Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity (LISTER)¶
Blue Ghost Mission 1 · landed · NASA payload
A heat-flow probe. It blows a hole in the regolith with a jet of nitrogen gas from the tip of a thin steel tube. At set depths it stops and pushes a needle sensor into the soil to measure temperature and thermal conductivity. Heat flow from the Moon's interior is the product of the two.
PI: Seiichi Nagihara (Texas Tech University)
Built by: Texas Tech University (lead), with Honeybee Robotics (now part of Blue Origin), which built most of the instrument under a subcontract (university)
| Technology | science instrument (geophysics: heat flow), with a pneumatic subsurface-access system |
| Moon Base need | DN-008 L, #0605 (The study's reading. LISTER is a science instrument: NASA ties it to the Moon's thermal history, not to a Moon Base gap. Two side results bear on Moon Base needs: thermal and excavation data on regolith to about 1 m depth (DN-008 L asks for regolith properties to at least 1 m), and a first lunar test of pneumatic excavation (#0605, at very small scale). DN-008 L is about South Pole highland regolith; LISTER worked in mare regolith at Mare Crisium, so the fit is partial.) |
| Route onto CLPS | LSITP; Lunar Surface Instrument and Technology Payloads: one of 12 payloads NASA selected on 1 July 2019 (release 19-053). NASA Marshall signed the development contract with Texas Tech on 21 Nov 2019. NASA assigned it to Firefly's task order TO 19D, awarded on 4 Feb 2021 (release 21-012).; 2019-07-01 |
| Timeline | first funding 2009 (Honeybee SBIR Phase I on a heat-flow probe); 2011 for the pneumatic design (SBIR Phase I and a Texas Tech grant). The team dates the work from 2008.; first flight test not in public sources; selected 2019-07-01 (LSITP); contract signed 2019-11-21; on TO 19D from 2021-02-04; launch 2025-01-15; landing 2025-03-02 |
| On the Moon | partly operated |
| FO | company-level |
Flights before the Moon¶
None found in the public sources.
Heritage hardware¶
- design heritage (own prototypes, ground tests only): About 17 years of prototypes at Honeybee and Texas Tech, from 2008: a sand-bucket proof of concept (TRL 2), field tests in Hawaiian tephra on Maunakea in 2010 (TRL 3), vacuum-chamber tests in lunar simulant (TRL 4), and 2-kg prototypes tested to 2 m depth in a large vacuum chamber (TRL 5). No flight of any prototype was found.
"LISTER represents nearly two decades of technological development of robotically deployable subsurface probes starting in 2008."
— Nagihara et al. 2025, The Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity…, section 4, Development History"successfully tested multiple times in Hawaiian tephra on the slopes of Maunakea volcano during 2010 NASA field testing"
— Nagihara et al. 2025, The Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity…, section 4"tested in a large vacuum chamber in an NU-LHT-2M lunar soil simulant"
— Nagihara et al. 2025, The Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity…, section 4"The latest prototype of the heat flow probe has been tested successfully in excavating one meter into JSC-1A lunar regolith simulant in a vacuum chamber (4 Torr)."
— NTRS 20140010048, LPSC 2014 poster
- design heritage (Honeybee coiled-tube mechanism): For the flight unit the team swapped the fiberglass stem for a 6.4 mm coiled steel tube, a mechanism Honeybee was developing for another project.
"the coiled metal tubing approach, already under development at Honeybee Robotics for another project, was adopted"
— Nagihara et al. 2025, The Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity…, section 4
- design heritage (thermal measurement method): The needle-sensor heating method is like the one used by InSight's heat-flow probe; DLR scientists from that team are co-authors. LISTER's paper calls the flown probes MUPUS, ChaSTE and InSight's mole its predecessors, but they were built by other teams.
"Prior to LISTER, three subsurface thermal probes flew on robotic space missions."
— Nagihara et al. 2025, The Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity…, section 1
Funding before the lunar flight¶
- NASA SBIR Phase I to Honeybee Robotics, 'Novel Heat Flow Probe Design and Deployment' (085512 / NNX09CF36P). A percussive probe, not the pneumatic one. Linked by company (UEI F7UHKQTEYHW8), PI (Kris Zacny, a LISTER co-author) and topic; the abstract does not name LISTER. (NASA SBIR; 2009): $99,223
"a novel approach to subsurface access using a percussive method"
— SBIR.gov award data, award 085512, abstract; NNX09CF36P, award amount 99223.0
- NASA SBIR Phase I to Honeybee Robotics, 'Pneumatic Proboscis Heat Flow Probe' (104410 / NNX11CH25P). The pneumatic concept that LISTER uses. Linked by company, PI and technology; the abstract does not name LISTER. (NASA SBIR; 2011): $99,966
"it utilizes a pneumatic (gas) approach, excavates a hole by lofting the lunar soil out of the hole"
— SBIR.gov award data, award 104410, abstract; NNX11CH25P, award amount 99966.0
- NASA SBIR Phase I to Honeybee Robotics, 'Lunar Heat Flow Probe' (154425 / NNX15CM30P; TechPort 33544, Marshall as supporting center). Linked by company, PI and topic; the abstract does not name LISTER, and TechPort's benefits text names Nagihara. (NASA SBIR; 2015): $122,650
"To accurately determine endogenic heat flow, both thermal gradient and thermal conductivity measurements are needed."
— SBIR.gov award data, award 154425, abstract; NNX15CM30P, award amount 122650.0"Prof Nagihara is working with Oil and Gas companies in the Gulf of Mexico"
— TechPort project 33544, benefits
- NASA science grant to Texas Tech for a robotically deployed heat-flow probe prototype (NNX11AJ31G). Honeybee says the technology was first developed under NASA SBIR and PIDDP; the award record does not name its program, so tying it to PIDDP is the study's reading. Linked by recipient, topic and dates. (NASA SMD grant (CFDA 43.001), probably PIDDP; 2011-2014): $552,742
"WE PROPOSE TO BUILD A PROTOTYPE OF A LIGHT-WEIGHT (~2 KG) GEOTHERMAL HEAT FLOW PROBE THAT CAN BE DEPLOYED ROBOTICALLY FROM A SMALL LANDER"
— USAspending.gov, award NNX11AJ31G, description; obligated 552742.0, 2011-05-26 to 2014-11-25"Pneumatic drilling and thermal sensing technology has been initially developed via NASA SBIR and PIDDP programs."
— Honeybee Selected to Send Two Payloads to the Moon – Honeybee Robotics, Honeybee news, July 2019, via the Wayback Machine
- LSITP development contract from NASA Marshall to Texas Tech (80MSFC20C0022), the flight instrument. Of the $5.34 million, $4.98 million went to Honeybee Robotics as a subaward. JPL's share ran under JPL task order 80NM0020F0035, which USAspending describes as VERITAS; its LISTER share is not public. (SMD LSITP; 2019-11-21 to 2025-12-31): $5,341,779
"THE CONTRACTOR SHALL DEVELOP A LUNAR INSTRUMENTATION FOR SUBSURFACE THERMAL EXPLORATION WITH RAPIDITY."
— USAspending.gov, award 80MSFC20C0022, description; obligated 5341779.0; subawards 5087134.24"Lunar Surface Instrument and Technology Payloads program of NASA (contracts 80MSFC20C0022 to Texas Tech University and 80NM0020F0035 to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory"
— Nagihara et al. 2025, The Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity…, Acknowledgments"VERITAS (VENUS EMISSIVITY, RADIO SCIENCE, INSAR, TOPOGRAPHY, AND SPECTROSCOPY)"
— USAspending.gov, award 80NM0020F0035, description of the JPL task order
How it got onto CLPS¶
"LISTER is an instrument designed to measure heat flow from the interior of the Moon."
— NASA Selects 12 New Lunar Science, Technology Investigations - NASA, release 19-053, 1 Jul 2019"The Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity (LISTER)"
— Lunar Surface Instrument and Technology Payloads (LSITP) - NASA, LSITP page"THE CONTRACTOR SHALL DEVELOP A LUNAR INSTRUMENTATION FOR SUBSURFACE THERMAL EXPLORATION WITH RAPIDITY."
— USAspending.gov, award 80MSFC20C0022, description; signed 2019-11-21, NASA Marshall"NASA has awarded Firefly Aerospace of Cedar Park, Texas, approximately $93.3 million to deliver a suite of 10 science investigations and technology demonstrations to the Moon in 2023."
— NASA Selects Firefly Aerospace for Artemis Commercial Moon Delivery in 2023 - NASA, release 21-012, 4 Feb 2021
On the Moon¶
LISTER worked on 4-6 March and again late in the mission. It reached about 1 m (0.98 m), not the 2-3 m it was built for: clasts too large to blow out piled up at the bottom of the hole. It measured temperature and thermal conductivity at 8 depths. From these and a thermal model, the team's early estimate of heat flow is 13-14 mW/m2. NASA calls it the deepest robotic planetary subsurface thermal probe so far.
"is now the deepest robotic planetary subsurface thermal probe, drilling up to 3 feet"
— NASA Science Continues After Firefly’s First Moon Mission Concludes - NASA"LISTER reached 98 cm depth during the first 3 days of operations and then hit major obstacles at that depth."
— Nagihara et al. 2025, The Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity…, section 5"LISTER is designed to reach 3 m depth."
— Nagihara et al. 2025, The Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity…, section 2"probably because clasts and pebbles too large/heavy to be blown out accumulated in the bottom of the hole"
— Nagihara et al., LISTER Deployment on Blue Ghost Mission One to Mare Crisium of the Moon, 57th LP…, page 2"Our early results suggest endogenic heat flow values of 13 to 14 mW/m2."
— Nagihara et al., LISTER Deployment on Blue Ghost Mission One to Mare Crisium of the Moon, 57th LP…, page 2
FO's role¶
Grade: company-level. No FO flight of LISTER, its prototypes or its Texas Tech team. The study's earlier traceback found none; this study adds a company-level link. Honeybee Robotics co-developed LISTER and built most of it, and Kris Zacny, PI of FO-tested PlanetVac, is a LISTER co-author. FO's own PlanetVac record links Honeybee's 2019 news of both payloads' selection. Both instruments use gas jets to loft regolith in vacuum. But FO flew PlanetVac, a sampler, not LISTER's excavation or sensing system, and no source says the PlanetVac flights shaped LISTER. Grading it 'related' (same team, same pneumatic technology) is a judgment call; this study does not round it up.
FO flights: 0. No FO investment in LISTER found. The PlanetVac flights' cost is in FO records.
"No FO flight of LISTER or its Texas Tech team."
— earlier finding of this study (not a public source)"Honeybee Selected to Send Two Payloads to the Moon"
— TechPort project 89413, links (FO project 'Honeybee Robotics PlanetVac on Masten Lander')"LISTER and LPV are pneumatic drilling and mining systems that can teach us about how gases and regolith interact"
— TO19D Science Payloads - NASA Science"Honeybee is developing this technology in collaboration with Prof. Seiichi Nagihara"
— Honeybee Selected to Send Two Payloads to the Moon – Honeybee Robotics"S. Nagihara; K. Zacny"
— NTRS, authors of the LISTER PSJ paper
Who built it¶
"Developed jointly by Texas Tech University in Lubbock and Honeybee Robotics of Altadena, California"
— NASA Payload Aims to Probe Moon’s Depths to Study Heat Flow - NASA"Lead Development Organization: Texas Tech University"
— TO19D Science Payloads - NASA Science"Payload PI: Dr. Seiichi Nagihara"
— TO19D Science Payloads - NASA Science"LUNAR INSTRUMENTATION FOR SUBSURFACE THERMAL EXPLORATION WITH RAPIDITY (LISTER)"
— USAspending.gov, award 80MSFC20C0022, subaward 21M089-02 to Honeybee Robotics, Ltd., 4977601.0, 2019-12-16
Moon Base need¶
"Characterize lunar regolith physical and mechanical properties as a function of depth"
— Moon to Mars knowledge base: DN-008 L: Geotechnical properties of highland regolith at the lunar south pole, Description"Investigate dust mechanics, regolith geotechnical properties, and radiation/charged particle fluctuations"
— Moon to Mars knowledge base: Moon Base technology and knowledge challenges, Headline challenge 2, knowledge challenge"help humans plan future exploration, including using the Moon’s natural resources for human habitation"
— TO19D Science Payloads - NASA Science, Interior Heat Flow"LISTER became the first robotically operated device to actively excavate regolith and penetrate the subsurface of the Moon"
— Nagihara et al., LISTER Deployment on Blue Ghost Mission One to Mare Crisium of the Moon, 57th LP…, page 2
Open questions¶
- Did any LISTER prototype or part fly before the Moon (aircraft, suborbital, balloon)? Not in public sources; the team's papers name ground tests only.
- Which program funded Texas Tech's 2011-2014 grant NNX11AJ31G? The award record gives no program; Honeybee names PIDDP.
- What did Honeybee's own work on the coiled-tube mechanism ('another project') cost, and who paid? Not in public sources.
- JPL's LISTER work ran under task order 80NM0020F0035, described in USAspending as VERITAS. How much of it was LISTER? Not in public sources.
- Should the Honeybee link be graded 'related' rather than company-level, since PlanetVac and LISTER share the pneumatic principle and a team member?