Above: Artist rendering of NASA’s new Lunar Terrain Vehicle. Credit: NASA
NASA has selected UH Mānoa scientists to help lead the development of a new lunar vehicle instrument that will prospect for hidden ice beneath the surface of the Moon. Called the Lunar Microwave Active-Passive Spectrometer (L-MAPS), the instrument will help map and characterize the Moonʻs subsurface compositions while locating valuable water ice that could support human and robotic Moon missions as part of NASAʻs Artemis program.
Over the last five years, UH Mānoa has been directly involved in designing and testing L-MAPS, which consists of a spectrometer and ground-penetrating radar that can measure temperature, density, and subsurface structures up to 131 feet underground.