Lunar Environment Monitoring Station – South Pole (LEMS-SP)¶
PRISM selections of 30 Sept 2026 (no delivery yet) · manifested · NASA payload
An autonomous, long-lived environmental and hazard monitoring station for the South Pole region. NASA says it will monitor falling micrometeoroids, track volatiles drifting in the Moon's thin exosphere, and carry a short-period seismometer to detect seismic events, as hazard data for Moon Base hardware. It grows out of LEMS, a 'lunar buoy' seismometer station that Goddard has been building for astronauts to deploy on Artemis III. NASA's release gives no lander, site or date.
PI: Mehdi Benna (UMBC)
Built by: University of Maryland, Baltimore County (PI's institution); for LEMS-A3, NASA Goddard builds and operates the station, the University of Arizona supplies the seismometers, Morehead State University the telecommunications and operations center, and Washington University in St. Louis the data processing. The LEMS-SP team is not named in the release. (university)
| Technology | science instrument suite (seismometer, exosphere and micrometeoroid monitoring station) |
| Moon Base need | DN-016 L, DN-015 L (The knowledge base's own matching, not NASA's: NASA names no data gap. It rates LEMS-SP close to DN-016 L (seismic monitoring, which counts incoming meteoroids as seismic events and asks for continuous monitoring) and matches DN-015 L only in part (that gap asks for impact ejecta, not the falling micrometeoroids). DN-016 L wants several South Pole sites; LEMS-SP is one station. NASA itself ties LEMS-SP to 'hazard assessments needed to ensure the physical safety of Moon Base hardware'. No phase can be given until a delivery is assigned.) |
| Route onto CLPS | PRISM; Selected through SMD's PRISM program on 30 September 2026 to fly on CLPS as part of the Moon Base Program. No task order, lander, site or date is named. Its predecessor LEMS was chosen on 26 March 2024 as one of three instruments for astronauts to deploy on Artemis III (with Artemis III then targeted for 2026), and passed its design review in April 2025. By May 2026, NASA planned Artemis III as a test of the crew landers in low Earth orbit (GeekWire), so LEMS would no longer reach the Moon that way; that this is why LEMS moved to PRISM and CLPS is the study's reading, not a source's.; 2026-09-30 |
| Timeline | first funding 2019 (DALI grant; Goddard says DALI funding came in 2018); first flight test not in public sources; selected 2026-09-30 (PRISM); LEMS for Artemis III 2024-03-26; launch not in public sources; landing not in public sources |
| On the Moon | not yet flown |
| FO | none |
Flights before the Moon¶
None found in the public sources.
Heritage hardware¶
- design heritage (LEMS for Artemis III): Benna conceived the 'lunar buoy' in 2018. The LEMS-A3 station has two three-axis seismometer sondes (short-period and very broadband) buried in regolith, its own solar power and battery, and a radio, and must survive the 354-hour polar night for two years. Goddard has tested a TRL 6 development unit and engineering units in thermal vacuum (January 2026 checkout), the suite in a regolith sandbox at UCF (September 2024), and planned a system thermal vacuum qualification in 2026. All ground tests; how much LEMS-A3 hardware carries into LEMS-SP is not stated.
"Benna began conceptualizing the idea behind the LEMS instrument in 2018"
— NASA Goddard to Build Quake Detector for Artemis III Moon Landing - NASA"consists of two three-axis sondes that will be buried in the lunar regolith"
— NTRS 20260001865, page 2 (ICES 2026)"LEMS TRL-6 development unit"
— NTRS 20260001865, page 9 (TVAC checkout, January 2026)"On Sept. 9 and 10, scientists and engineers tested NASA's LEMS (Lunar Environment Monitoring Station) instrument suite in a "sandbox" of simulated Moon regolith"
— NASA’s Artemis Science Instrument Gets Tested in Moon-Like Sandbox - NASA Science, 26 Sep 2024
- flown designs (parts and software): The DALI concept used a neutral mass spectrometer 'with a long heritage of flight implementation'; Benna's earlier instruments are not named in these sources. The LEMS-A3 flight software reuses applications from the GTOSat and Lunar IceCube missions, with the radio software from Lunar IceCube. These are heritage, not earlier flights of LEMS.
"These exospheric measurements will be acquired using a neutral mass spectrometer with a long heritage of flight implementation."
— TechPort project 96493, description (DALI, 2019-2022)"Lunar Ice Cube (LIC) Heritage"
— NTRS 20250001781, page 11 (LEMS-A3 flight software, Feb 2025)
Funding before the lunar flight¶
- NASA cooperative agreement to UMBC, 'LEMS-A3: The Lunar Environment Monitoring Station for Artemis 3' (80NSSC24M0118, May 2024 to May 2029). Linked by its title. The station itself is built at NASA Goddard, mostly outside this award. Whether LEMS-SP is paid from it or from a new PRISM award is not stated. (NASA SMD (Artemis III deployed instruments); 2024-2029): $7,424,000
"LEMS-A3: THE LUNAR ENVIRONMENT MONITORING STATION FOR ARTEMIS 3"
— USAspending.gov, 80NSSC24M0118; UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND BALTIMORE COUNTY; amount 7424000.0; 2024-05-22 to 2029-05-01
- NASA DALI grant to UMBC for the LEMS concept: a long-duration surface station with a neutral mass spectrometer for the exosphere and a low-power seismometer (80NSSC19K0767; TechPort 96493, 2019-2022). Linked by description and by TechPort. NASA says LEMS had four years of DALI funding. (NASA SMD DALI; 2019-2022): $542,867
"PAST MISSIONS HAVE SHOWN THAT THE LUNAR EXOSPHERE IS VERY SENSITIVE TO SMALL CHANGES THAT AFFECT THE PLASMA ENVIRONMENT"
— USAspending.gov, 80NSSC19K0767; amount 542866.68; 2019-04-08 to 2022-07-01"LEMS previously received four years of NASA's [Development and Advancement of Lunar Instrumentation]"
— NASA Selects First Lunar Instruments for Artemis Astronaut Deployment - NASA, LEMS paragraph
- NASA Goddard-area orders that name LEMS: flight software support (TMC Technologies, 80GSFC24F0063, 2024-2026, $812,053.84; this entry), a thermal switch from JPL (80NM0025F7012, 2025, $122,001), an Ibeos battery service (80NSSC20P1478, 2020, $112,000) and insulation design (Quest Thermal, 80NSSC20C0057, 2020, $38,955). Linked by their descriptions; all for LEMS and LEMS-A3, not LEMS-SP by name. (NASA contracts (Goddard, LEMS); 2020-2026): $812,054
"SET2 TO 35 LEMS"
— USAspending.gov, 80GSFC24F0063; TMC TECHNOLOGIES OF WEST VIRGINIA CORP; amount 812053.84"LEMS THERMAL SWITCH DEVELOPMENT AND TEST PROGRAM (40-228124)"
— USAspending.gov, 80NM0025F7012; amount 122001.0"IBEOS SERVICE CONTRACT -LEMS BATTERY"
— USAspending.gov, 80NSSC20P1478; amount 112000.0
- Related DALI project: the Lunar Meteoroid Monitor (TechPort 117250, University of Colorado Boulder, 2022-2025, PI Mihaly Horanyi, Benna a co-investigator), a large-area dust impact detector. LEMS-SP's micrometeoroid monitoring may draw on it; no source says so. No amount in TechPort. (NASA SMD DALI; 2022-2025): amount not in public sources
"We propose to develop and advance the flight technical readiness level (TRL) of the Lunar Meteoroid Monitor (LMM) instrument to measure the flux, size and speed distributions, and directions of the meteoroids bombarding the lunar surface."
— TechPort project 117250, description
How it got onto CLPS¶
"will fly to the lunar surface using the CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative as part of the agency's Moon Base Program"
— NASA Adds New Science Investigations for Moon Base - NASA"NASA has chosen the first science instruments designed for astronauts to deploy on the surface of the Moon during Artemis III."
— NASA Selects First Lunar Instruments for Artemis Astronaut Deployment - NASA, 26 Mar 2024"NASA has confirmed that a seismometer being designed for the lunar surface is ready for building and assembly."
— NASA’s Moon Seismometer Cleared for Construction - NASA, 21 Apr 2025"NASA is aiming to test the Mark 2 and/or SpaceX's Starship-based lunar lander next year in low Earth orbit during the Artemis 3 mission."
— NASA taps Blue Origin to deliver rovers for Moon Base initiative – GeekWire, 26 May 2026
On the Moon¶
Selected for a CLPS delivery that has no task order, lander, site or date yet. LEMS-A3 was being built for Artemis III; its status after the Artemis III change is not in public sources.
"The autonomous LEMS-SP instrument suite will serve as a long-term environmental and hazard monitoring station."
— NASA Adds New Science Investigations for Moon Base - NASA
FO's role¶
Grade: none. No FO project, report or page names LEMS, Benna, the Lunar Meteoroid Monitor team or a lunar seismometer. The study's earlier traceback predates this selection. Grade: none. The study's remark: an astronaut-deployed station now goes on a robotic lander, which changes how it is deployed (sondes buried in regolith, cable reel, leveling); the sources do not say how LEMS-SP will be deployed or whether that needs testing.
Who built it¶
"Principal Investigator: Dr. Mehdi Benna, University of Maryland, Baltimore County"
— NASA Adds New Science Investigations for Moon Base - NASA, 30 Sep 2026"UMBC leads LEM's science investigation. NASA Goddard will build and operate LEMS. The University of Arizona will supply LEMS' two state-of-the-art seismometer sensors"
— NASA Goddard to Build Quake Detector for Artemis III Moon Landing - NASA, Goddard, 16 Apr 2024
Moon Base need¶
"Close for DN-016 L, which counts "incoming meteoroids" as seismic events and asks for "continuous monitoring"."
— Moon to Mars knowledge base: Architecture data gaps: all 25, PRISM September 2026 table"DN-015 L asks for the ejecta of impacts, not the falling micrometeoroids themselves."
— Moon to Mars knowledge base: Architecture data gaps: all 25"the instrument could deliver the critical hazard assessments needed to ensure the physical safety of Moon Base hardware"
— NASA Adds New Science Investigations for Moon Base - NASA"| DN-016 L | Long-duration operations |"
— Moon to Mars knowledge base: Moon Base technology and knowledge challenges
Open questions¶
- Is LEMS-SP the LEMS-A3 station moved from Artemis III to CLPS, or a new suite? The added micrometeoroid and exosphere measurements suggest a wider suite; not stated.
- Who deploys LEMS-SP on a robotic lander, and how are the seismometer sondes buried without astronauts? Not in public sources.
- Which PRISM call selected it, and what is its cost cap? Not in the release.
- Which lander, site and date: not yet named.
- Does the micrometeoroid monitor come from the Lunar Meteoroid Monitor (DALI)? Not stated.