NASA has announced that instruments designed and built by researchers at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder) have been selected for development for the Artemis IV mission, which is due to launch in 2028. The LASP proposal, called the DUst and plaSma environmenT survEyoR (DUSTER), was selected as part of NASA’s Artemis IV Deployed Instruments Program to receive $24.8 million in funding to build the instruments, which will be deployed by astronauts on the lunar surface.
Scientists are seeking to better understand the dust and plasma environment around the Artemis IV landing site near the Moon’s South Pole. The Moon has no global magnetic field and a tenuous atmosphere, so the surface is directly exposed to the solar wind and ultraviolet radiation, causing lunar dust to be charged and readily stick to all surfaces. Lunar dust is abrasive and poses significant obstacles for space exploration: it infiltrates and degrades equipment and spacesuits, obstructs solar panels and reduces their output, causes overheating of thermal radiators, and may even endanger astronaut health if inhaled.
“We need to develop a complete picture of the dust and plasma environment at the lunar south pole and how it varies over time and location to ensure astronaut safety and the operation of exploration equipment,” said DUSTER Principal Investigator Xu Wang, senior researcher at LASP and lecturer in the CU Boulder Physics Department. “By studying this environment, we gain crucial insights that will guide mitigation strategies and methods to enable long-term sustained human exploration on the Moon.”
Artemis IV will build on the Artemis III mission, which will mark humanity’s first return to the lunar surface in more than 50 years and the first mission to land humans near the lunar south pole. Artemis IV will conduct the second lunar landing of the Artemis program.
DUSTER consists of two instruments: the Electrostatic Dust Analyzer (EDA)—which will measure the charge, velocity, size, and flux of dust particles lofted from the lunar surface—and the Relaxation SOunder and differentiaL VoltagE (RESOLVE) instrument—which will characterize the average electron density above the lunar surface using plasma sounding.
The instruments will be built at LASP, which has a legacy of expertise in this type of instrumentation. Both instruments will be housed on a Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP) rover, which will be supplied by Lunar Outpost, a company based in Golden, Colorado, that develops and operates robotic systems for space exploration.
LASP brings decades of expertise developing dust and plasma instruments for NASA missions, including the Student Dust Counter instrument on the New Horizons mission to Pluto, the Surface Dust Analyzer (SUDA) instrument aboard the Europa Clipper mission now enroute to Jupiter, the Interstellar Dust Experiment (IDEX) instrument aboard the recently launched Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe mission, as well as the MAVEN Langmuir Probe and Waves (LPW) instrument at Mars.
“We are excited that LASP is contributing to the Artemis mission to deepen our knowledge of the Moon and beyond,” said LASP Director Bethany Ehlmann. “Building on LASP’s long legacy of instrumentation, we are working to safeguard U.S. astronauts and lunar infrastructure while advancing scientific research that will help unravel the mysteries of our closest celestial neighbor.”
Other LASP personnel on the project include Deputy Principal Investigator Mihaly Horanyi, and Co-Investigators David Malaspina, Laila Andersson, Jan Deca, Sean Hsu, Frank Eparvier. Other Co-Investigators are Philip Metzger of the University of Central Florida, Lucas Liuzzo of the University of California, Berkeley, and AJ Gemer of Lunar Outpost.
Wang received his doctorate in engineering physics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2005 before joining LASP as a research scientist where his areas of study include dust and plasma physics and instrument development. He is co-founder and CEO of Space Dust Research & Technologies LLC, which advances dust and plasma technologies to expedite space exploration from Earth to the Moon and beyond.
-By LASP Communications Team
Founded a decade before NASA, the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder (LASP) is revolutionizing human understanding of the cosmos. LASP is deeply committed to inspiring and educating the next generation of space explorers. From the first exploratory rocket measurements of Earth’s upper atmosphere to trailblazing observations of every planet in the solar system, LASP continues to build on its remarkable history with a nearly $1 billion portfolio of new research and engineering programs.
