{"id":219176,"date":"2025-07-29T08:00:53","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T18:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=219176"},"modified":"2025-07-28T13:14:46","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T23:14:46","slug":"to-the-moon-lunar-vehicle-instrument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/07\/29\/to-the-moon-lunar-vehicle-instrument\/","title":{"rendered":"To the Moon! NASA<\/abbr> selects UH<\/abbr> to lead instrument team for lunar vehicle"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"vehicle
An artist\u2019s concept design of NASA<\/abbr>\u2019s Lunar Terrain Vehicle. (Photo credit: NASA<\/abbr>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NASA<\/abbr> has selected University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa scientists to lead one of three teams<\/a> developing instruments for Moon travel through the Artemis campaign. Two instruments, including UH<\/abbr>\u2019s, will be integrated onto a Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV<\/abbr>), which astronauts will drive on the Moon. Another instrument will orbit the Moon.<\/p>\n

\"closeup
Closeup of the Moon (Photo credit: NASA<\/abbr>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“I\u2019m so excited to see this project come into reality,” said Matthew Siegler, associate researcher in the Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Institute of Geophysics and Planetology<\/a> (HIGP<\/abbr>) at the UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology<\/a>, who will lead the team developing the Lunar Microwave Active-Passive Spectrometer (L-MAPS<\/abbr>). “Â鶹´«Ã½has become a major player in the search for ice on the Moon. This instrument selection takes us to the next level.”<\/p>\n

The L-MAPS<\/abbr> instrument will help determine what is below the Moon\u2019s surface, the heat production of the Moon and search for possible locations of buried ice. The UH<\/abbr> science and spacecraft engineering team will work in partnership with instruments developed at NASA<\/abbr>\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL<\/abbr>) and the German Technical University at Dresden.<\/p>\n

Siegler and deputy principal investigator Shannon Brown, a researcher at JPL<\/abbr>, and their team have been designing and testing the L-MAPS<\/abbr> instrument for more than five years, preparing for an opportunity to get to the Moon. Being selected for the LTV<\/abbr> instrument team moves the development to the next stage—the build—which will primarily take place at JPL<\/abbr>.<\/p>\n

Outfitting the first crew-driven vehicle on the Moon in 50 years<\/h2>\n
\"person
Matthew Siegler, associate researcher at HIGP<\/abbr><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The LTV<\/abbr> vehicle is part of NASA<\/abbr>\u2019s efforts to explore the lunar surface as part of the Artemis campaign and is the first crew-driven vehicle to operate on the Moon in more than 50 years. Designed to hold up to two astronauts, as well as operate remotely without a crew, this surface vehicle will enable NASA<\/abbr> to achieve more of its science and exploration goals over a wide swath of lunar terrain.<\/p>\n

In the NASA<\/abbr> announcement<\/a>, Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA<\/abbr> Headquarters in Washington, D.C., emphasized that the Artemis Lunar Terrain Vehicle will advance humanity across the lunar frontier toward exploration and discovery and added that the instruments planned for the LTV<\/abbr> combine the best of human and robotic exploration.<\/p>\n

When combined, data from the L-MAPS<\/abbr> and other instruments will paint a picture of the components of the lunar surface and subsurface to support human exploration and will uncover clues to the history of rocky worlds in our solar system.<\/p>\n

“I feel incredibly lucky to be working on lunar research in a time when NASA<\/abbr> has prioritized the Artemis return of humans to the Moon,” said Siegler. “Work like this is possible because of researchers at the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> working for years leading in planetary science and developing spaceflight technologies. It is exciting to be in the right place and time to ride this wave.”<\/p>\n

Collaboration is key to success<\/h2>\n

At JPL<\/abbr>, the L-MAPS<\/abbr> instrument will be built with components from Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt and Ohio State University. Final testing will be done partially at UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa. The instrument production and operation on the Moon will be managed by HIGP<\/abbr> faculty Miguel Nunes and Trevor Sorensen and will include many roles for UH<\/abbr> faculty, undergraduate and graduate students.<\/p>\n

—By Marcie Grabowski<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa scientists are building a cutting-edge Moon-mapping instrument selected for NASA<\/abbr>\u2019s Artemis lunar rover.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":219177,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[378,173,170,1467,1363,92,9],"class_list":["post-219176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-geology-and-geophysics","tag-geophysics","tag-hawaii-institute-of-geophysics-and-planetology","tag-manoa-excellence-in-research","tag-manoa-research","tag-school-of-ocean-and-earth-science-and-technology","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/manoa-soest-nasa-lunar-terrain-vehicle.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219176"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219183,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219176\/revisions\/219183"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}