Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder (LMS)¶
Blue Ghost Mission 1 · landed · NASA payload
A magnetotelluric sounder: four spring-launched electrodes on cables measure surface electric fields, and a magnetometer on a mast measures magnetic fields. The ratio gives the electrical conductivity of the Moon's interior to depths of up to about 1,100 km, and so its temperature and make-up.
PI: Robert Grimm (Southwest Research Institute)
Built by: Southwest Research Institute (central electronics, science lead), with NASA Goddard (magnetometer) and Heliospace Corp. (electrodes); NASA Marshall managed the payload for CLPS (other)
| Technology | science instrument (geophysics: electromagnetic sounding) |
| Moon Base need | none named (The study's reading: none. LMS measures the deep interior (mantle conductivity and temperature) for lunar science. No Moon Base technology gap or data gap asks for this. Its tie to Moon Base is indirect at best: NASA's Moon to Mars science objectives, not the Moon Base gap lists.) |
| 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 contract with SwRI on 26 Nov 2019. Assigned to Firefly's TO 19D (NASA's award of 4 Feb 2021, release 21-012). FO's FY2019 report says FO's tests helped the team develop the instrument that was selected.; 2019-07-01 |
| Timeline | first funding 2016-07-01 (PICASSO grant for the balloon prototype; selected by PICASSO 2015); first flight test 2017-10 (FO balloon flight of the related airborne system); selected 2019-07-01 (LSITP); contract signed 2019-11-26; on TO 19D from 2021-02-04; launch 2025-01-15; landing 2025-03-02 |
| On the Moon | operated as planned |
| FO | related |
Flights before the Moon¶
- FO: World View Stratollite high-altitude balloon, launched from McCall, Idaho (FO technology T0166, TechPort 106681), 2017-10. SwRI's high-altitude electromagnetic sounding system: whether electric fields from Schumann resonances, measured from the stratosphere over the Idaho Batholith, can recover the conductivity of the ionosphere and ground. A related system by the same PI, aimed at Venus; TechPort calls it 'essentially a knowledge payload'. Not the lunar instrument or a version of it. Paid for by FO and PICASSO.
"thanks to a successful balloon flight in October 2017 facilitated by World View in Arizona and supported by grants from NASA’s Flight Opportunities"
— Balloon Flights Help Advance Technology to Probe the Evolution of Planets - NASA, NASA Armstrong article, 17 Jan 2018"it is essentially a knowledge payload to determine if the expected vertical and lateral variations in electric fields can be measured"
— TechPort project 106681, description
- FO: World View Stratollite high-altitude balloon, McCall, Idaho (T0166, TechPort 106681), 2018-09-26. The same system, refined with the 2017 data, flown at night to sound under a different ionospheric state.
"Arizona’s World View Enterprises launched its Stratollite high-altitude balloon system on Sept. 26 from a remote launchpad in McCall, Idaho."
— Second Balloon Flight Makes Strides for Understanding Planetary Evolution - NASA, NASA Armstrong article, 23 Oct 2018"Having refined their experiment with the data from the 2017 flight, researchers proposed to fly in the same region – but at night."
— Second Balloon Flight Makes Strides for Understanding Planetary Evolution - NASA, same article
Heritage hardware¶
- spare flight hardware (MAVEN magnetometer, NASA Goddard): The magnetometer is a flight spare built for NASA's MAVEN Mars orbiter, supplied by Goddard. The spare itself had not flown.
"The investigation will make use of a flight-spare magnetometer, a device that measures magnetic fields, originally made for the MAVEN spacecraft"
— NASA Selects 12 New Lunar Science, Technology Investigations - NASA
- design heritage (several missions): Components and heritage from MAVEN, THEMIS and MSL-RAD; the voltage measurement uses methods common in space plasma physics. The spring-launched electrode deployer was developed for LMS.
"The instrument uses components and heritage from several prior missions, including MAVEN, THEMIS, and MSL-RAD."
— TO19D Science Payloads - NASA Science"We have developed a spring mechanism to deploy electrodes from a robotic lander."
— NTRS 20205007100
Funding before the lunar flight¶
- NASA PICASSO grant to SwRI for a prototype airborne electromagnetic sounding system for a stratospheric balloon (NNX16AL73G). Linked by wording: its description opens with the same sentence as FO's project record, and FO's record says the concept was selected by PICASSO 2015. This funded the balloon prototype, not LMS itself. (SMD PICASSO (CFDA 43.001); 2016-07-01 to 2019-12-31): $607,435
"ELECTROMAGNETIC (EM) SOUNDING USES INDUCTION FROM NATURAL SOURCES TO BUILD PROFILES OF ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY OF PLANETARY INTERIOR"
— USAspending.gov, award NNX16AL73G, description; amount 607435.0"The concept was selected by PICASSO 2015 to develop a prototype high-altitude airborne electromagnetic sounding system for testing on a stratospheric balloon."
— TechPort project 106681, description
- LSITP contract from NASA Marshall to SwRI (80MSFC20C0024) for the LMS project. Linked by name. Goddard's magnetometer work (a flight spare from MAVEN) is not in this contract's public record. (SMD LSITP; 2019-11-26 to 2025-10-31): $4,996,207
"LUNAR MAGNETOTELLURIC SOUNDER PROJECT"
— USAspending.gov, award 80MSFC20C0024, description; obligated 4996207.0; subawards 256319.0"REG funded by NASA Contract 80MSFC20C0024 (LSITP)."
— NTRS 20205007100, Acknowledgements (Grimm et al., Artemis III white paper, 2020)
How it got onto CLPS¶
"The Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder is designed to characterize the structure and composition of the Moon’s mantle by studying electric and magnetic fields."
— NASA Selects 12 New Lunar Science, Technology Investigations - NASA, release 19-053, 1 Jul 2019"THE CONTRACTOR SHALL PROVIDE MANAGEMENT OF THE DEFINITION PHASE EFFORT, MONITOR AND CONTROL TECHNICAL PERFORMANCE AND COST METRICS FOR THE LUNAR MAGNETOTELLURIC SOUNDER PROJECT."
— USAspending.gov, award 80MSFC20C0024, description; signed 2019-11-26, NASA Marshall"These tests helped the SwRI team develop a new instrument that was selected for Artemis."
— nasa.gov: dr-fop-pub-anr-19-accomp-report-online.pdf, FY2019 report p. 5 caption"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¶
LMS deployed all five sensors (four electrodes and the magnetometer mast) and measured. The team reports that the conductivity profile under the lander is very like the one under Apollo 12, which suggests the western nearside's volcanism came from thinner crust, not extra heat-producing elements.
"successfully deployed five sensors to study the Moon’s interior by measuring electric and magnetic fields"
— NASA Science Continues After Firefly’s First Moon Mission Concludes - NASA"determined that the subsurface electrical conductivity profile beneath the Blue Ghost lunar lander is very similar to that below the Apollo 12 site"
— Banks et al., Results from the NASA Instruments onboard Blue Ghost Mission 1, 57th LPSC (2026), a…, page 1, LMS
FO's role¶
Grade: related. Grade unchanged (related). FO flew the same PI's balloon-borne electromagnetic sounding system twice, in 2017 and 2018, before LMS was selected in July 2019. The flights tested the method (measuring natural electric fields to infer ground conductivity) on a system aimed at Venus, which TechPort calls 'essentially a knowledge payload'. The lunar instrument is different hardware (MAVEN-spare magnetometer, launched electrodes). FO's FY2019 report says the tests 'helped the SwRI team develop a new instrument that was selected for Artemis'. Added by this study: the two flight dates, from NASA Armstrong's articles. Fit is retroactive: the flights were aimed at Venus, not CLPS.
FO flights: 2. FO bought the two World View balloon flights (shared support with PICASSO, per NASA); the cost is in FO records. PICASSO's grant NNX16AL73G ($607,435) paid for the prototype, not FO.
"Based on technology tested through the Flight Opportunities program, SwRI’s sounder is designed to characterize the structure and composition of the Moon’s mantle"
— nasa.gov: dr-fop-pub-anr-19-accomp-report-online.pdf, FY2019 report p. 5"High-Altitude Electromagnetic Sounding of Earth and Planetary Interiors"
— TechPort project 106681, title (FO program, 2017-2019, PI Robert E Grimm)"Made possible by support from NASA’s [Flight Opportunities program]"
— Second Balloon Flight Makes Strides for Understanding Planetary Evolution - NASA, NASA Armstrong article, 23 Oct 2018
Who built it¶
"Southwest Research Institute based in San Antonio built the central electronics and leads the science investigation."
— NASA Instrument on Firefly’s Blue Ghost Lander to Study Lunar Interior - NASA, LMS article, funding paragraph"NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, provided the LMS magnetometer to measure the magnetic fields, and Heliospace Corp. provided the electrodes"
— NASA Instrument on Firefly’s Blue Ghost Lander to Study Lunar Interior - NASA, LMS article, funding paragraph"Payload PI: Dr. Robert Grimm"
— TO19D Science Payloads - NASA Science
Moon Base need¶
"LMS will determine the structure and composition of the Moon’s mantle by studying electric and magnetic fields."
— TO19D Science Payloads - NASA Science
Open questions¶
- Did any part of the balloon system (electrometers, electronics) carry over into LMS? The sources do not say; the answer decides between 'related' and 'tested'.
- What FO paid for the two World View flights: FO records.
- What did Goddard's magnetometer work and Heliospace's electrodes cost? Not in the LSITP contract's public record.