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"NASA Science Updates Include New Missions, Support for Moon Base"

Document: golden-age-of-science-and-discovery.pdf, three pages. No printed date. The Ignition page lists it as the "Golden Age of Science and Discovery" fact sheet, "Mar 24, 2026, 217.99 KB"; the download is 223,220 bytes, which is 217.99 KB (sources/manifest.csv). Text: sources/text/docs/2026-03-golden-age-of-science-and-discovery.txt.

Summary. NASA science's Ignition fact sheet. Most of it is about astrophysics, planetary and Earth science missions that don't bear on Moon to Mars (Webb, Roman, NEO Surveyor, ESCAPADE, Dragonfly, DAVINCI, Habitable Worlds Observatory). One section, "Future Science Driving Exploration at the Moon, Mars, and Beyond", ties science to the Moon Base: CLPS deliveries, MoonFall, LuSEE-Night, VIPER and a payloads RFI. Only that section is recorded here.

Moon and Mars points (pp. 2–3)

  • Science for the Moon Base. "NASA is including, among its top science priorities, instruments and experiments that will contribute to the Moon Base and future deep space missions, from landers and rovers to innovative systems like MoonFall drone hoppers." NASA "is investing in technologies for lunar drones and 'hoppers,' and in-situ lunar lidars for the Artemis missions" (p. 2).
  • LuSEE-Night, by NASA and the Department of Energy, "slated to launch later this year on Firefly Aerospace's next CLPS … delivery", is "designed to survive the harsh environment of the lunar surface at night on the far side of the Moon" (p. 2).
  • VIPER. NASA "recently awarded Blue Origin a CLPS task order with an option to deliver NASA's VIPER … to the Moon's South Pole region, where it will search for volatile resources such as ice" (p. 2).
  • CLPS cadence. "NASA is accelerating the cadence of CLPS deliveries in support of the Moon Base … The agency now is targeting 30 robotic lunar landings within three years, starting in 2027" (p. 2). The release says "up to 30 robotic landings starting in 2027", without the three years.
  • Payloads RFI, released 24 March, for "additional 2027 and 2028 flights", open to "philanthropic organizations, international partners, tech companies and academic institutions" (p. 2).
  • A next CLPS lander "for a delivery to the lunar South Pole"; "The provider selection announcement will be made on March 24" (p. 3). The fact sheet doesn't name the provider.
  • Mars. "NASA announced plans to add a science payload to the Mars Telecom Network" and "to incorporate a payload on a technology demonstration nuclear mission to Mars slated to launch in 2028" (p. 3). The nuclear mission is SR-1 Freedom in the nuclear power fact sheet; this sheet doesn't name it.
  • Artemis II: "experiments … which will improve our understanding of how deep space travel influences the human body" (p. 3).

What the PDF shows that the text loses

The text layer puts bullet markers in blocks away from their lines, and breaks two hyphenated words across lines ("insitu" for "in-situ", "not-toodistant"). Quotations above follow the sense of the lines; the PDF was not opened, as no table or figure is involved.

CLPS · Missions and assets · Utilization Systems · Ignition page · Ignition release