CU ΒιΆΉΣ°ΤΊ NASA instruments βcriticalβ to Artemis lunar missions
From the Daily Camera: The ΒιΆΉΣ°ΤΊ is building three instruments that will fly in NASAβs Artemis missions and help prepare astronauts to land on the moon for the first time since the Apollo missions.
All three instruments will fly before the anticipated launch of Artemis 3 in 2026, which will take humans back to the moon and focus on exploring the moonβs south polar region. CU ΒιΆΉΣ°ΤΊ Assistant Professor Paul Hayne said the goal of the missions before Artemis 3 is to close βknowledge gapsβ about the moon. He and his team at CU ΒιΆΉΣ°ΤΊ are working on two instruments that hope to answer essential questions about the moon before humans land again. βThese robotic missions are critical to the success of the Artemis program, particularly the Artemis 3 mission,β Hayne said.
One of the instruments Hayne developed with colleagues and graduate students at CU ΒιΆΉΣ°ΤΊ is called the Lunar Compact Infrared Imaging System, or L-CIRiS, which is an infrared heat sensing camera. L-CIRiS will deploy to the unexplored south pole of the moon near where Artemis 3 will land.