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NASA Adds New Science Investigations for Moon Base

Page: NASA news release RELEASE26-080 by Lauren E. Low, NASA Headquarters, 30 September 2026 (last updated 1 October 2026). https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-adds-new-science-investigations-for-moon-base/. Fetched 2026-10-01T18:30:55Z. File: sources/moon-base/nasa-gov-news-release-nasa-adds-new-science-investigations-for-moon-base.md. An editor's note says the release "was updated on Sept. 30, 2026, to correct the name of the DISCO payload". The Moon Base landing page lists it first among its news items.

Summary. NASA selected three science investigations and their payload suites through PRISM. They "will fly to the lunar surface using the CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative as part of the agency's Moon Base Program". Their stated purpose is to "help researchers understand lunar resources, map natural shelters, and assess environmental hazards". The three are an environment and hazard station (LEMS-SP), a lava-tube survey at the Marius Hills Pit (GIMLI) and an ice and surface imager (DISCO). The release gives no launch dates, no Moon Base phase and only one site.

Key points

  • Program name. "NASA's Payloads and Research Investigations on the Surface of the Moon (PRISM) program". This is a third wording of the name: ADD Rev C and the 2024 international-partnerships paper word it differently (open question 49).
  • How they fly. Through CLPS, "as part of the agency's Moon Base Program". NASA makes this link itself; see CLPS.
  • Why. Nicky Fox (Science Mission Directorate): NASA Science is "building the ultimate interplanetary survival guide to ensure that science goes first to the lunar surface", so that crews have "the vital information, resources, and safety precautions needed ahead of time to survive the night on the Moon".
  • The three suites (as the release describes them):
Suite What it will do Site given Principal investigator
Lunar Environment Monitoring Station – South Pole (LEMS-SP) "a long-term environmental and hazard monitoring station". It will monitor "falling micrometeoroids", track "the abundance of volatiles … that drift into the Moon's thin outer layer of gases", and detect seismic events with "a short‑period seismometer". It "could deliver the critical hazard assessments needed to ensure the physical safety of Moon Base hardware". None in the text. "South Pole" is in its name. Mehdi Benna, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Geophysical Investigation for Mapping Lunar Interior (GIMLI) Will "hunt for subterranean lava tubes" and "scan beneath the Moon's surface to see whether the Marius Hills Pit leads into a large underground lava tube". Such spaces "could offer future astronauts ready‑made protection from extreme temperatures and harmful radiation". "Confirming these void spaces now could shift future habitat planning." The Marius Hills Pit (not the South Pole) Nathaniel Putzig, Planetary Science Institute
Depth Imager with Spectral and Color Optics (DISCO) "the first direct, on-the-ground measurements of ice hidden in lunar micro-cold traps". It will study "how rocket exhaust disturbs the ground" and how stable the surface is "for mobility", and pinpoint "where ice exists and how much of it is there", to help NASA "design safe surface operations" and turn ice "into a usable resource for the future Moon Base". None Ariel Deutsch, NASA Ames
  • What the release doesn't say:
    • no launch date, lander or CLPS task order for any suite
    • no Moon Base phase. The phases page lists none of the three.
    • Nothing ties these suites to the "four science landings" by Astrobotic, Firefly and Intuitive Machines selected on 30 June 2026 (Moon Base encyclopedia, "History"). The wiki doesn't equate them.
    • No architecture data gap or tech gap is named. The wiki's matching by subject is on the data gaps index.
  • Cadence. "NASA is increasing its cadence of lunar missions to build a Moon Base, delivering science investigations and technology payloads".

Missions and assets · Environment · Data gaps index · CLPS · Surface technology (lava tubes) · RT-1 International Collaboration (PRISM in ADD Rev C)