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Read this news release in English here.

Como parte de su evento “Ignition” (Encendido) celebrado el martes, la NASA anunció una serie de iniciativas transformadoras a nivel de toda la agencia, diseñadas para cumplir con la Política Espacial Nacional del presidente Donald J. Trump y promover el liderazgo estadounidense en el espacio. Estas acciones reflejan la urgencia del momento, pero también la tremenda oportunidad que se ofrece para la ciencia y los descubrimientos capaces de transformar el mundo.

“La NASA tiene el compromiso de lograr, una vez más, lo casi imposible: regresar a la Luna antes de que finalice el mandato del presidente Trump, construir una base lunar, establecer una presencia permanente y llevar a cabo las demás acciones necesarias para garantizar el liderazgo estadounidense en el espacio. Por ello, resulta esencial que salgamos de un evento como Ignition con una total alineación en torno al imperativo nacional que constituye nuestra misión colectiva. El reloj avanza en esta competencia entre grandes potencias, y el éxito o el fracaso se medirán en meses, no en años”, dijo el administrador de la NASA, Jared Isaacman. “Si concentramos los extraordinarios recursos de la NASA en los objetivos de la Política Espacial Nacional, eliminamos los obstáculos innecesarios que frenan el progreso y liberamos el potencial de nuestra fuerza laboral y el poderío industrial de nuestra nación y de nuestros socios, entonces el regreso a la Luna y la construcción de una base parecerán insignificantes en comparación con lo que seremos capaces de lograr en los próximos años.”

El Administrador Asociado de la NASA, Amit Kshatriya, dijo: “Hoy estamos alineando a la NASA en torno a esta misión. En la Luna, estamos adoptando una arquitectura enfocada y por fases que desarrolla capacidades un alunizaje tras otro, de manera incremental y en consonancia con nuestros socios industriales e internacionales. En la órbita terrestre baja [LEO, por sus siglas en inglés], estamos identificando en qué áreas se encuentra el mercado y dónde no, reconociendo el inmenso valor de la Estación Espacial Internacional y desarrollando una transición que fomente un ecosistema comercial competitivo, en lugar de imponer un resultado único que el mercado no pueda sostener. En nuestras misiones científicas, estamos creando oportunidades en la superficie lunar para investigadores y estudiantes de todo el país y, con el Reactor Espacial 1 Freedom (SR-1 Freedom, por sus siglas en inglés), estamos finalmente situando la propulsión nuclear en una trayectoria que la lleva fuera del laboratorio y hacia el espacio profundo. Y todo esto es posible invirtiendo en nuestra gente, reincorporando habilidades críticas a la agencia, poniendo a nuestros equipos allí donde se construyen las máquinas y creando vías reales para la siguiente generación de líderes de la NASA. Nuestra fuerza laboral es la joya de la NASA y, por parte de sus líderes, necesita objetivos claros para sus misiones, las herramientas para ejecutarlas y que se les deje trabajar sin interferencias. De esto trata Ignition.”

El regreso a la Luna

Estos anuncios se basan en las recientes actualizaciones del programa Artemis, las cuales incluyen la estandarización de la configuración del cohete Sistema de Lanzamiento Espacial, la incorporación de una misión adicional en 2027 y la realización de al menos un alunizaje en la superficie cada año a partir de entonces. En el marco de esta arquitectura previamente actualizada, la misión Artemis III —programada para 2027— se centrará en poner a prueba los sistemas integrados y las capacidades operativas en la órbita terrestre, como paso previo al alunizaje de Artemis IV.

Más allá de Artemis V, la NASA anunció el 24 de marzo que comenzará a incorporar más hardware adquirido comercialmente y reutilizable para llevar a cabo misiones tripuladas a la superficie lunar frecuentes y a un costo asequible, con el objetivo inicial de efectuar alunizajes cada seis meses, y el potencial de aumentar esta frecuencia a medida que maduren las capacidades.

Para lograr una presencia humana duradera en la Luna, la NASA también anunció un enfoque por fases para la construcción de una base lunar. Como parte de esta estrategia, la agencia tiene la intención de poner en pausa el proyecto Gateway en su forma actual y reorientar su enfoque hacia una infraestructura que permita mantener operaciones continuas en la superficie. A pesar de los desafíos que presentan algunos componentes del hardware existente, la agencia reutilizará el equipamiento utilizable y aprovechará los compromisos de sus socios internacionales para apoyar estos objetivos.

En los próximos días, la NASA publicará Solicitudes de Información y borradores de Solicitudes de Propuestas (RFI y RFP, respectivamente, por sus siglas en inglés) para garantizar el avance continuo en el cumplimiento de los objetivos nacionales.

Construcción de la base lunar

El plan de la NASA para establecer una presencia lunar sostenida se desarrollará en tres fases preconcebidas.

• Fase uno: Construir, ensayar, aprender
  La NASA pasará de la ejecución de misiones con diferentes objetivos puntuales y poco frecuentes hacia un enfoque modular y repetible. Mediante los transportes del programa de Servicios Comerciales de Carga Útil Lunar (CLPS, por sus siglas en inglés) y el programa de vehículos para terreno lunar, la agencia aumentará el ritmo de la actividad lunar, enviando rovers, instrumentos y demostraciones tecnológicas que impulsen la movilidad, la generación de energía (incluyendo unidades de calefacción por radioisótopos y generadores termoeléctricos de radioisótopos), las comunicaciones, la navegación, las operaciones en la superficie y una amplia gama de investigaciones científicas.

• Fase dos: Establecimiento de la infraestructura inicial
  Con base en las lecciones aprendidas de las misiones anteriores, la NASA avanza hacia la obtención de una infraestructura semi-habitable y una logística permanente. Esta fase respalda las operaciones recurrentes de los astronautas en la superficie e incorpora importantes contribuciones internacionales, entre las que se encuentra el vehículo explorador presurizado de la JAXA (Agencia de Exploración Aeroespacial de Japón) y, potencialmente, otras cargas útiles científicas, rovers y capacidades de infraestructura y transporte de los socios colaboradores.

• Fase tres: Habilitar una presencia humana de larga duración
  A medida que entren en funcionamiento los sistemas de aterrizaje humano con capacidad de carga, la NASA enviará la infraestructura más pesada necesaria para establecer una presencia humana continua en la Luna, marcando de esta manera la transición de expediciones periódicas a una base lunar permanente. Esto incluirá los Hábitats Multiuso de la ASI (Agencia Espacial Italiana), el Vehículo Utilitario Lunar de la CSA (Agencia Espacial Canadiense) y oportunidades para hacer contribuciones adicionales en los ámbitos de habitabilidad, movilidad en la superficie y logística.

Garantizar la presencia estadounidense en la órbita terrestre baja

A la vez que desarrolla una arquitectura lunar sostenible, la NASA también reafirma su compromiso con la órbita terrestre baja. Durante más de dos décadas, la Estación Espacial Internacional ha servido como un laboratorio orbital de clase mundial, haciendo posibles más de 4.000 investigaciones científicas, brindando apoyo a más de 5.000 investigadores y recibiendo a visitantes de 26 países. El diseño, desarrollo y construcción de la estación espacial requirieron 37 vuelos de transbordadores espaciales, 160 caminatas espaciales, dos décadas de trabajo y más de 100.000 millones de dólares. Este laboratorio orbital no puede operar indefinidamente. La transición hacia estaciones comerciales debe ser reflexiva, deliberada y estructurada para apoyar el éxito a largo plazo de esta industria.

La NASA busca presentar y solicitar la opinión de la industria sobre una estrategia adicional para la órbita terrestre baja que mantiene todas las vías actuales, al tiempo que incorpora un enfoque por fases, anclado a la Estación Espacial Internacional, con el fin de evitar allí cualquier interrupción en la presencia humana estadounidense y consolidar un ecosistema comercial robusto. En el marco de este enfoque alternativo, la NASA adquiriría un Módulo Central de propiedad gubernamental que se acoplaría a la estación espacial, seguido de módulos comerciales que serían validados utilizando las capacidades de la Estación Espacial Internacional para, posteriormente, desacoplarse y operar en vuelo libre. Una vez consolidadas las capacidades técnicas y operativas, y que se materialice la demanda del mercado, las estaciones se desacoplarían y la NASA pasaría a ser uno de los muchos clientes que adquieren servicios comerciales. Para estimular la economía orbital, la NASA ampliaría las oportunidades para la industria, incluyendo misiones de astronautas privados, la venta de asientos de comandante, misiones conjuntas, concursos para el desarrollo de diferentes módulos y premios basados en competencias.

El miércoles 25 de marzo se dará inicio a un proceso de RFI dirigido a la industria, con el objetivo de orientar la definición de las estructuras de colaboración, financiación y mitigación de riesgos.

Avances en descubrimientos transformadores con misiones científicas actuales y en desarrollo

En una edad de oro de exploración y descubrimiento, la NASA aprovecha al máximo cada oportunidad para llevar la ciencia al espacio. El telescopio espacial James Webb continúa transformando nuestra comprensión del universo primitivo; la sonda solar Parker ha volado a través de la atmósfera del Sol; la NASA ha demostrado su capacidad para defender el planeta mediante la desviación de asteroides; y los datos de ciencias de la Tierra son utilizados ampliamente por las empresas de Estados Unidos, el sector agrícola estadounidense y en labores de socorro en caso de desastres. En la Estación Espacial Internacional, la NASA lleva a cabo experimentos pioneros en el ámbito de la ciencia cuántica.

Las oportunidades futuras impulsarán el liderazgo de Estados Unidos en la ciencia espacial. El telescopio espacial Nancy Grace, cuyo lanzamiento está previsto para tan pronto como este otoño boreal, ampliará nuestra comprensión de la energía oscura y ha establecido un nuevo estándar para la gestión de grandes misiones científicas. La misión Dragonfly lanzará en 2028 un octocóptero de propulsión nuclear que llegará a Titán —una de las lunas de Saturno— en 2034 para explorar su complejo entorno, rico en compuestos orgánicos. En 2028, la NASA lanzará y enviará a Marte el rover Rosalind Franklin de la ESA (Agencia Espacial Europea), el cual llevará el espectrómetro aportado por la NASA para el instrumento Analizador de moléculas orgánicas en Marte; esto podría dar lugar a la detección y el análisis de materia orgánica más avanzados que se hayan llevado a cabo en el planeta rojo. Una nueva misión de ciencias de la Tierra, cuyo lanzamiento está programado para el próximo año, medirá por primera vez la evolución de la dinámica interna de las tormentas convectivas con el fin de mejorar la predicción de eventos meteorológicos extremos con hasta seis horas de antelación.

La agencia ha dado detalles de cómo los avances en la ciencia lunar también se verán propiciados por la construcción de la Base Lunar y sustentarán la futura exploración de la Luna y Marte. Con un ritmo acelerado del programa de CLPS —el cual tiene como objetivo efectuar hasta 30 alunizajes robóticos a partir de 2027—, la NASA está agilizando el envío de ciencia y tecnología a la superficie lunar. Habrá numerosas oportunidades para el transporte de cargas útiles —incluyendo rovers, vehículos exploradores propulsados por cohetes o hoppers, y drones— y se recibirán con agrado las contribuciones de la industria, el ámbito académico y los socios internacionales. Entre las cargas útiles a corto plazo se encuentran el rover VIPER y la misión LuSEE Night. El 24 de marzo se publicará una RFI en la que se requerirán cargas útiles capaces de dar apoyo a los objetivos científicos y tecnológicos de la NASA para los vuelos adicionales previstos para 2027 y 2028. Esto permitirá a estudiantes e investigadores de todo el país trabajar en instrumentos científicos destinados a ser utilizados en la superficie de la Luna en los próximos años. Esta RFI también solicitará cargas útiles para su incorporación en futuras misiones a Marte, que incluyen el establecimiento de la Red de Telecomunicaciones de Marte y una misión de demostración de tecnología nuclear.

La agencia tiene planes de asociarse con organizaciones de investigación filantrópicas y con financiamiento privado que compartan objetivos en el campo de las ciencias del espacio.

Otras RFI que han sido publicadas el 24 de marzo reforzarán las asociaciones bajo el modelo de “La ciencia como un servicio” y las capacidades comerciales, lo que permitirá a la NASA optimizar las operaciones de su legado y concentrar sus inversiones en aquellas misiones transformadoras que solo la agencia puede liderar.

Por último, la NASA revelará un par de imágenes inéditas captadas por los telescopios espaciales James Webb y Hubble. Estas imágenes, tanto en longitudes de onda infrarrojas como visibles, muestran el planeta Saturno con un nivel de detalle sin precedentes.

Estados Unidos avanza en el uso de energía nuclear en el espacio

Además de estas misiones científicas, tras décadas de estudio y en respuesta a la Política Espacial Nacional, la NASA anunció un importante paso adelante para llevar la energía y la propulsión nucleares de los laboratorios al espacio.

La NASA lanzará hacia Marte el SR-1 Freedom, la primera nave espacial interplanetaria de propulsión nuclear, antes de finales de 2028, demostrando así sus avances en la propulsión eléctrica nuclear en el espacio profundo. La propulsión eléctrica nuclear ofrece una capacidad extraordinaria para el transporte eficiente de masa en el espacio profundo y hace posible misiones de alta potencia más allá de Júpiter, donde los paneles solares no son eficaces.

Cuando la astronave SR-1 Freedom llegue a Marte, desplegará la carga útil Skyfall —compuesta por helicópteros de la clase Ingenuity— para continuar explorando el planeta rojo. SR-1 Freedom dará inicio a un historial de vuelo para hardware nuclear, sentará precedentes regulatorios y para el lanzamiento, y activará la base industrial para futuros sistemas de energía por fisión nuclear destinados a misiones de propulsión, de superficie y de larga duración. La NASA y su socio, el Departamento de Energía de Estados Unidos, desbloquearán las capacidades necesarias para una exploración sostenida más allá de la Luna y para futuros viajes a Marte y al sistema solar exterior.

Ninguno de estos proyectos puede tener éxito sin la fuerza laboral de la NASA. Tal como se anunció anteriormente, la agencia está reconstruyendo sus competencias básicas, transformando miles de puestos de contratistas en cargos de la función pública y restableciendo las capacidades de ingeniería, técnicas y operativas que se esperan de la organización espacial líder en el mundo.

La NASA está ampliando las oportunidades para pasantes y profesionales al inicio de su carrera y, en colaboración con la Oficina de Gestión de Personal de Estados Unidos y NASA Force, está creando nuevas vías de acceso para que el talento experimentado de la industria preste servicio mediante nombramientos de duración determinada. Asimismo, la agencia busca crear oportunidades para que los empleados de la NASA adquieran una experiencia valiosa trabajando dentro de la industria espacial más avanzada tecnológicamente de la historia.

Los cambios anunciados el 24 de marzo serán implementados durante los próximos meses, y los equipos de personal de toda la agencia garantizarán una transición fluida mientras se impulsan programas y alianzas clave.

La NASA integrará a expertos en la materia a lo largo de toda la cadena de suministros —en cada proveedor principal, subcontratista y componente de ruta crítica— para cuestionar supuestos, resolver problemas, acelerar la producción y ayudar a garantizar que se logren los resultados adecuados.

Mediante estas reformas, la NASA está fortaleciendo su capacidad para cumplir con la Política Espacial Nacional del presidente y garantizar la continua superioridad estadounidense en el espacio.

Obtén más información (en inglés) sobre las noticias del plan Ignition en línea:

https://www.nasa.gov/ignition

Camille Gallo / George Alderman / María José Viñas
Sede central de la NASA, Washington
202-358-1600
camille.m.gallo@nasa.gov / george.a.alderman@nasa.gov / maria-jose.vinasgarcia@nasa.gov

2 Min Read

NASA Research Proposes Technology to Seek Earth-Like Exoplanets

As NASA seeks to understand the mysteries of the universe, the agency is advancing technologies to locate and explore Earth-like planets far beyond our solar system. A key element of this research involves observing reflected light from exoplanets, which can reveal indicators of Earth-like features such as water and oxygen. However, detecting this faint reflected light with current telescope technology remains a significant challenge due to the overwhelming brightness of nearby stars and other celestial objects.

NASA’s Hybrid Observatory for Earth-like Exoplanets (HOEE) concept presents a potential solution by combining an orbiting starshade with a large ground-based telescope to suppress starlight and enable direct imaging of exoplanets.

We have pioneered a transformative approach to the search for life beyond our solar system by deploying a space-borne starshade to cast a near perfect shadow over Earth’s largest telescopes, we suppress stellar glare before it ever enters the atmosphere.

John Mather

HOEE principal investigator at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland

Recent research, published earlier this year and featured on the cover of Monday’s Nature Astronomy March issue, suggests the HOEE concept could produce much sharper images allowing us to see entire exoplanetary systems and to clearly separate planet images from each other as well as from interference of dust clouds, the host star, and from the starshade itself. Its extreme sensitivity could enable the detection of small planets, and even large dwarf planets. Most notably, it could enable high-fidelity, wide-band spectroscopy, a scientific technique that can be used to study the interaction between matter and light, improving the path to identifying the chemical signatures of life.

For decades, the starshade was a novel concept. Now, NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program is turning that idea into a buildable reality. Through a series of targeted studies, NASA researchers are investigating whether it could be practical to build and develop an engineering roadmap.

NASA’s Hybrid Observatory for Earth-like Exoplanets (HOEE) is a three-time NIAC award recipient, having received Phase I awards in 2022 and 2025. The HOEE concept is supported by researchers at NASA Goddard, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, and NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley.

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Solar System

NASA is joining international partners to hunt for ice on the Moon in support of future human exploration. The agency is providing a water-detecting instrument, the Neutron Spectrometer System (NSS), to the Lunar Polar Exploration (LUPEX) mission led by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation).  

The instrument, which detects ice under the lunar surface, will be installed on LUPEX’s lunar rover planned to arrive at the Moon no earlier than 2028. NASA’s support of LUPEX is part of an ongoing effort to identify and characterize lunar water and other materials that easily evaporate near the Moon’s South Pole. 

Water is a critical material for NASA’s plans to develop an enduring presence on the Moon. Instead of relying solely on resources carried from Earth, astronauts could use the Moon’s water for breathable air, rocket fuel, and more. The first step is to find deposits of meaningful quantities of water close to the surface to mark potential landing areas for future astronauts. The water on the Moon is mostly found as molecules within lunar regolith, the dusty and rocky material that covers the Moon’s surface, but there may be ice deposits below the surface of the lunar South Pole. Once we better understand the quantity and quality of the available resources, we can learn how to harness it for exploration.  

“There is currently a gap in our understanding of how lunar ice is distributed at small scales, from 10s of centimeters up to 10s of kilometers,” said Rick Elphic, NSS lead at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, where the instrument was developed in collaboration with Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, California. “The only way to understand the ‘where’ and ‘how much’ of lunar ice is by exploring on the surface at these scales.”  

How neutrons signal water 

Scientists can search for water on the Moon without drilling into the surface. Instead, they hunt for concentrations of hydrogen, the H in H₂O. Past missions in lunar orbit have found signs of water at the Moon’s poles, but ground missions are needed to build detailed maps of location and quantity.  

Instruments like NSS can infer the presence of hydrogen by detecting interactions with particles called neutrons. Neutrons are constantly rattling around in the lunar soil, and they’re about the same size as hydrogen atoms. When these two particles interact, fewer medium-energy neutrons are ejected from the soil. The absence of medium-energy neutrons suggests more of the particles are interacting with hydrogen underground, a deficit that can be measured with the right tools.  

The NSS instrument uses a “gas proportional counter” to detect neutrons bouncing out of the lunar soil. It features two tubes that contain a rare gas called helium-3 that is very sensitive to neutrons. When neutrons strike the helium-3 gas atoms, the gas produces electrical pulses that can be counted to infer the presence and quantity of hydrogen up to three feet underground.  

Series of water-hunters 

Ongoing investigation of the Moon’s water will inform how astronauts might access it in the future. To that end, NASA researchers at Ames have developed a series of NSS instruments intended to ride aboard different missions to investigate sites at the Moon’s South Pole.  

The first Moon-bound NSS instrument in the series was carried aboard Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander, Astrobotic Peregrine Mission One, which launched in January 2024. That mission came to an end without touching down on the lunar surface, but the NSS aboard powered on and operated on multiple days over the course of the 10-day mission. These operations successfully captured data about the particle background of deep space, which strongly supported NSS operations on future missions.  

NASA’s VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) mission, part of the agency’s Artemis campaign, will carry another NSS. As part of NASA’s ongoing Commercial Lunar Payload Services effort, a fourth NSS instrument will ride aboard the MoonRanger “micro rover” developed by Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.  

“The three upcoming NSS rover expeditions will tell us what kinds of places on the Moon are most likely to host ice,” Elphic said. “Missions to the lunar surface can then be planned to similar sites where ice can be found.” 

The Neutron Spectrometer System was jointly developed by NASA’s Ames Research Center and Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, California. 

For more information on the science of water on the Moon, visit: 

https://science.nasa.gov/moon/moon-water-and-ices

Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
Headquarters, Washington 
240-285-5155 / 240-419-1732 
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov  

Arezu Sarvestani 
Ames Research Center, Silicon Valley  
650-613-2334 
arezu.sarvestani@nasa.gov 

As part of its “Ignition” event on Tuesday, NASA announced a series of transformative agencywide initiatives designed to achieve President Donald J. Trump’s National Space Policy and advance American leadership in space. These actions reflect the urgency of the moment, but also the tremendous opportunity ahead for world-changing science and discovery.

“NASA is committed to achieving the near‑impossible once again, to return to the Moon before the end of President Trump’s term, build a Moon base, establish an enduring presence, and do the other things needed to ensure American leadership in space. This is why it is essential we leave an event like Ignition with complete alignment on the national imperative that is our collective mission. The clock is running in this great‑power competition, and success or failure will be measured in months, not years,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “If we concentrate NASA’s extraordinary resources on the objectives of the National Space Policy, clear away needless obstacles that impede progress, and unleash the workforce and industrial might of our nation and partners, then returning to the Moon and building a base will seem pale in comparison to what we will be capable of accomplishing in the years ahead.”

NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya said, “Today we are aligning NASA around the mission. On the Moon, we are shifting to a focused, phased architecture that builds capability landing by landing, incrementally, and in alignment with our industrial and international partners. In low Earth orbit (LEO), we are recognizing where the market is and where it isn’t, recognizing the incredible value of the International Space Station, and building a transition that builds a competitive commercial ecosystem rather than forcing a single outcome the market cannot support. In our science missions, we are opening the lunar surface to researchers and students nationwide, and with Space Reactor‑1 Freedom, we are finally putting nuclear propulsion on a trajectory out of the laboratory and into deep space. And this is all possible by investing in our people, bringing critical skills back into the agency, putting our teams where the machines are being built, and creating real pathways for the next generation of NASA leaders. Our workforce is the jewel of NASA, and from their leaders, they need clear mission goals, the tools to execute, and to get out of their way. This is what Ignition is about.”

Going back to the Moon

The announcements build on recent updates to the Artemis program, including standardizing the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket configuration, adding an additional mission in 2027, and undertaking at least one surface landing every year thereafter. Under this previously updated architecture, Artemis III – scheduled for 2027 – will focus on testing integrated systems and operational capabilities in Earth orbit in advance of the Artemis IV lunar landing.

Looking beyond Artemis V, NASA announced March 24 it will begin to incorporate more commercially procured and reusable hardware to undertake frequent and affordable crewed missions to the lunar surface, initially targeting landings every six months, with the potential to increase cadence as capabilities mature.

To achieve an enduring human presence on the Moon, NASA also announced a phased approach to building a lunar base. As part of this strategy, the agency intends to pause Gateway in its current form and shift focus to infrastructure that enables sustained surface operations. Despite challenges with some existing hardware, the agency will repurpose applicable equipment and leverage international partner commitments to support these objectives.

In the coming days, NASA will release Requests for Information (RFIs) and draft Requests for Proposals (RFPs) to ensure continued progress in meeting national objectives.

Building the Moon Base

NASA’s plan for establishing a sustained lunar presence will roll out in three deliberate phases.

• Phase One: Build, Test, Learn
  NASA shifts from bespoke, infrequent missions to a repeatable, modular approach. Through CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) deliveries and the LTV (Lunar Terrain Vehicle) program, the agency will increase the tempo of lunar activity, sending rovers, instruments, and technology demonstrations that advance mobility, power generation (including radioisotope heater units and radioisotope thermoelectric generators), communications, navigation, surface operations, and a wide range of scientific investigations.

• Phase Two: Establish Early Infrastructure
  With lessons from early missions in hand, NASA moves toward semi‑habitable infrastructure and regular logistics. This phase supports recurring astronaut operations on the surface and incorporates major international contributions, including JAXA’s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) pressurized rover, and potentially other partner scientific payloads, rovers, and infrastructure/transportation capabilities.

• Phase Three: Enable Long‑Duration Human Presence
  As cargo‑capable human landing systems (HLS) come online, NASA will deliver heavier infrastructure needed for a continuous human foothold on the Moon, marking the transition from periodic expeditions to a permanent lunar base. This will include ASI’s (Italian Space Agency) Multi-purpose Habitats (MPH), CSA’s (Canadian Space Agency) Lunar Utility Vehicle, and opportunities for additional contributions in habitation, surface mobility and logistics.

Ensuring American presence in low Earth orbit

While building a sustainable lunar architecture, NASA is also reaffirming its commitment to low Earth orbit. For more than two decades, the International Space Station has served as a world‑class orbital laboratory, enabling more than 4,000 research investigations, supporting more than 5,000 researchers, and hosting visitors from 26 countries. The space station required 37 shuttle flights, 160 spacewalks, two decades, and more than $100 billion to design, develop, and build. The orbital laboratory cannot operate indefinitely. The transition to commercial stations must be thoughtful, deliberate, and structured to support long‑term industry success.

NASA is introducing and seeking industry feedback on an additional LEO strategy that preserves all current pathways while adding a phased, International Space Station‑anchored approach to avoid any gap in U.S. human presence and mature a robust commercial ecosystem. Under this alternative approach, NASA would procure a government‑owned Core Module that attaches to the space station, followed by commercial modules that are validated using International Space Station capabilities and later detach into free flight. After maturing technical and operational capabilities and market demand is realized, the stations would detach and NASA would be one of many customers purchasing commercial services. To stimulate the orbital economy, NASA would expand industry opportunities, including private astronaut missions, commander seat sales, joint missions, multiple module competitions, and prize‑based awards.

An industry RFI opens Wednesday, March 25, to inform partnership structures, financing, and risk mitigation.

Advancing world-changing discovery with current, developing science missions

In a Golden Age of exploration and discovery, NASA takes full advantage of every opportunity to get science into space. The James Webb Space Telescope continues to transform our understanding of the early universe, Parker Solar Probe has flown through the atmosphere of the Sun, NASA has shown it can defend the planet by deflecting asteroids, and Earth science data is used extensively by American companies, U.S. agriculture, and disaster relief. On the International Space Station, NASA is conducting groundbreaking experiments in quantum science.

Future opportunities will advance U.S. leadership in space science. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, launching as early as this fall, will advance our understanding of dark energy, and has created a new standard for the management of large science missions. Dragonfly will launch a nuclear-powered octocopter in 2028, arriving at Saturn’s moon Titan in 2034 to explore its complex, organic-rich environment. In 2028, NASA will launch and deliver ESA’s (European Space Agency) Rosalind Franklin Rover to Mars, with NASA’s contributed mass spectrometer for the Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA) instrument, which may result in the most advanced detection and analysis of organic matter ever conducted on Mars. A new Earth science mission launching next year will measure for the first time the evolution of the dynamics within convective storms to improve the prediction of extreme weather events up to six hours before the storm occurs.

The agency detailed how advancements in lunar science also will be afforded by the build out of the Moon Base and underpin future Moon and Mars exploration. With an accelerated CLPS cadence, targeting up to 30 robotic landings starting in 2027, NASA is expediting delivery of science and technology to the lunar surface. There will be many opportunities for payload delivery including rovers, hoppers, and drones with contributions welcomed from industry, academia, and international partners. Near-term payloads include the VIPER rover and the LuSEE‑Night mission. An RFI will be released March 24 that calls for payloads capable of supporting NASA’s science and technology goals for additional 2027 and 2028 flights. It will enable students and researchers across the country to work on scientific instruments for use on the surface of the Moon in the years ahead. This RFI also will solicit payloads incorporated on future missions to Mars including the Mars Telecom Network (MTN) and a nuclear technology demonstration mission.

The agency intends to partner with philanthropic and privately funded research organizations with shared objectives in space science.

Other RFIs released March 24 will strengthen “Science as a Service” partnerships and commercial capabilities, allowing NASA to streamline legacy operations and focus investment on the transformational missions only the agency can lead.

Finally, NASA will unveil a previously unseen pair of images from the James Webb and Hubble Space Telescopes. These images show the planet Saturn in unprecedented detail in both infrared and visible wavelengths.

America underway on nuclear power in space

In addition to these scientific missions, after decades of study and in response to the National Space Policy, NASA announced a major step forward in bringing nuclear power and propulsion from the lab to space.

NASA will launch the Space Reactor‑1 Freedom, the first nuclear powered interplanetary spacecraft, to Mars before the end of 2028, demonstrating advanced nuclear electric propulsion in deep space. Nuclear electric propulsion provides an extraordinary capability for efficient mass transport in deep space and enables high power missions beyond Jupiter where solar arrays are not effective.

When SR-1 Freedom reaches Mars, it will deploy the Skyfall payload of Ingenuity‑class helicopters to continue exploring the Red Planet. SR-1 Freedom will establish flight heritage nuclear hardware, set regulatory and launch precedent, and activate the industrial base for future fission power systems across propulsion, surface, and long‑duration missions. NASA and its U.S. Department of Energy partner will unlock the capabilities required for sustained exploration beyond the Moon and eventual journeys to Mars and the outer solar system.

None of these endeavors can succeed without the NASA workforce. As previously announced, the agency is rebuilding its core competencies, converting thousands of contractor positions to civil service, and restoring the engineering, technical, and operational strengths expected of the world’s premier space organization.

NASA is expanding opportunities for interns and early‑career professionals and, in partnership with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management and NASA Force, is creating new pathways for experienced industry talent to serve through term‑based appointments. The agency also is seeking to open opportunities for NASA employees to gain valuable experience working within the most technologically advanced space industry in history.

The changes announced on March 24 will be implemented during the coming months, with teams agencywide ensuring a smooth transition while advancing key programs and partnerships.

NASA will embed subject‑matter experts across the supply chain – at every major vendor, subcontractor, and critical‑path component – to challenge assumptions, solve problems, accelerate production, and help ensure the right outcomes are achieved.

Through these reforms, NASA is strengthening its ability to deliver on the President’s National Space Policy and ensure continued American superiority in space.

Learn more about NASA’s Ignition news online:

https://www.nasa.gov/ignition

-end-

Camille Gallo / George Alderman
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
camille.m.gallo@nasa.gov / george.a.alderman@nasa.gov

A team of NASA researchers is developing new types of optical masks that could help enable the many orders of magnitude of starlight suppression needed for future space observatories to pick out very faint habitable exoplanets from the far brighter glare of their stellar hosts. 

One of the goals of NASA’s Astrophysics Division is to carry out a census of nearby solar systems to search for habitable worlds around nearby stars, and ultimately, to determine whether life might be present outside our own solar system. Because other stars are so far away, we must rely on remote observations of these systems, and in particular, on the spectroscopy of any planets present (i.e., on the examination of their color characteristics to determine their atmospheric characteristics). NASA’s future Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) mission will be the first telescope designed specifically to search for signs of life on planets orbiting other stars.  

Significant progress has been made over the past couple of decades in observing the brightest and often largest exoplanets, especially those that happen to pass in front of their stars, allowing us to see the planet’s atmospheric constituents that absorb particular colors of the host star’s light. However, most exoplanets are not so favorably aligned; to detect them, HWO must be able to distinguish the very small bit of light coming from an exoplanet from the overwhelming glare of the very bright nearby host star. For example, an Earth-like planet orbiting a star similar to our Sun would be only about 1 ten billionth as bright as its host star. An apt analogy is the light from a firefly flying right next to a lighthouse! 

To see faint potentially habitable worlds in nearby solar systems, we must remove the incoming starlight to such an extent that the much smaller bit of light arriving from the exoplanet can be distinguished. Unfortunately, telescopes don’t produce perfect point-like images of stars. Two contributing factors–scattering and diffraction—blur and spread the starlight across the region of the image where exoplanets are likely to be found.  

Scattering of starlight is caused by surface irregularities in the mirrors that make up the telescope’s optical system. These irregularities can be mitigated by using a high-performance adaptive optics system to correct the wavefront errors. But even with a perfectly corrected optical system, diffraction must also be mitigated.  

Diffraction is the angular spread of a light beam (or of any type of wave, including water or sound waves) that occurs as the wave passes through an aperture, such as a telescope’s light-collecting mirror. Diffraction causes the starlight to spread across the focal plane into a ringed light distribution called an Airy pattern (see figure below). Since this Airy pattern can be many times brighter than the light emitted from an exoplanet, it also needs to be removed.  

Suppression of the Airy pattern’s rings is usually done with an optical instrument known as a coronagraph. The coronagraph was invented a century ago to allow astronomers to see the faint solar corona that surrounds the Sun. When applied to other stars, a coronagraph can enable us to see faint exoplanets near their much brighter stars.  

The core component of most coronagraphs is an optical mask—a small piece of glass with a special surface coating or surface shape that is designed to either selectively attenuate or delay the light distribution making up the stellar image. One particularly promising type of optical mask is the optical vortex phase mask, which applies a phase delay that increases in proportion to the azimuthal angle around the center of the mask (see figure below). When centered on the stellar Airy pattern, the mask thus applies delays that increase along the Airy rings. 

This delay pattern, which is somewhat analogous to the helical surface of a screw thread, causes the starlight to destructively interfere in such a way that if one reimages the telescope aperture downstream of the vortex mask, no starlight remains inside that aperture image. Instead, the starlight is only seen outside of where the filled telescope aperture image is expected to be, where it can then be easily blocked by a simple aperture stop, as is used in photography. (The figure below depicts images of a telescope aperture in advance of and downstream of the vortex mask.) Since the light from the exoplanet typically hits the vortex mask off-center, it propagates unchanged through the aperture stop to reach the detector, where it can be successfully imaged. 

Fabricating vortex masks is challenging since they must be able to simultaneously reject starlight over a wide range of wavelengths. A team of technologists at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is investigating a number of different technologies that could be used make optical vortex masks with the desired characteristics. To date, the most promising approach uses a flat layer of a specially prepared liquid crystal polymer (LCP) to provide the required optical delay pattern. The long molecular polymer chains making up the LCP layer can be specifically oriented to induce different delays in the two polarization directions of light. (Polarization refers to the direction of oscillation of the electric field vector in a propagating light wave, i.e., whether it is up-down or left-right). Depending on whether the electric field vector lies along or perpendicular to the long LCP axis, the light experiences different delays.  

Moreover, if the LCP layer is laid down in a pattern wherein the long LCP axis rotates while following a circular path around the mask’s center (reaching a multiple of a full molecular rotation in a full circuit around the center), the desired delay pattern can be achieved (see figure below).  The main advantage of such masks is that since their phase delays are induced geometrically (i.e., by a purely geometric orientation pattern) they are wavelength-independent to first order, and can reject starlight over a wide range of wavelengths.  

The JPL team has recently advanced these masks to the point where the light from an artificial “star” can be rejected in the laboratory to about one part in a billion (with the single-wavelength rejection even better), which is within about an order of magnitude of the ultimate 10 billion-to-one rejection needed for the HWO. The team is currently working on further mask improvements to achieve that last factor of ten.  

At the same time, the team is also looking into alternative mask approaches with different advantages and disadvantages. In particular, they have been revisiting the idea of shaping the surface of a piece of glass to look like a helical turn of a screw. However, this design will only work across multiple wavelengths if one combines several different pieces of glass, each with its own screw height, and if further deformations of the surface shape are also implemented. Moreover, since only a rather small number of materials seem to have the characteristics required for this design, it is not yet clear what ultimate performance can be achieved by this technique. As a result, the team is also looking into fabricating their own artificial materials (i.e., metamaterials) for use in such masks. Metamaterials are thin layers of tiny nanoposts (see figure below) in which the nanopost heights, widths, shapes, and spacings can be selected to generate material properties that do not exist in nature. While this approach is very new, it is conceivable that it could be used to tailor materials that have the characteristics needed to make optical vortex masks work over a wide range of wavelengths.    

Optical vortex coronagraphs are becoming increasingly popular in the hunt for larger (brighter) exoplanets using ground-based telescopes, but seeing dimmer Earth-like exoplanets with a space-based telescope such as HWO will require vortex masks with vastly improved starlight rejection capabilities. While the liquid crystal polymer approach is the clear frontrunner, such masks also have limitations, so it is good that other possibilities are being investigated. These candidate technologies will be fully vetted and tested over the next few years to enable the fabrication of the optical vortex masks needed to be able to pick out and characterize nearby Earth-like exoplanets with HWO. 

For additional details, see the entry for this project on NASA TechPort. 

Project Lead(s): Eugene Serabyn, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, and Dimitri Mawet, California Institute of Technology 

Sponsoring Organization(s): NASA Astrophysics Division Strategic Astrophysics Technology (SAT) and Astrophysics Research and Analysis (APRA) programs. 

Part of this research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with NASA (80NM0018D0004)