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NASA selects new instruments to study moon

By Rich Klein
NASA's Crawler is in the foreground as Space Launch System (SLS) rocket Armetis 1 sits on launchpad 39B at sunset at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in April. The SLS Artemis system is going through tests with an expected unmanned launch date this summer. File Photo by Pat Benic/UPI
1 of 2 | NASA's Crawler is in the foreground as Space Launch System (SLS) rocket Armetis 1 sits on launchpad 39B at sunset at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in April. The SLS Artemis system is going through tests with an expected unmanned launch date this summer. File Photo by Pat Benic/UPI | License Photo

June 3 (UPI) -- NASA on Friday said that it has selected two new science instrument suites - including one that will study the mysterious Gruithuisen Domes for the first time - as part of its Artemis program.

Artemis will carry out a series of groundbreaking missions on and around the Moon to prepare for the next giant leap for humanity: a crewed mission to Mars," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in March.

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In a news release Thursday, NASA said that two planned studies "will address important scientific questions related to the Moon."

"The first will study geologic processes of early planetary bodies that are preserved on the Moon, by investigating a rare form of lunar volcanism," said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration in NASA's Science Mission Directorate. "The second will study the effects of the Moon's low gravity and radiation environment on yeast, a model organism used to understand DNA damage response and repair."

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Over the course of 10 Earth days (one lunar day), one of those studies will explore the summit of one of the Gruithuisen Dome , which are suspected to have been formed by a sticky magma rich in silica, similar in composition to granite.

"On Earth, formations like these need oceans of liquid water and plate tectonics to form, but without these key ingredients on the Moon, lunar scientists have been left to wonder how these domes formed and evolved over time, " NASA said.

NASA on Thursday also announced that it has selected contractors Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace to advance spacewalking capabilities in low-Earth orbit and at the moon that will "provide astronauts with next generation spacesuit and spacewalk systems to work outside the International Space Station, explore the lunar surface on Artemis missions, and prepare for human missions to Mars."

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Axiom said that its spacesuits will provide NASA with an "evolvable design that enables cost-efficient development, testing, training, deployment, and real-time operations to address a variety of EVA -extravehicular activity - needs and operational scenarios for a range of customers, including NASA."

Collins Aerospace said that its new suits offer enhanced mobility and weigh less than the current generation spacesuits, allowing for increased mission times.

NASA on Monday plans to move its Artemis 1 rocket to the launch pad and will conduct a fueling test of the vehicle on June 19. That rocket will be ultimately be used to send an Orion capsule, minus astronauts, for a journey around the moon.

In 2020, the space agency said that it wanted to send astronauts back to the moon by 2024. The last manned mission to the moon was in late 1972 by Apollo 17.

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