Naomi Cooper
NASA is developing a new scientific payload to launch as part of robotic Artemis missions to establish the age and composition of the moon’s volcanic terrain.
The Dating an Irregular Mare Patch with a Lunar Explorer or DIMPLE spacecraft was selected from the third annual proposal call for the Payloads and Research Investigations on the Surface of the Moon initiative under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, the agency said Saturday.
NASA expects to issue a CLPS task order in 2024 to determine the launch services for the payload.
DIMPLE has a $50 million cost cap and is set for delivery by 2027 to investigate the Ina Irregular Mare Patch, the lunar region discovered by Apollo 15 orbital images in 1971.
The lunar exploration mission will use a CLPS-provided rover, a spectrometer and a collection gripping instrument determine determine whether the volcanic deposits were formed from recent or ancient volcanic activity.
