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CLPS payloads: where they came from

Draft for review by NASA Flight Opportunities (FO). Not a NASA product: compiled by AI from public sources. Follow each citation to the original.

This knowledge base traces the payloads on NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) landers: the payloads that have flown and the payloads manifested so far. For each payload it gives what the payload is, who built it, how it got onto CLPS, what flew before the Moon, the funding before the lunar flight, what happened on the Moon, and FO's part in it.

It is part of a study of how FO relates to NASA's Moon to Mars architecture and its Moon Base. The architecture itself is in the Moon to Mars knowledge base.

Records: 104 of 104 payloads (payload list as of 2026-10-04). Sources downloaded 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-06 (UTC).

How to read it

  • Every fact carries its source. A quote is word for word from its source: a script checked each quote against a saved copy. The link goes to the original page or document. NTRS papers and TechPort projects link to their records. SBIR and USAspending data are cited by award number.
  • "Earlier finding of this study" marks a citation of the study's own earlier notes, not of a public source. For a grade of none it is often the only citation: no source can show that something is absent, so the grade rests on the study's search of FO's 430 TechPort records, FO's annual reports and FO's web pages, which found no FO link.
  • FO's part has four grades. Tested: FO flew this instrument or its direct predecessor before the lunar flight. Related: FO flew related work by the same team, but not this instrument. Company-level: the same company or person flew a different technology with FO. None: no FO link in the public sources. The study counts FO links by team, not by organization: a NASA center or a university whose other teams flew with FO is not a link.
  • The earlier traceback and feeder-line map. Before these records, the study traced the NASA payloads on the first CLPS landers back to earlier flights and graded FO's part in each (the earlier traceback), and it mapped the other flight lines that fed CLPS (the earlier feeder-line map), in October 2026. Some pages say where a record agrees with them or corrects them.
  • First pass and second check. The study then recorded each payload (the first pass). An independent second check then graded FO's part again without seeing the first grade, and searched the earlier flights and the selection of the flown payloads again. It raised three grades: the TRN sensor and LuGRE to tested, Heimdall to related.
  • A link to a Moon Base need is the study's reading, unless NASA names the link.
  • Fit is in hindsight. Most FO projects started before the Moon to Mars documents and Moon Base. Their fit is retroactive, not their intent.
  • Limits. Public sources only: a flight that no public source reports counts as no flight. FO's own records are not public. Some outcomes of commercial payloads are company statements.

Missions

All payloads, grouped by mission: All payloads by mission.

Routes onto CLPS

Feeder lines (flights before the Moon)