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From left to right, NASA astronauts Andre Douglas, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronauts Jenni Gibbons, NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, and CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen pose for a photo before the Artemis II crew proceed to a media event on March 27, 2026. Douglas and Gibbons are the backup crew members for the mission; they would join the crew if a NASA or CSA astronaut, respectively, is unable to take part in the flight.

Artemis II is NASA’s first crewed mission under the Artemis program and will launch from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It will send Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen on an approximately 10-day journey around the Moon. Among other objectives, the agency will test the Orion spacecraft’s life support systems for the first time with people and lay the groundwork for future crewed Artemis missions.

Image credit: NASA/Josh Valcarcel

Summer is a busy season at Schirmacher Oasis, a rocky, ice-free plateau in Queen Maud Land, East Antarctica. Located near the grounding line of Nivlisen Ice Shelf and about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the open waters of the Lazarev Sea, the “oasis” of land amid an otherwise continuous expanse of ice is home to dozens of small ice-covered freshwater lakes and two research stations.

It’s the season when all-white snow petrels are sometimes spotted soaring over the oasis, and fuzzy south polar skua and Wilson’s storm petrel chicks grow up in sheltered crevices on its cliffs and ridges. Under constant sunlight, the plateau’s freshwater lakes come to life, supporting cyanobacterial growth and teeming with microscopic tardigrades, rotifers, and nematodes. At times, groups of Adélie penguins toddle through the oasis and attempt to breed.

The summer months are also when temperatures creep just above freezing long enough for expansive networks of seasonal melt ponds and drainage channels on and within the surrounding ice to fill with bright blue meltwater that flows north onto and across the Nivlisen Ice Shelf. The satellite image above shows seasonal melt on January 6, 2026, during the peak of the 2026 melt season.  

The Nivlisen Ice Shelf is a floating tongue that forms as glacial ice flows off Antarctica and into the waters of the Lazarev Sea. The many blue ice areas found around the oasis are snow-free areas where old, compressed glacial ice with few air bubbles has been exposed by powerful katabatic winds and sublimation. This dense ice absorbs red wavelengths of light and reflects blue wavelengths, making it appear blue. Blue ice areas are rare in Antarctica, covering about 1 percent of the continent’s surface. 

“The image captures the Nivlisen Ice Shelf during a phase of strong, system-wide hydrological connectivity,” said Geetha Priya Murugesan, a remote sensing scientist with the Jyothy Institute of Technology in Bengaluru, India. Such features aren’t always visible in optical satellite imagery, she added, noting that they are often frozen, buried under snow, or drained. “This image is notable because the ‘cerulean veins’ we see on the surface align with a deeper, persistent plumbing system that we monitor with radar.”

Murugesan and colleagues have analyzed decades of satellite data and conducted several years of field research in the area, including in 2026. Their work shows that since 2000, the surface melting caused by seasonal melt ponds and channels on the ice shelf has grown in depth, area, and volume. The depth and volume of melt features grew by a factor of 1.5, while their surface area increased by a factor of 1.2.

Murugesan thinks that the visibility of the drainage network in images like these hints at a deeper vulnerability of the ice shelf. The drainage channels trace preexisting structural weaknesses, including crevasses, that act as “hydraulic pathways” that concentrate meltwater in vulnerable zones near the grounding line, where it can weaken the ice shelf, Murugesan said.

The researchers have also linked peak melting periods like this one to atmospheric rivers and foehn winds that enhance surface melting and help route meltwater through the drainage networks. The dark color—low albedo—of the many blue ice areas surrounding the oasis contributes to drainage events by making ice surfaces less reflective, warmer, and thus more prone to summer melting, Murugesan added.                        

While Murugesan and colleagues are currently conducting a detailed analysis of the 2026 melt season to determine how it compares to past years, she said it appears to be a “strong melt event consistent with elevated melt conditions.”

NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Adam Voiland.

References & Resources

• Chen, J., et al. (2026) Interannual and Seasonal Evolution of Supraglacial Channel Networks on Nivlisen Ice Shelf, East Antarctica. Egusphere, preprint.  
• Chouksey, A., et al. (2021) Mapping and identification of ice-sheet and glacier features using optical and SAR data in parts of central Dronning Maud Land (cDML), East Antarctica. Polar Science, 30, 100740.
• EGU Blogs (2024, June 21) Blue ice in Antarctica: small extent, big science. Accessed March 26, 2026.
• Murugesan, G.P., et al. (2026) Decadal Evolution of Supraglacial Hydrology on the Nivlisen Ice Shelf: From Localized Ponding to Spatially Synchronized Hydrofracture Forcing (2015-2026). Earth ArXiv, preprint.
• Murugesan, G.P., et al. (2025) Surface Melt Assessment of Nivlisen Ice Shelf, East Antarctica via SAR Satellite Data Analysis During Austral Summer 2022-2023. In: Shukla, P.K., et al. Computer Vision and Robotics. CVR 2024. Algorithms for Intelligent Systems. (Springer, Singapore.) 
• Murugesan, G.P., et al. (2024) Monitoring of Melt Ponds and Supra-Glacial Lakes over Nivlisen Ice Shelf, East Antarctica, Using Satellite-Based Multispectral Data. Civil Engineering Innovations for Sustainable Communities with Net Zero Targets.                                                              
• Murugesan, G.P., et al. (2023) Decoding the Dynamics of Climate Change Impact: Temporal Patterns of Surface Warming and Melting on the Nivlisen Ice Shelf, Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica. Remote Sensing, 15(24), 5676. 
• Pande, A., et al. (2020) Past records and current distribution of seabirds at Larsemann Hills and Schirmacher Oasis, east Antarctica. Polar Record, 56, e40
• Ryan, P.G. (2024) Notes on the birds of Schirmacher Oasis. Marine Ornithology, 52(2).
• Tollenaar, V., et al. (2024) Where the White Continent Is Blue: Deep Learning Locates Bare Ice in Antarctica. Geophysical Research Letters, 51(3), e2023GL106285.

Listen to this audio excerpt from Erik Richards, Near Space Network Mission Manager:

For Erik Richards, supporting NASA’s first crewed Artemis mission to the Moon and back is the culmination of a career spent helping spacecraft communicate with Earth. 

Like many kids who grew up at the height of the Space Shuttle Program, Richards dreamed of spaceflight — a dream that eventually took him from the remote McMurdo Station in Antarctica to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. 

 

Most recently, his work has taken him to the agency’s White Sands Complex in New Mexico — and into a key role in America’s return to the Moon. As mission manager for NASA’s Near Space Network, Richards ensures the Artemis II crew and Orion spacecraft can communicate with Earth during liftoff and early orbit, through re-entry and splashdown. 

The Near Space Network consists of an interconnected web of relay satellites and more than 40 government and commercial ground stations stretching from Bermuda to South Africa. Together with NASA’s Deep Space Network, this global infrastructure is critical to keeping the Orion spacecraft and its four astronauts connected to mission control throughout their roughly 10-day mission. 

It’s Richards’ job to keep the many pieces of the Near Space Network operating in sync across multiple missions. He compares the system to a telephone network on Earth: invisible when everything works, critical when it doesn’t. Without communications, there’s no contact with home.  

Working with the Deep Space Network, Artemis II will rely on the Near Space Network for navigation, real-time voice communications, data transfer, and situational awareness. For Richards and the teams supporting NASA’s networks, having crew aboard makes their work more essential than ever.  

Richards’ professional journey across the Near Space Network has been key to coordinating communications across the Artemis’ three flight segments, dozens of ground stations, and hundreds of people supporting humanity’s return to the Moon. 

In the months leading up to launch, Richards has supported extensive testing, requirements development, and readiness operations to prepare the network. During the mission, he will be on console, monitoring data flow and coordinating support across NASA and its partner sites worldwide. 

The support Richards and his team provide Artemis II will carry forward to Artemis III and NASA’s goal of a sustained human presence on the lunar surface. For Richards, being part of that progression — from shuttle to the Moon and eventually Mars — connects him to his childhood love of spaceflight. 

“The most exciting part about the Artemis campaign is being part of something greater,” said Richards. “You don’t have to be an astronaut to contribute to the future of human exploration.”  

NASA has awarded Intuitive Machines of Houston, $180.4 million to deliver NASA-funded science and technology to the lunar surface as part of the agency’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis program. This lunar delivery, which includes seven payloads — five of them NASA’s — is expected to increase understanding of the chemical composition and structure of regolith, as well as the radiation environment in and around the South Pole region. This science will continue to build a sustainable human presence by future Artemis missions.

“NASA continues to progress lunar science and exploration by enabling commercial lunar landings,” said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration, Science Mission Directorate, at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “These science and technology investigations aim to support long-term sustainability and contribute to a deeper understanding of the lunar surface, test technologies, and prepare for future human missions at the South Pole.”

Intuitive Machines is responsible for delivering end-to-end payload services to the lunar surface, targeted to land at the Moon’s South Pole region in 2030. This is the fifth CLPS contract for the company, which has delivered payloads to the Moon twice with their IM-1 and IM-2 missions.

“As NASA prepares to send humans and more robotic missions to the Moon, regular CLPS deliveries will provide a better understanding of the exploration environment, accelerating progress toward establishing a long-term human presence on the Moon, setting the stage for eventual human missions to Mars,” said Adam Schlesinger, manager of the CLPS initiative at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The rovers and instruments, totaling 165 pounds (75 kilograms) in collective mass include:

• Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume Surface Studies (SCALPSS) will use enhanced stereo imaging photogrammetry, active illumination, and ejecta impact detection sensors to capture the impact of the engine exhaust plume on lunar regolith as the lander descends on the Moon’s surface. This payload flew on both Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 and Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 and captured first of its kind imagery. The high-resolution stereo images will aid in creating models to predict lunar regolith erosion and ejecta characteristics, which is important as bigger, heavier spacecraft and hardware are delivered to the Moon near each other.
  Lead organization: NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia
• Near-Infrared Volatiles Spectrometer System (NIRVSS) will observe light emitted or reflected by the lunar soil to help identify its composition. NIRVSS is designed to detect minerals and various types of ices that may be present. NIRVSS will also take high resolution images of the lunar soil and composition variability, which could help inform how ices interact with the lunar soil. The instrument successfully powered on and collected data while in flight on Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission One in 2024. NIRVSS aims to measure the surface temperature at fine scales, which may help determine where ice can exist or remain stable.
  Lead organization: NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley
• Mass Spectrometer for Observing Lunar Operations (MSolo) will characterize the makeup of volatiles (things that easily evaporate) in the environment around the lander following touchdown. The mass spectrometer demonstrated its gas analysis capabilities in lunar conditions during Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission in 2025. MSolo measures low molecular weight volatiles, which can be used as resources on the lunar surface.
  Lead organization: NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida
• Lunar Vehicle Radiation Dosimeter system (LVRaD), a suite of four radiation detectors, is designed to quantify the radiation environment on the lunar surface and assess its potential impacts of radiation on biology and the human body in preparation for future human-related activities on the Moon. Additional sensors will investigate volatiles and geological resources that will help us plan for long-term exploration, as well as gain insights into the Moon’s formation and solar system evolution.
  Lead organization: Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute
• Multifunctional Nanosensor Platform (MNP) is a highly compact and sensitive chemical analysis instrument designed to advance understanding of the lunar environment. It will investigate how exhaust plumes from a lander’s engines interact with the lunar regolith by measuring volatile compounds over time and at varying distances from the landing site. These measurements will provide critical data to better understand plume-surface interactions and their effects, informing the design of safer, more sustainable landing systems and surface operations, directly supporting NASA’s broader lunar exploration objectives. To enable these measurements, the MNP instrument will be integrated into the Australian Space Agency’s rover (“Roo-ver”), a foundation services technology demonstration. The rover will showcase Australia’s robotics capabilities, with the ability to traverse complex terrain and operate with limited human intervention. In doing so, Roo-ver will validate key mobility and autonomy technologies in the lunar environment while serving as the enabling platform for MNP’s scientific objectives.
  Lead organization for MNP: NASA’ Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland
  Lead organization for Roover: Australian Space Agency

• NASA’s Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) is a small device that reflects laser beams transmitted by Moon orbiters or landing spacecraft to help them determine their orbit position or navigate to the surface. Made of eight quartz corner-cube prisms set into a dome-shaped aluminum frame, the array is passive, meaning it requires no power or maintenance. One LRA payload has already been delivered through CLPS to the surface of the Moon. These arrays will continue to be used to build a network of permanent location markers on the Moon for future exploration.
  Lead development organization: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
• “Sanctuary on the Moon” is a lunar time capsule of 24 synthetic sapphire discs containing a curated archive of human civilization. The discs highlight over 100 billion micropixels of data including the history of science, technology, mathematics, architecture, culture, paleontology, art, literature, music, and the human genome. Sanctuary was developed in France.
  Lead organization: Grapevine Productions

Through NASA’s CLPS initiative, lunar landing and surface operations services are purchased from American companies. By sending science and technology to the Moon, we continue to learn how to prepare for human exploration that could eventually take us to Mars.

For more information about CLPS and Artemis:

https://www.nasa.gov/clps

-end-

Tiffany Blake
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-2546
tiffany.n.blake@nasa.gov

Kenna Pell / Ivry Artis
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
kenna.m.pell@nasa.gov / ivry.w.artis@nasa.gov

Category I: NASA Environmental Quality Award

Recognizes excellence in environmental management and planning, including stewardship of natural and cultural resources. This category highlights achievements in compliance, conservation, remediation, communication, and environmental information management, and the development of strong stakeholder partnerships.

Category II: NASA Award for Excellence in Project or Program Execution

Honors efforts that reduce cost, time, or level of effort while achieving and maintaining compliance for projects or programs that directly support NASA’s mission. This category emphasizes operational efficiency, innovation, performance, and sustained compliance.

Category III: NASA Excellence in Energy and Water Management Award

Acknowledges significant achievements in energy efficiency, water conservation, and renewable energy integration. This award highlights projects that demonstrate measurable improvements in resource management and sustainable practices across NASA facilities and operations.

Category IV: NASA Excellence in Site Remediation Award

Recognizes innovation in site remediation technologies, stakeholder engagement, exposure risk reduction, beneficial reuse, and expedited remediation efforts. This category celebrates projects that successfully address environmental challenges while maintaining safety and compliance.

Category V: NASA Environmental Management Division Director’s Environment and Energy Award

Selected by the director of the Environmental Management Divsion, this award honors exceptional leadership in advancing environmentally responsible mission success. It is reserved for individuals or teams demonstrating outstanding vision and commitment to environmental stewardship across NASA’s programs.

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