George Alderman (01:01):
Good afternoon and welcome to NASA headquarters in Washington, DC. Today we're joined by agency leadership to share updates on the Moon Base and discuss NASA's progress towards establishing a sustained presence on the lunar surface.
(01:14)
I'm George Alderman, NASA Deputy Press secretary, and I'll be moderating today's news conference. I'm joined by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, the head of Artemis, Dr. Lori Glaze, and the moon-based program manager, Carlos Garcia-Galan. We'll be taking questions both in person and through our phone bridge. So media interested in asking a question, please press *1 to enter the queue. Today's briefing is focused specifically on the Moon Base, so we ask that questions remain within that scope.
(01:42)
Now we'll begin with opening remarks from our speakers, beginning with administrator Isaacman.
Jared Isaacman (01:55):
Thanks, George. Thank you, everyone, who's here today, those from industry leadership, our new deputy administrator, Matt Anderson. Thanks for everyone who's tuning in online. Also from industry, from our NASA centers, from classrooms, and really those all across the country.
(02:13)
Many that are watching are from the interested public. They're excited about the Moon Base, the latest status, what comes next, and how this grand return to the lunar surface will begin. Now, that curiosity is exactly what NASA is supposed to inspire. It means people are looking up again, believing in big things again, and paying attention as America returns to the moon again and this time to stay.
(02:39)
Now, you can't undertake and achieve the near impossible like establishing an enduring presence on another celestial body without many contributing to this mission. It starts with leadership at the top, and I would like to thank President Donald Trump, the bipartisan commitment from Congress, industry for adapting to and meeting the moment, our international partners for standing alongside us, and the tens of thousands of the best and brightest across the NASA workforce whose contributions make all this possible.
(03:08)
I'd also like to begin by walking through the timeline that has brought us to this moment because there's been a lot of progress in a very short period of time, and it's important to understand how deliberately your space agency is progressing.
(03:20)
On December 18th, President Trump signed a national space policy that reaffirmed America's commitment to leadership and space to return to the moon, establish an enduring presence to build the Moon Base, to invest in the next giant leap capabilities to ignite an orbital economy, maybe even the foundations of a lunar economy, and launch extraordinary missions of science and discovery.
(03:42)
On March 23rd, we shared with the world exactly how we intend to achieve the vision called for in the American Space Superiority Executive Order. We hosted an event we called Ignition in this very room with nearly 40 Artemis Accord signatories and industry partners in attendance.
(03:58)
Then on April 1st, we took an incredible step in the right direction when the clock hit zero and Artemis II got underway on an epic test mission of science discovery and integrity, bringing the amazing crew home safely to earth just after just 10 days later.
(04:14)
Now, as I said before, NASA is not a procurement organization. We will not sit on our hands and wait for industry to deliver. Just in decades past, the expertise and determination of NASA will help drive the intended outcomes. On that note, in the time since Artemis II, we have been extremely active. We've been reviewing feedback from the Ignition events, speaking to industry, addressing supply chain challenges, having the tough conversations with those failing to meet expectations, and offering NASA's assistance to solve problems and doing the other hard things that should be expected of the world's most accomplished space agency.
(04:50)
We are working alongside our Lunar Lander providers preparing for Artemis III crew announcement and getting ready to begin stacking Artemis III this summer with a target launch in mid 2027. Across the agency, our astronauts, controllers, and principal investigators have been completing great science on the International Space Station. We've been flying more X planes. We've been formulating the next X planes. We've been getting ready for the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope, ready to launch this summer, and welcoming again a new deputy administrator with Matt Anderson.
(05:24)
On May 22nd, in a workforce note alongside a series of directives, I announced investments in the NASA organization into our centers to meet the urgent priorities outlined in the national space policy, focus resources on the most pressing objectives, strengthen and empower the workforce and agency leadership. And today, May 26th, we're very pleased to update you on some of our progress.
(05:47)
America is returning to the moon. We are working alongside our many international commercial partners to leverage the incredible capabilities from commercial industry to build a Moon Base. For all we hope to accomplish in this endeavor, what we are embarking upon is extremely challenging. And we know so little from what is a combined 80 hours of lunar astronaut EVA time across the Apollo missions, and that was more than a half century ago. So we are not jumping right into the glassdome Moon Base as a service. As we announced during the Ignition event, we intend to take an iterative approach, sending a demand signal to industry for a lot of landers and rovers and tech demonstrations and all the scientific payloads these missions can accommodate. We are leveraging the NASA playbook from the 1960s, figuring out what works and what doesn't in this epic science of survival because the Moon Base is as beautiful as it is hostile.
(06:43)
In sunlight, the surface can heat to over 250 degrees. In darkness, it can drop well below -200. In the permanently shadered craters, areas of great interest that have been untouched by sunlight for millions, even billions of years, temperatures can fall well below -400 degrees. There is no atmosphere to moderate these extremes, no protection from radiation and solar particle events. And the surface is exposed to meteorite impacts, including the kind of light flashes the Artemis II crew observed from orbit. Recognizing this reality, I'm often asked why we send our astronauts into such harsh and dangerous and unforgiving environment of space or the lunar surface and at such great cost. And we go for the technology we will pioneer to get there, the science and all that we will learn that will make life better here on earth to advance humankind on this great adventure, to inspire the next generation to do it better than we can, and to be very clear, to master the skills for where we will inevitably go next.
(07:43)
I want to acknowledge the speed of the NASA Moon Base team and all those that are supporting this effort alongside industry to bring us to these announcements. So we are discussing three moon-based missions and a series of additional awards with more missions to be announced in the months ahead.
(07:59)
Now, Moon Base I will be the first privately-funded lunar lander mission in history. The Blue Origin Mark 1 endurance lander will deliver multiple payloads to the Shackleton Connecting Ridge, a strategic area of the Lunar South Pole.
(08:13)
In addition to flying two NASA science payloads, scalps, a lunar retro reflector array, the mission objective is to demonstrate critical capabilities that reduce risk for the human landing system missions. On that note, every mission in support of the lunar base helps us learn and de risk crude missions, but this one is especially important because of the role Blue Origin plays in the Artemis program. The target no earlier than launch date is the fall of 2026.
(08:42)
Moon Base II will be the largest commercial payload delivered the lunar surface ever, though in this Moon Base endeavor, we certainly hope to be breaking records on nearly every mission.
(08:52)
The Astrobotic Griffin Lander will carry more than 500 kilograms of cargo, including AstroLab's flip rover to the lunar surface. This mission will help mature the capabilities necessary to support future lunar terrain vehicles' autonomous operations, logistics, and especially the LTV astronaut mobility.
(09:13)
Moon Base III will expand our scientific understanding of the lunar surface. This mission will deliver the first payload selected through NASA's Prism Initiative, a program that brings together universities, researchers and industry through open competition to solve scientific questions. The anchor scientific mission is Lunar Vertex, which will study lunar swirls, one of the moon's most intriguing mysteries. Now, these unusual formations appear brighter than their surroundings as portions of the lunar surface are somehow shielded from the effects of the solar wind. Understanding why they exist could improve our understanding of how the lunar environment evolves, how surface materials change over time, and how future infrastructure may perform in these extreme conditions.
(09:56)
The Moon Base III landings will also deliver payloads from ESA and the Korean Space Agency demonstrating that the future of lunar exploration is an international effort.
(10:07)
Moon Base II and III are targeted to launch before the end of 2026. Now these represent the first of more than a dozen missions we expect to announce through the balance of this year as we return, build the base, and never give up the moon again. And as mentioned, just like in decades past, we are taking the world along with us, though this time, and eventually through the power of orbital observation and communication satellites, we will do so with impressive detail on the Moon Base website, which launched, I believe, in the last hour.
(10:39)
The website will be a central hub for announcements for mission updates, for imagery, video, solicitations, and procurement awards and all the latest breakthroughs from NASA industry and academia.
(10:51)
Now, just as the world paused to take notice of Artemis II and its historic mission, this website and all the associated moon-based missions will inspire students instill curiosity, promote internships and encourage them to work in industry as scientists, engineers, pilots, and astronauts to build hardware that will go to the moon and to control it from Houston, perhaps even themselves to walk on the lunar surface as they grow up and carry the fire during the golden age of exploration.
(11:19)
So for those waiting patiently, the grand return is close at hand, and we will not slow down. We are moving with the competence and the purpose to accomplish the missions that only NASA is capable of achieving, and we are really just getting started.
(11:33)
And now I'll hand it over to Dr. Lori Glaze.
Lori Glaze (11:46):
All right. Good afternoon. It's good to see everyone here. Wonderful to see all of our colleagues and partners here today. Thank you so much, Jared, for setting the tone of what truly is a pivotal moment for human exploration.
(12:01)
We have several exciting announcements ahead, including new awards and new partnerships that will accelerate our progress for Moon Base. But first, I do want to talk a little bit about the foundation that makes all of this possible, and that foundation is Artemis. The incredible success of the Artemis II mission has taken NASA from proving what is possible to making the extraordinary routine.
(12:25)
Just last month, humanity returned to deep space. And I know Jared already mentioned this, but I'm going to take a few more minutes to talk about this. Artemis II is not only a historic journey, it was a comprehensive test of NASA's capabilities as we push farther from earth. The Space Launch System delivered our crew to orbit with precision, the Orion's life support systems, navigation, communications, camera systems, and heat shield all performed well.
(12:55)
Each of these successes validated the technologies and processes we'll rely on as missions become more ambitious and more complex. Where the systems didn't perform as expected, we gained important information to help us improve on future flights.
(13:11)
But Artemis II also validated something just as critical, how humans, science teams, and mission operations work together in deep space. This mission gave us real world data about how our astronauts live, work, communicate, and adapt outside of low earth orbit, knowledge we can't perfectly simulate on the ground.
(13:33)
Artemis II gave our operations and science teams the opportunity to collaborate in real time, practice integrated decision making, and refine the workflows that will guide lunar surface activities and eventually our path to Mars.
(13:48)
While Artemis II carried out significant scientific observations, the mission science was fundamentally about enabling exploration. The crew served as both scientists and test subjects. They helped us understand how to collect data, operate safely, and coordinate crew, flight controllers, and science teams to accomplish our objectives. The human research and biological and physical sciences data they collected will help us better understand how humans respond to the deep space environment. And the stunning imagery and observations they returned of the earth, of the moon's nearside and far side, of impact flashes in the shadow of the lunar eclipse, all were as much about improving our operational readiness as advancing scientific knowledge. These moments remind us why we explore; to inspire, to learn and to push human presence farther than ever before.
(14:43)
The crew captured the iconic Hello World image of Earth from Orion, revealing once again just the beauty and fragility of our home planet. They photographed the moon beyond Orion solar arrays with Hello Moon, marking the beginning of humanity's return to deep space. And as they pass behind the far side of the moon, they helped us practice vital science processes that will shape future missions, observation, documentation, interpretation and teamwork across thousands of miles.
(15:13)
Artemis II proved that NASA is ready for the next step, and that next step is coming fast. Artemis III will conduct critical integrated tests in earth orbit, including rendezvous and docking with our commercial partners and commercial landers. Artemis III hardware from the SLS core stage, to Orion's modules, to lander partner systems is moving into final integration flight readiness development.
(15:37)
And Artemis IV and V hardware is already flowing to the Kennedy Space Center from other centers and partner facilities around the U.S. and the world. We're moving toward the cadence necessary for a sustained deep space program. Steady, accelerated and continuously learning as we prepare to return to the lunar surface. And that then brings us to the future, Moon Base.
(16:02)
Moon Base will be home base for our Artemis cruise and will encompass long duration stays, expanded robotic and human capabilities, and an enduring presence on the lunar surface. Everything we tested and learned on Artemis II, the systems, the teamwork, the operational tempo feeds directly into our ability to build a sustainable foothold on the moon.
(16:24)
With Moon Base, Artemis astronauts will stay longer, explore farther and conduct the kinds of science that advances exploration itself, understanding how humans operate off world, how we build infrastructure and how we prepare for Mars. As you'll hear from Carlos in a moment, only two months after Ignition, we are already taking concrete steps through new procurement awards and new partnerships to turn this vision into a reality.
(16:50)
We are building humanity's first outpost beyond Earth. Through Artemis we are going. And with Moon Base, we're going to stay. And together NASA, industry, and international partners, we are creating a future where exploration is not just an incredible moment in history, but the first foothold beyond earth for all of humanity.
(17:10)
So with that, thank you. And it is my pleasure to hand over to our Moon Based program executive, Carlos Garcia-Galan to take you through the next steps in building the Moon Base.
Carlos Garcia-Galan (17:27):
Good afternoon, everybody. So as the administrator and Lori alluded, we have been busy since Ignition Day. We have been working to align all the agency resources across NASA to basically deliver on this objective of building a Moon Base. We've been establishing the architecture and the strategy to enable it. We've been reviewing your inputs and your ideas through the RFI for Moon Based capabilities. We have been busying industry and going to centers across NASA to, number one, share-
Carlos Garcia-Galan (18:00):
And going to centers across NASA to, number one, share the vision and talk about it, get your ideas, and also see what capabilities are out there that we can use as tools to develop this. We have been also been working on the solicitations that we projected and broadcasted during Ignition Day, which is what we're going to talk about today. You go to the next chart. I'm going to give you a little bit of an outline of the things that we're going to be doing today. First, we're going to start where we left off, talking a little bit about the phase objectives and the assets that we're going to be talking about and discussing milestones for. Then we're going to talk about key phase one milestones with awards for landers and lunar terrain vehicles and Moonfall carrier spacecraft. And then we're going to talk about what's in the lunar horizon in the short months ahead.
(18:53)
So let's get started. This is a chart that kind of describes the vision that we deliver during Ignition Day. We envision the moon base to be hundreds of square miles with different assets all building up to the objective of permanent lunar presence on the moon. To get there, we're going to break it up in phases, and phase one has already started. From now through '29, we're going to work to make sure that getting to the lunar surface is a high reliability endeavor. Many assets we can deliver there. We're also going to test and experiments the science of survival as the administrator said. We're going to experiment on the things that we know are ahead of us that we're going to need to build a permanent infrastructure, which is happening on phase two and then permanent habitation on phase three. To do this, we're building and working on many different systems, from transportation to mobility, and we've broadcasted a pretty high cadence of missions that will help us to get there.
(19:52)
Phase one, for example, will have 25 launches, 21 landings, and we're planning to deliver about four metric tons of cargo to the surface of the moon. And we want to graduate from that to 60 metric tons to 150 by the time we get to phase three. If you go to the next chart. When you think about the lunar surface and the endeavor of building a moon base, it's going to be extremely hard and it daunts on us every day how little we know of the lunar surface. We did the Apollo program. We've had lunar probe. We've had spacecraft, robotic spacecraft that have gone back to the moon, but we have explored very little. So we envision multiple assets, those 21 landings, to deploy many types of assets in different areas where we have objectives for science or we think it's a good place to develop the moon base.
(20:44)
We're going to have landers, small and medium class. We're going to have constellations of satellites that will enable communication, navigation, point and observation. We're going to have rovers and LTVs. And also we're going to have drones. So to talk about all of those assets, we're ready to make the first major award. And that is one, something we advertise during Ignition Day is for the LTV delivery landers. Through CLPS program, we requested task plans for delivery of one or multiple one metric ton class NASA payloads to the south pole region. In the base period of that task order, we'll basically ask the vendors to finalize the mission design, integrate and develop the integration plans, execute long lead hardware procurements, design and test the payloads, and demonstrate the compliance of the delivery, the payload delivery system to the surface. Then in subsequent options, if everything goes well, they will build the lander spacecraft.
(21:50)
So the long awaited moment for the delivery of all the LTV awards that we're going to announce today, NASA has selected Blue Origin. All right, give everybody a round of applause to Blue Origin. Congratulations. Blue Origin's Lunar Lander product line has two variants. Mark one, which is the uncrewed version ,is what we're going to be using for the delivery of the LTVs, and mark two, which is the crew lander mission. So using mark ones will also reduce the risk for future crewed missions there. Mark one is the same type of vehicle as Endurance, which is feature in Moonbase One, the first mission to the lunar surface. Mark one type of spacecraft is also going to deliver the Viper rover later in the fall of 2027. So congratulations, Blue Origin, and we are looking forward to this partnership to deliver the first lunar terrain vehicle as part of Moonbase program. Thank you very much and congratulations.
(23:06)
So now we get into the awards for the lunar terrain vehicles. In this case, we're going to award two of them. As the lunar roving vehicle during the Apollo program, the LTV will give astronauts the ability to further conduct scientific research around the moon, but it's going to do a lot more than that, because in this case we needed to work all year round. We need them to be on the surface doing things that basically prospect the surface, scope around to potential landing sites, or go to areas of deep scientific objectives. So the LTVs we're going to announce today are both crewed and autonomous rovers. They're a mix between the Apollo lunar roving vehicle and the Mars style rover. The LTVs will have a mass of about one metric ton or a little bit less than that and will have to be in a configuration that is compressed to be able to fit on those landers. Each one of the vendors is going to do that in a different ingenious way.
(24:10)
They're designed to traverse about 200 kilometers from where they're dropped off, which is four times greater than any rover has ever traveled on the moon or Mars. They can be telerobotically operated by people on the ground, they can work autonomously, and of course when we have human crewed missions, they'll be driven by the humans. These things can go up to 10 kilometers per hour and go up and down slopes of like 20 degrees. So I'm going to get ready to announce the first LTV award winner and that is Astrolab. Congratulations. Astrolab has adapted its Flex Rover architecture to deploy the crew lunar vehicle number one. So give them a round of applause. Congratulations. This new vehicle is smaller, lighter, and can accommodate up to two crew, which is what we ask for during Ignition Day, to be able to test and develop the capabilities as we go. Again, it has autonomous capabilities, it can be teleoperated, or of course the crew will drive it.
(25:45)
CLV1 has a maximum mass of 950 kilograms and can reach speeds up to 10 kilometers per hour. Astrolab is also building the FlipRover, which has a lot of the features that will then be carried over to the lunar terrain vehicle. Astrolab is using subs like Odyssey Space Research, Axiom Space, and Interlun as the subcontractors for that. So imagine the first rover, because we're going to have cameras, we're going to have payloads roving around Mars and basically bringing us with them in real life, going to places we have never seen of the moon, testing out and giving us key ground truth data so we can build on that. Again, one round of applause for Astrolab, congratulations.
(26:36)
The second LTV provider, which I'm going to announce now, is Lunar Outpost. In response to NASA's Moonbase initiative, Lunar Outpost unveil a new class of rubber called Pegasus, which is what we're going to deliver to the surface of the moon. Pegasus is a pared down version of Lunar Outpost Eagle Lunar Terrain vehicle. Pegasus is a lighter weight and we'll be ready to fly on earlier missions as we've asked and demanded. They will do things like autonomous driving, terrain mapping, and identify future potential moon base sites. Pegasus can carry up to two crew members and travel 10 kilometers per hour on the lunar surface and, like I said, go through steep slopes and terrains. They're partnering with General Motors, Leidos, and Goodyear as key subcontractors for the vendors. So give Lunar Outpost a round of applause. Congratulations.
(28:10)
These awards are incredibly important to the next steps of phase one because we have to be able to move around the surface and start looking and gaining the knowledge we need to build up on the moon base. Part of that also is Moonfall, which is the lunar drones that we advertised during Ignition Day. Moonfall is the first lunar drone capability that we're going to have, and it's going to accomplish different objectives. The first is demonstrate the technology. It is going to be the first robotic mobile platform with the range to quickly explore sites interesting at the lunar south pole. Like the administrator discussed earlier, the variances in lighting, thermal gradients are gigantic on the lunar surface, and we basically have a range of like one meter dedicated information on the different areas we want to go to. So in that one meter, if we're wrong or if we're off a little bit, those ranges of 4, 500 degrees in temperature can be a key aspect that we need to overcome.
(29:19)
So this drones will allow us to go ... Cover a broader range of areas that we unprospect and get that ground truth. It can demonstrate the ability to take off and land in multiple locations with precision under south pole lighting conditions and terrain features. Also, it will utilize available electronics so we can develop them quickly and deploy them where we need. One of the key things that we want to put on these drones is survive the night technology. So not only can they accomplish the mission, they can hop, go to multiple locations, but they can also survive the long lunar nights. So when they get sun again, they can serve a permanent objective wherever they ended up at. It could be observation, it could be communications, or something else. Another key objective is site characterization. So we'll be able to map the surface at centimeter scale resolution. Not meter, centimeter scale resolution, allowing us to beef up our orbital databases and reducing the risk for future landings.
(30:25)
It will prospect for water and ice in the subsurface of the moon. It can go look into the surface of the moon about one meter in depth across tens of kilometers. It will also characterize the radiation environment before we send other assets or crews to the surface and provide a geodetic framework for navigation using radar reflectors. Whatever we put these drones, it will provide much more of a capability for precision land there for whatever landing is coming into that area. And then we'll have cameras, of course, on all of them and be able to observe around the territory. The next objective is imaging. So in the picture that you see on the screen, you have the current capability on the right and what we're going to provide on the left. So high resolution imagery across all mission phases, including the deployment, the landing, and nominal operations of staying in situ or hopping around.
(31:23)
It will continue image collection during extended mission and it will analyze different sites for unprecedental detail and basically allowing us to build our understanding of soil mechanics, the terrain, the lighting conditions in situ of wherever we want to go. It will help us build a digital terrain map of different landing sites on the moon and prospect moon based sites. So all of those things are going to be critical for continuing understanding of where we're going. The last part I wanted to talk about that we're hoping to achieve is to establish a moon base perimeter. With four or three lunar drones, Moonfall, we're going to be able to basically put them at the corners of the areas where we think we have either key scientific objectives or we want to build up the moon base.
(32:16)
And maybe in their final hope, like I said earlier, we can give them a function, potentially be a beacon, provide those retro reflectors to be able to get more precise landing, even be the first lunar cell tower if we choose to do so. By coupling the survive the night technology with different instruments and of course cameras for observation it'll give us a tremendous capability. And like I said, for phase one, Moonbase is just a demonstration of capability. We hope this will work out and we'll be able to evolve that capability and picturing the future of Moonbase where we're starting to plan areas where we're going to send the crews or rovers to robotically go to a specific crater or area of interest. We can deploy this drone. Some areas we can even reach with lunar terrain vehicles or rovers. So this could be a critical capability to allow us to get to those objectives.
(33:07)
So something has to take the lunar drones Moonfall to the surface of the moon and today we're ready to announce that JPL, our partner developing the Moonfall drones has selected a carrier spacecraft, and that is Firefly. All right, congratulations. Big round of applause for Firefly. So Firefly is going to build a version of its Elytra Orbital Vehicle for this mission. Firefly's first vehicle is built on the same systems that successfully landed and gave us that mind blowing video of reaching the surface of the moon. That was the CLPS Blue Ghost mission that flew and successfully landed last year. They're working with JPL on the part of the mission called cruise, deorbit, and braking stage.
(34:20)
So the Elytra vehicle will basically carry the drones from Earth into lunar orbit, then slow down, and at a certain altitude it will deploy four or three drones that will then take the mission on their own hands. They'll finalize the landing. They'll land probably about a mile apart from each other and carry on from the mission there. This is a very exciting mission that you can see a picture of the carrier vehicle there. We can't wait to get started and actually see these things deployed. Congratulations, Firefly, and glad to partner with you guys on this.
(34:55)
All right, we're done with the award announcement, so a big round of applause for all of you. Now gets the hard part, which is delivering on time and having successful missions back to back. Okay, now I want to talk about what is on the lunar horizon. So the first one I want to talk about is CLPS 1.0. During Ignition Day, basically we said we're going to use the CLPS construct, which was doing scientific commercial service payload delivery to the surface to continue on and provide the landers that will carry our assets to the surface. And we declared two things. We were going to contract for the LTV delivery service, which we just announced, and we were going to also expand the number of missions to carry payloads, whether scientific or technology demonstrations. Those announcements are coming back and coming up in June. So standby for that and we're going to declare the award winners for several of those missions to add to the Moonbase portfolio.
Carlos Garcia-Galan (36:00):
... for several of those missions to add to the Moon Base portfolio. We're also working on additional task orders for low and mid-size class landers through 1.0 to potentially deliver additional technology demonstration payloads. So all of that is also coming up soon. And then in Ignition Day we talked about CLPS 2.0. So 2.0 is really the next generation lunar cargo landers. We are accepting proposals to that June 30th and early in the fall or even late in the summer of 2026, we'll announce the companies that are eligible to participate on that. And it's going to be a very quick turnaround between making those vendors eligible to when we start contracting those missions.
(36:50)
CLPS 2.0 is built on the successes of CLPS 1.0, but we're giving ourselves more flexibility. There's going to be ability to do tax orders on end-to- end service. There's going to be ability to basically just buy a lander and be able to couple that with launch service, and also technology demonstration payloads, which we may procure or build on our own and will be doing the integration of all of those missions in-house. Again, full end-to-end service in-house or a combination of. And we're going to be using that and advertising providers eligible and missions through CLPS 2.0 with the next generation landers pretty soon in the next coming months.
(37:34)
And then one of the things that we were wanting to do pretty fast is basically establish the architecture, set the priorities for the technology that we're going to need in phase two and then map that to detect demonstrations that we need to do in phase one, all these landers we're just talking about. We've narrowed the feel of things that we're interested. There's many things that we need to perform, including survive the night and all of those things, but we really want to focus on developing the mid-size cargo delivery. This is going to be accomplished through CLPS 2.0. Initial power infrastructure. We're talking about solar and potentially nuclear. Also smaller components for surviving the night.
(38:16)
We're looking at two to 15 kilowatts of power generation, up to 20 kilowatts potentially if it's a nuclear system, and hundreds of kilowatt-hours of the storage capacity. We're also wanting to explore initial cargo mobility and logistics, which is going to be a huge key element of permanent habitation and then Pathfinder habitation missions. We have two BAAs today across the agency, not just Moon Base, which are soliciting ideas and we'll be using those to take proposals not for studies, but actually building hardware. The study is going to be put the thing on the surface, test it out, learn from it, and then actually graduate that to be a permanent part of the architecture. So that work is going on now.
(39:01)
Okay, that was a lot. So this wraps up the first Moon Base status, where in just two months we've covered awards for new landers, lunar terrain vehicles and MoonFall carrier spacecraft. Soon we will be statusing progress on the additional landers, like I said. We'll also be going to be talking about international partner contribution agreements, which we're actively working on, awards for technology demonstration missions and the selected companies to build the next generation landers.
(39:34)
As Artemis II showed us, literally, we're just a tiny body in this universe. But we're in the business of expanding our horizons, doing the near impossible, building the Moon Base. We're making history together. Thank you very much. And now we're going to transition into the answer questions from the media. So, George, back over to you. Thank you.
George (40:05):
Thank you, Carlos, and thank you all. As you can see on stage now, we're joined by models of the landers and vehicles from Blue Origin, AstraLab, Lunar Outpost, and Firefly. We'll now start taking questions from the media. We'll start in the room and if you're joining us via the phone bridge, please press star one to enter the queue. We also have in attendance today subject matter experts who will help answer some of our questions, but please direct your questions to our speakers that are on stage.
(40:32)
As a reminder, today's briefing is focused specifically on the Moon Base, so please keep your questions within that scope. And please ask one question so we can get to as many of you as possible. We'll circle back if we have time. We'll now take our first question. In the front row, yes.
Kristin Fisher (40:54):
Oh, do you want to hold it? Okay. Hi there. Kristin Fisher with the Endless Void. My question's for Jared. Jared, China has said that it's studying lava tubes as potential sites for future bases. They just put about 28 Taikonauts through cave training for about a month. And so my question is, are there any discussions taking place right now at NASA about exploring lava tubes, underground lava tubes, as a possible site for a future second base or is everything focused squarely on the Moon's south pole? Thanks.
Jared Isaacman (41:32):
Well, I would say that we are very focused on the first Moon Base. But in these conversations we do discuss that we are aspiring to have a lot of outposts on the lunar surface. And I think cave exploration has been part of, at various times, our own astronaut program training as well. So we certainly see value in that environment. I don't know if you'd like to add anything, Lori.
Lori (41:58):
Yeah. I mean, I think you hit on it there. We have actually done a lot of work in the past at looking at caves for being able to protect crew, human crew, from radiation, the harsh radiation environment. So certainly there's been a lot of research there and certainly something that could be part of, as you said, as we start to expand our reach, could be part of that.
George (42:18):
Yes, in the white.
Lenka White (42:21):
Hi. Thank you so much for this briefing, Lenka White with RIA-Novosti. It's very interesting. I was curious on international cooperation. Let's say there would be a Moon Base 4. Are there any talks about possibly cooperating with international partners on ISS-style cooperation on the Moon with partners like Roscosmos and others? Thank you so much.
Jared Isaacman (42:42):
[inaudible 00:42:45].
Lori (42:47):
So we are having a lot of conversations with our international partners. I don't know that this is going to be quite in the ISS style. This may be a little different. We're having a lot of individual conversations with various international partners about the types of missions we could collaborate on, where they're either providing payloads or they're providing a capability that we'll work with them on. So there's a lot of that discussion ongoing right now. I think there's a lot of excitement with the international community about different ways they can participate and collaborate with NASA on these various missions, from small scale payloads all the way up through very large systems like the pressurized rover or habitats. So we've got a pretty broad range of conversations ongoing.
Carlos Garcia-Galan (43:32):
Yeah. We'll be statusing you on that and upcoming Moon Base status briefings.
Lori (43:40):
Yeah.
George (43:40):
This will be second row in the suit.
Sergey Lavrov (43:44):
Oh, of course. Thank you for taking my question. Sergey Lavrov with the Russian TASS News Agency. My question is for Administrator Isaacman. So to follow up on international cooperation, do you expect to discuss lunar exploration during your upcoming visit to Baikonur this summer? And as just as a follow-up, do you also expect to discuss the integrated crew flights and extending the agreement with Russia?
Jared Isaacman (44:14):
I would say whenever I've had my discussions with Director General Bakanov, we usually give updates on our respective space programs and progress. So I fully expect we'll be discussing the International Space Station and what that continued cooperation will look like through the remaining life of Space Station. And I am sure we would also discuss generally what NASA has planned for our lunar missions on the horizon. Our last conversation, the director general was very kind to discuss the Artemis II, so I'm sure it'll be a topic again.
George (44:52):
Our next question will come from the phone bridge, from Marcia Dunn with the AP.
Marcia Dunn (44:58):
Yes. Hi, probably for you, Carlos. When people think of a Moon base, they think about people living there full time. And what do you envision? When do you envision that happening where visiting lunar astronauts are not just going to be camping out in their capsules for a week or so. But when do you think that there will be a real base with habitats? And when might that happen and how long might their stays be, and how many astronauts do you envision on the surface at any one time? Just paint me a picture of the future. Thank you.
Carlos Garcia-Galan (45:32):
Okay. Sounds good. So in the three phases we've described, we hope to have some sort of habitation capability in phase two with the pressurized rover. That will be where the astronauts can land on their human-rated lander, hop on the pressurized rover and basically work and explore the Moon on a short live environment, and then from there go to different locations where they can get out of the pressurized rover, perhaps hop onto a lunar terrain vehicle and even go farther with EVA suits.
(46:04)
In phase two, we'll be building permanent infrastructure, including laying out a power grid and things like that, all building up to what it takes to do permanent habitation. Permanent habitation is not just about the asset, but it's about the whole train of logistics that we would need to have set up in place to enable that. So I think we'll go from this short duration missions, to longer stays using some of these assets, to basically long-term flights, not potentially permanent, but with crews coming to the surface twice a year. We can expand the time that they can expend there before they come back home. And then eventually when we've matched the assets, habitation modules with the logistics and all the things to move the logistics around, then we'll be able to say, "Hey, we're permanently here and we're not giving it up."
George (47:02):
Next question will come from Eric Berger with ARS Technica via the phone bridge.
Eric Berger (47:07):
Hi, thanks very much for doing this. This question for Jared or Carlos, I think. So Carlos referenced the Moon Base perimeter. I mean, I'm just curious, having looked at the Artemis Accords, is this a safety zone you're trying to create, and are these areas basically where non-Artemis Accord signatories should keep out of? Thanks.
Jared Isaacman (47:30):
I think it's important for us to get there first. And I mean, when I say that, meaning let's get there and actually achieve what we're intending to do with these hopper drones. It is a first of its kind, which is why JPL is tackling this. But I think the idea that there are areas of great interest on the lunar surface, we do want to get there and explore them and we also obviously want to be very mindful of the Outer Space Treaty, so that we are respectful of other nations that are putting assets on the lunar surface. We would expect that to be reciprocal.
(48:07)
But I think that's just one objective of many that the MoonFall drones intend to accomplish, as Carlos discussed. I mean, this is going to be scouting, there's going to be comms on it, there's going to be observation capabilities as the primary objectives of that MoonFall asset.
George (48:28):
Our next question will be from Will Robinson- Smith with Spaceflight Now via the phone bridge.
Will Robinson-Smith (48:35):
Hi, everyone, for taking the time to speak with us. Question for Carlos, I suppose. With the LTVs that were announced from Lunar Outpost and from AstraLab, about how far is the driving range of those? And I ask because I imagine while still being examined, the amount of ejector that's going to be kicked up by either Starship or Blue Moon Mark 2 is going to be quite dramatic, and so I would assume that the LTVs can't be placed too close to future Artemis landing sites. So how far apart are these assets going to be placed? And are you expecting them to sort of go to and from future Artemis crewed landing sites? Is that the plan? Thanks.
Carlos Garcia-Galan (49:22):
Yeah, good question. So I'm going to actually bring in some of our Moon Base team experts, starting with the acting director for Surface Mobility, Robert Pickle. And by the way, I'll just introduce them all for future questions. We have Nujoud Merancy, she's the chief architect of Moon Base, and Ryan Stephan, who is the acting director for Cargo Lander. So, Robert, take it away.
Robert Pickle (49:42):
Yeah, sure. Great question. So protecting for PSI, we plan to keep the LTVs approximately two kilometers away when the landers land. And they'll traverse in, be able to pick up the crew and then do missions up to 10 kilometers during the crewed period. And then uncrewed, like Carlos said, total of like 400 kilometers throughout the lifetime.
George (50:06):
Thank you. We'll go to our next question with... That'll be from Jeff Foust with SpaceNews on the phone bridge.
Jeff Foust (50:20):
Good afternoon. What is the dollar value of the various awards you announced this afternoon to Blue Origin, AstraLab, Lunar Outpost and Firefly? Thank you.
Carlos Garcia-Galan (50:31):
All right, good question also. So, Ryan, take it away for... We'll start with the service delivery of the LTVs and then we'll go to Robert for the actual LTV awards.
Ryan Stephan (50:41):
Yeah. I don't want to do math real time, but each individual award to Blue Origin was 234 million per mission, so 234 times two.
Robert Pickle (50:54):
Yeah, and each LTV award was 220 million.
George (51:02):
All right, thank you. We got our next question in the room, in the blue and white tie.
Hunter Ryerson (51:08):
Hunter Ryerson from Pirate Wires. For Administrator Isaacman, NASA's made developing the orbital economy a major priority and as well an interplanetary civilization doesn't get built by on government alone. How do NASA's Moon Base plans contribute to the achievement of these goals and further, how does Moon Base support future missions to Mars?
Jared Isaacman (51:31):
Great question. So first, I think as I said many times, it's extremely important to ignite an orbital and ideally a lunar economy. I don't believe that we are going to have that true kind of space fairing world we may have imagined as children reading science fiction books if it's perpetually funded by taxpayers. So it is vitally important that we figure out what generates value, either in the unique environment of microgravity or on the lunar surface in excess of the cost that it takes to go into it.
(52:03)
I don't have any great answers for you other than we are sending a demand signal that hopefully will reveal it. I've said many times we can't force a lunar economy into existence. I suspect in the years, decades ahead as we build and operate what's hopefully multiple, let's just say, lunar outposts, that we will uncover something along the way. Having a lunar economy developing would be a nice capability out of all this to realize. But I've said many times, we could put a demand signal out for, I don't know, 50, 100 landers, like we're procuring today. I couldn't tell you who's going to buy the 51st or the 101st someday if it's other than NASA, but this is at least a step in the right direction.
(52:44)
Now to your point on how does this help us get to Mars? Look, to be very clear, that is the primary objective out of this. As I mentioned during my remarks, there's a lot of great things that will come from having a outpost on the Moon. It was only a matter of time that we'd want to have our astronauts interacting not just in... They've done microgravity for more than a quarter of a century, but now let's interact with the lunar regolith. There will be scientific discoveries. Let's land rovers with radio telescopes to go to the far side of the Moon. Let's ignite an orbital economy.
(53:13)
These are all things that would be nice to have and achieve along the way, but really it is to have an environment where we can work with the water ice and master the skills for where we go next, which is Mars. And it would be nice to do that when you're four days away from home, than many months away from home. So that is overarching. And why build the Moon Base? Again, there's knowledge that can be had. There's technology that we will develop that will help life here on Earth. There's certainly going to be a whole lot of inspiration that's coming out of this for the next generation. But number one, we want to be in an environment where we can learn the skills so that astronauts can go and plant the Stars and Stripes on Mars someday.
George (53:53):
Take another question from in the room. In the front row up there, in the black.
Audrey Decker (54:00):
You got it? [inaudible 00:54:03] Hi, Audrey Decker from-
Audrey Decker (54:02):
Hi, Audrey Decker from POLITICO. Thanks for doing this. Quick funding question for the administrator. When can NASA start using the gateway funds that were passed in the reconciliation package last year for the Moon Base, or do you need any congressional approval through Reauth Bill or approps to start using those? And then more broadly, could NASA provide any more specifics about how it plans to fit all of this into the budget and the increased CLPS missions? Thanks so much.
Jared Isaacman (54:30):
Sure. Well, I think just as I mentioned, during the various budget hearings I attended, in order to achieve the ignition objectives, it's important to look at all of the funding sources. So we obviously have the 10 billion plus up from the Working Family Tax Cut Act. We have the FY26 appropriations, and then we have the 2027 president's budget request, which we believe is more than adequate to meet our exploration goals. In fact, a large portion of the 10 billion was in exploration. And in terms of congressional notification, one, I'd say generally, I think it should be pretty apparent there's strong bipartisan support around the Moon Base. I see pretty regularly congressional leaders coming out and interacting, retweeting with our commentary on it. I think they're all excited for American astronauts, and eventually our allies to be on the lunar surface itself as opposed to orbiting above it. And as I mentioned, we've already provided now the notification to Congress as expected for any of the organizational or funding line mechanics that need to be addressed.
George (55:35):
Our next question will come from the phone, from Ken Chang with The New York Times.
Ken Chang (55:42):
Hi, thank you. I guess this is for Jared or Carlos. When is the timing for landing the LTVs? And how does it fit in with the Artemis schedules? Before Artemis IV, between Artemis IV and Artemis V, or later? Thank you.
Carlos Garcia-Galan (55:48):
So certainly we want to have an LTV. We picked both of them in the crude version of that, even though we can operate them robotically, before the Artemis IV mission. And we'll certainly try to line it up so that crew has an LTV to go explore around. So it's absolutely an objective. And then we'll see how the development goes on, but we plan to have LTVs for the crews coming to the surface of the moon. And again, the LTV strategy, which we signal in Ignition is that instead of developing one very capable but also complex, and putting all of our eggs in that basket, we're going to develop multiple. So this is, if you will, phase one of LTVs. After we test out the two that we just awarded today, we expect to have more opportunities for same vendors or other vendors with more capability, and incorporating the lessons learned that we learn through the operations of the two that we have.
Jared Isaacman (57:03):
Yeah. And if I may jump on this, because it hits a couple questions in this room. It talks to the lunar economy, the question about habitability that came up before, when are we going to actually keep astronauts on the moon for some period of time beyond just whatever the lander in itself will support. We are digging up the playbook, or dusting off the playbook from the 1960s here at NASA. We are going to get back to this iterative approach of learning. We haven't been on the moon in a very long time. I have no doubt we are going to learn an awful lot from the first couple lunar terrain vehicles, and rather get a few of them on the moon as soon as we possibly can, alongside the first crude missions, so we can get astronauts interacting with a rover again for the first time in, again, more than a half century.
(57:49)
And I have no doubt they'll come back and give us feedback that will inform some of the phase two LTV awards, where we'll progressively add more capability from things we learn from autonomous functions. You're doing the same thing when it gets to habitability. I think clearly, as Carlos mentioned, we were probably going down the path of one extremely exquisite, all-encompassing rover before. That doesn't help stimulate a lunar economy at all. It becomes an all or nothing event, nor is it just the right thing to do to learn to get to what should be the ultimate state rover maybe many years down the road.
(58:24)
Same thing is applicable for habitability, doing lots of landers, demonstrating different capabilities in this incredibly harsh environment is the way you stimulate a lunar economy from all the various commercial players, but it helps us get to the state instead of just trying to drop a single all-encompassing habitation module and hoping it works out. So all of this comes together for an achievable path for mobility, for the astronauts themselves, for logistics, for autonomous operations, for habitation, and for stimulating a lunar economy. Hopefully that all makes sense, how it's coming together.
George (58:59):
Our next question will come from the phone bridge from Irene Klotz with Aviation Week.
Irene Klotz (59:05):
Thank you. In addition to the timeframe of the LTVs, what's the timeframe for the JPL MoonFall mission? And I was wondering if the scope or the funding for the newly renamed Moon Base one through three missions has changed from when those were originally awarded under CLPS? Thanks.
Carlos Garcia-Galan (59:27):
Okay. I'll take that, and I'm going to ask Nujoud also jump in, if you want to add anything to what I'm going to say. So first of all, the first Moon Base missions that we've declared, what we already had on contract, we're doing things a little bit differently with those. We want to make sure that the reliability is there, and we're putting all the resources of NASA, including test facilities, if they need them, in play here. So we're not necessarily changing the timeline, because we already had a contract with them on when that was going to happen, but we're basically putting all of our assets in place, including experts, facilities, know-how, whatever it takes to make them successfully before they get to fly, and when they're flying. So MoonFall is also something that is a phase one asset, so by '28. We're still doing some trades on number of... It's going to be 3 or 4, and what's the pluses or minuses of that. And then I'm going to turn it over to Nujoud to kind of add on why that, and how these missions maybe interplay with each other.
Nujoud Merancy (01:00:36):
Yes. A lot of the priority for the MoonFall early on is to get them in the locations to do the reconnaissance on the important locations where we want to deploy the rovers, the science, the power systems that will follow. So being able to integrate all these missions across time and adapt the learnings from them is very important as we establish the architecture for Moon Base.
George (01:00:58):
And our next question will be from in the room. There in the back in the third row.
Dan Vergano (01:01:03):
Hi, I'm Dan Vergano with Scientific American. I'm wondering if there's any update, maybe this is for Lori, on the timing for picking the Artemis III landers. There's a lot of Blue Origin landers today, when do you have to make that decision for that Artemis III mission that Jared said is a year from now, mid-'27? Thanks.
Lori (01:01:23):
Yeah, we're already moving forward pretty strongly with both Blue Origin and SpaceX on their lander concepts. So we're already moving in that direction with both of them. There's a lot of trade studies ongoing right now just to make sure we've got the mission designs right and the right objectives for those, but we're already moving out. It will be the version that Blue Origin is working on for that mission. Yes.
George (01:01:49):
Next question in the front row there. Thank you.
Jack Gordon (01:01:54):
Hi, my name is Jack Gordon. My question is for everybody, I guess mainly for Jared, I'm just curious what NASA overall has thought about basically astronaut health on the moon. And as we're building the Moon Base, obviously the goal is going to be to keep people there much longer than three days, or four days, or five days. I've seen a lot about the infrastructure for exploration and science, I'm curious, has NASA thought yet about hygiene, and health, and how the astronauts can actually live on the moon comfortably?
Lori (01:02:28):
Sure.
Jared Isaacman (01:02:28):
Well, I can open up and then pass it over to Dr. Glaze. We obviously give a lot of thought to this, I would say in terms of the human physiology, keeping people alive for nine months, or even, we've had longer durations on the International Space Station, and microgravity is about as tough as it gets. And we've been learning in that environment for 25 years. 4 or 5 days to get to the lunar surface, where your 1/6 gravity should be net positive, I would think, in that environment. But there's still a lot of other factors that kick into it, some that you mentioned. We were just discussing earlier what the exploration atmosphere may look like, because this isn't... Right now, we communicate far in advance unless it's some sort of a contingency when we are going to undertake an EVA in the space station.
(01:03:17)
We're going to go back into an environment now where we might be doing EVAs many times over a span of a handful of days. And every time you're pressing up and de-pressing down, it could be an environment for potentially decompression sickness. So an area we've been studying for a long time, we've been hosting exploration atmosphere research, exercise, Johnson Space Center. I think that's one example of many that we're giving thought to, and to this new environment, or an environment we haven't been in a long time that we're putting our astronauts into. Lori?
Lori (01:03:48):
As you said, we've learned an enormous amount from our experiences on the International Space Station. Most certainly there will be some differences here, but this is certainly something that is of high priority. Certainly the crew health is always... Their safety is our number one concern. So we will be putting a lot of effort into that. We already are, as Jared said, with the research that's ongoing, trying to best understand how much time our crew will need to adjust to the atmosphere that is present within their pressurized suits before they can go out on an EVA. We want to maximize their time to do work on the surface, but at the same time keeping them completely safe.
(01:04:28)
So we're doing a lot of research in that area. There's been already a lot of research into radiation environments, and expected radiation exposure, and how we can make sure we keep them safe in that environment. So yes, an enormous amount of work there. We'll continue to live and learn as we do additional Orion missions as well on how the crew respond for these longer-term missions. In one sense, one thing we learned a lot from Artemis II is just the cadence of activities. As Jared says, for a lunar surface mission, you'll probably have multiple EVAs in a shorter period of time. When we have a week or two on the surface, it's not the same as having months on the station, so we may have to have a faster cadence, and that's going to mean working very closely with our friends and flight operations, with the chief medical officers to make sure that we are keeping them safe, but being able to maximize the return on the mission.
George (01:05:25):
Thank you. In the back in the light blue.
Marcia Smith (01:05:30):
Thank you. Marsha Smith, spacepolicyonline.com. You've talked a lot about what you're going to be doing on the surface. Can you talk a bit about what kind of a robust communications network you're going to be building for around the moon? And will NASA be awarding contracts for that, or are you expecting industry to do that?
Lori (01:05:46):
Do you want to speak?
Carlos Garcia-Galan (01:05:48):
I'll take that. So we already have one contract already in place to start providing the initial communications back from the moon. We actually want to expand that to provide navigation, pointing, clock, timing, and observation capabilities. Since we're going to be having the Moon Base, we definitely want to see what's going on in very detail from the assets on the ground, and from the assets on top. So that's the first constellation. We're actually envisioning more than one. So we're exploring it. The first one was kind of more traditional type of requirements. We are exploring how we can be more flexible, and allow for industry to be innovative, and give us the maximum capability.
(01:06:28)
We're going to have so many assets on the surface. We want to look at what's happening real-time for all of them. So the amount of bandwidth requirements and needs is going to be high. There's also interest in international partners to potentially provide some. So we will make that determination on how many and when coming up pretty soon, but we already have one. Certainly now we're going to have to... We'll be soliciting for that in the near future, and then we'll go from there. And certainly, the first one focused on comm, the rest, multi-use.
George (01:07:01):
We have time for one more question that'll come from the phone bridge from Mike Wall with space.com.
Mike Wall (01:07:09):
Thank you all. Yeah, this one's for Carlos. Like you said in that phase three vision for the Moon Base, it's going to cover several hundred square miles. I'm just wondering, what does that look like? Is this just where the far-flung assets will be spaced out? That's what counts as covering hundreds of square miles, or do you anticipate having habitation modules just kind of peppered in with that? And what's the advantage of having such an extensive far-flung lunar base with such far-flung assets? Thank you.
Carlos Garcia-Galan (01:07:40):
Great question for our chief architect.
Nujoud Merancy (01:07:44):
Yeah. So I think there's a very important point about the moon, which is, there's no one spot that does all the exploration objectives. There's no one spot that covers all the science, all the technology, all the habitation needs of the surface. And even within the local area, you have to consider the terrain. So you'll have the habitats on the tops of the hills where they get sunlight, power systems, nuclear systems need to be a kilometer or more away for the radiation protection. So all of these things, when you start putting them together, end up sprawling a little bit more like a city as you start building it out. And so to then have power in remote areas where you might be doing your In-Situ Resource Utilization, the aggregate mining looking for water ice, or science operations in a different location. To accomplish all that is before us requires a significant amount of distribution of assets, capabilities, and systems to do the things we're looking to do on the moon, to do the exploration, and return that benefit to humanity.
Carlos Garcia-Galan (01:08:43):
Great answer. Thank you. The only thing I'll add is, it's been very starking to me how little we know from what we want to accomplish. We're going to want to explore different sites to really maximize the mix of scientific objectives and viability of a permanent presence, a permanent lunar base. By phase three, we may end up with different locations where we want to have some kind of habitation capability. So all of that, we don't want to necessarily declare now. We want to learn, we want to experiment, and we're going to build on the knowledge to start establishing the key infrastructure where we think we're going to work.
George (01:09:22):
Thank you. That concludes today's news conference. Thank you to all the media who joined us, and for your continued coverage of America's establishment of Humanity's First Lunar Outpost. As a reminder, you can follow along with the missions at nasa.gov/moonbase. Thank you, and we'll see you next time.