LEIA

Lunar Explorer Instrument for space biology Applications

future Mission

ABOUT

What is LEIA?
Pair of gloved hands holding a rectangular clear manifold containing two black square fluidic cards. Tubes filled with blue dye are connected to the manifold.

LEIA will conduct biological research on the Moon by delivering yeast to the lunar surface, and studying its response to radiation and lunar gravity.

Type

Experiment

Launch

2026

Target

Earth's Moon

Objective

Conduct biological research on the Moon

Latest News

Explore All LEIA Stories
Article
2 min read

Hubble Captures an Edge-On Spiral with Curve Appeal

A spiral galaxy seen directly from the side, such that its disk looks like a narrow diagonal band across the image. A band of dark dust covers the disk in the center most of the way out to the ends, and the disk glows around that. In the center of the galaxy, a whitish circle of light bulges out above and below the disk. Each end of the disk curves slightly. The background is black and mostly empty.
Image Article
3 min read

NASA Langley Employees Earn Silver Snoopy Awards

2 min read

NASA Awards Test Operations Contract

News Release
8 min read

Preguntas frecuentes: La verdadera historia del cuidado de la salud de los astronautas en el espacio

Article17 hours ago
6 min read

FAQ: The Real Story About Astronaut Health Care in Space

Article17 hours ago
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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.

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