Artemis Science Team, small satellites (SmallSats) and cube satellites (CubeSats), support for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), and instruments that will be mounted on the Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV).

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James Webb Space Telescope

The image is divided horizontally by an undulating line between a cloudscape forming a nebula along the bottom portion and a comparatively clear upper portion. Speckled across both portions is a starfield, showing innumerable stars of many sizes. The smallest of these are small, distant, and faint points of light. The largest of these appear larger, closer, brighter, and more fully resolved with 8-point diffraction spikes. The upper portion of the image is blueish, and has wispy translucent cloud-like streaks rising from the nebula below. The orangish cloudy formation in the bottom half varies in density and ranges from translucent to opaque. The stars vary in color, the majority of which have a blue or orange hue. The cloud-like structure of the nebula contains ridges, peaks, and valleys – an appearance very similar to a mountain range. Three long diffraction spikes from the top right edge of the image suggest the presence of a large star just out of view.

Perseverance Rover

Parker Solar Probe

Juno