NASA Awards Five Scientists, Engineers Grants to Develop Technologies for Moon Exploration

Five individuals have received NASA’s Development and Advancement of Lunar Instrumentation grants, a program under the Lunar Discovery and Exploration Program that aims to develop technologies useful in future flight opportunities.

Hao Cao of the University of California, Los Angeles, is among the awardees. Cao and his team are developing a miniaturized, low-power, ultra-scalable fluxgate magnetometer system for prolonged, uninterrupted operation on the lunar surface.

Another is David Stillman of the Southwest Research Institute, who is developing a novel ground penetrating radar that could be useful at the Artemis landing site on the moon.

The other grant recipients are Stuart George of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Jason Kriesel of Opto-Knowledge Systems and Jeffrey Gillis-Davis of Washington Univesity, NASA said.

Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration in the agency’s Science Mission Directorate, said that fostering innovation and research in science and technology is part of the agency’s overall mission, particularly in coming up with solutions that improve instrument measurement capabilities for lunar science.

The Artemis missions is one of the biggest initiatives of the agency. In July 2023, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center announced that it would continue testing and configuring the flight software for the Artemis III mission.