Three MIT payloads are preparing to embark on a journey to the moon, marking a significant step towards creating a permanent habitat on the lunar surface.

In the upcoming days, contingent on favorable weather conditions, MIT engineers and researchers will launch three payloads into space, targeting the moon’s southern polar area. Researchers believe this location, characterized by its perpetually dark regions, may conceal hidden reservoirs of ice, which could support future moon settlements and provide fuel for missions beyond lunar exploration.

NASA intends to dispatch astronauts to the moon’s south pole in 2027 as part of the Artemis III mission, which will be the first instance of humans landing on the lunar surface since the Apollo missions and the first time any individual will set foot on its polar territory. Ahead of this historic event, the MIT payloads will gather information about the region to assist Artemis astronauts in navigating the icy landscape.

The payloads consist of two innovative technologies — a compact depth-mapping camera and a thumb-sized mini-rover — as well as a paper-thin “record,” inscribed with the voices of individuals from around the globe speaking in their native tongues. All three payloads will be transported by a larger, suitcase-sized rover developed by the space contractor Lunar Outpost.

As the primary rover traverses the moon’s surface, investigating the polar environment, the MIT camera, positioned at the front of the rover, will capture the inaugural 3D images of the lunar terrain obtained directly from the Moon’s surface using time-of-flight technology. These images will transmit back to Earth, where they can be utilized to train Artemis astronauts through visual simulations of the polar landscape and integrated into advanced spacesuits equipped with synthetic vision helmets.

Simultaneously, the mini-rover, named “AstroAnt,” will maneuver around the top of the primary rover and collect temperature data to oversee the larger vehicle’s performance. If successful, AstroAnt could function as part of a brigade of small support bots, executing vital tasks during future missions, such as clearing dust from solar panels and inspecting lunar habitats and infrastructure for damage.

All three MIT payloads, alongside the Lunar Outpost rover, will launch to the moon aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and land in the moon’s southern polar region using a lander engineered by the space firm Intuitive Machines. The overall mission, which encompasses various other payloads besides MIT’s, is designated IM-2, signifying Intuitive Machines’ second voyage to the moon. IM-2 seeks to assess the existence and quantity of water-ice at the moon’s south pole, employing an array of instruments, including an ice drill attached to the lander, and a robotic “hopper” that will bounce across the surface to search for water in hard-to-reach locations.

The lunar landing, anticipated to occur around noon on March 6, will represent the first instance MIT has deployed active technology on the moon’s surface since the Apollo period, when MIT’s Instrumentation Laboratory, now the independent Draper Laboratory, developed the iconic Apollo Guidance Computer that successfully navigated astronauts to the moon and back.

MIT engineers view their involvement in the new endeavor, dubbed “To the Moon to Stay,” as just the beginning of many efforts aimed at establishing a lasting presence on the lunar landscape.

“Our objective is not merely to visit the moon but to create a flourishing ecosystem that enables humanity’s exploration of space,” asserts Dava Newman, Apollo Program Professor of Astronautics at MIT, director of the MIT Media Lab, and former NASA deputy administrator.

Institute’s heritage

MIT’s role in the lunar mission is spearheaded by the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI), a research collaboration within the Media Lab focused on enabling a “sci-fi future” for space exploration. Established in 2016 by media arts and sciences alumna Ariel Ekblaw SM ’17, PhD ’20, the SEI develops, tests, and deploys cutting-edge space technologies designed to help humanity establish sustainable outposts in space.

In the spring of 2021, SEI and MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro) offered a course, MAS.839/16.893 (Operating in the Lunar Environment), challenging teams of students to devise payloads meeting specific goals associated with NASA’s Artemis missions to the moon. The class was instructed by Ekblaw and AeroAstro’s Jeffrey Hoffman, MIT professor of the practice and former NASA astronaut, who guided students in testing their payload designs in the field, including in remote locations in Norway that simulate the moon’s desolate landscape and through parabolic flights that replicate the moon’s low gravity.

From that course, Ekblaw and Hoffman selected two payload designs for further development: a laser-based 3D camera system and AstroAnt — a diminutive, autonomous inspection robot. Both concepts evolved from earlier work. AstroAnt started as a side project during Ekblaw’s PhD, based on contributions from Artem Dementyev in the Media Lab’s Responsive Environments group, while the 3D camera was a PhD focus for AeroAstro alumna Cody Paige ’23, who helped create and validate the camera design and implement VR/XR technology along with Newman in cooperation with NASA Ames Research Center.

As both designs underwent refinement, Ekblaw secured funding and established a contract with Lunar Outpost (co-founded by MIT AeroAstro alumnus Forrest Meyen SM ’13, PhD ’17) to integrate the payloads with the company’s lunar rover. SEI Mission Integrator Sean Auffinger oversaw integration and testing processes, in collaboration with Lunar Outpost, to readjust these payloads for operation in a novel, extreme environment.

“This mission is profoundly rooted in MIT,” remarks Ekblaw, who serves as the principal investigator for the MIT segment of the IM-2 mission and is a visiting scientist at the Media Lab. “This will be momentous in that we’ve never deployed technology or a rover in this part of the lunar south pole. It’s an incredibly challenging area to land in — it’s filled with large boulders and deep dust. Thus, it’s a daring endeavor.”

Systems activated

The location of the IM-2 landing is Mons Mouton Plateau — a flat-topped mountain at the moon’s south pole, situated just north of Shackleton Crater, a potential landing zone for NASA’s Artemis astronauts. Once the Intuitive Machines lander successfully lands, it will open its garage door, allowing Lunar Outpost’s rover to emerge and explore the polar terrain. After acclimating to its environment, the rover will start activating its instruments, including MIT’s 3D camera.

“It will be our first opportunity to utilize this particular imaging technology on the lunar surface,” notes Paige, the current SEI director.

The camera, which will be affixed to the front of the main rover, is designed to emit laser light onto a surface and gauge the duration it takes for the light to return to the camera. This “time-of-flight” serves as a metric of distance, which can also be converted into surface topology, such as the depth of individual craters and fissures.

“Utilizing a laser light enables us to observe without depending on sunlight,” Paige clarifies. “We’re unsure about precisely what we may encounter. Some phenomena we are keen to discover include centimeter-sized openings in regions that remain perpetually shaded or frozen, which could house water-ice. Those are the types of terrains we’re particularly thrilled to explore.”

Paige anticipates that the camera will transmit images back to Earth in next-day data packets, which the MIT scientific team will process and analyze as the rover navigates the area.

While the camera maps the moon’s surface, AstroAnt — which is smaller and lighter than an AirPods case — will emerge from a compact garage located on the main rover’s roof. The AstroAnt will navigate using magnetic wheels that enable it to adhere to the rover’s surface without detaching. To facilitate AstroAnt’s mobility,Ekblaw and her team, spearheaded by Media Lab graduate student Fangzheng Liu, repaired a thermopile — a compact sensor that measures the principal rover’s temperature, which can be utilized to observe the vehicle’s thermal efficiency. 

“If we can evaluate this one AstroAnt on the lunar surface, then we envision having these highly capable, mobile swarms that can assist astronauts with autonomous repair, inspection, diagnostics, and maintenance,” Ekblaw expresses. “In the future, we could attach small windshield wipers to them to help remove dust from solar panels, or equip them with a pounding bar to create slight vibrations for detecting flaws in habitats. The possibilities are numerous once we reach swarm scale.”

Focus on the Moon

The third payload from MIT to be mounted on the primary rover is called the Humanity United with MIT Art and Nanotechnology in Space, or HUMANS project. Directed by MIT AeroAstro alumna Maya Nasr ’18, SM ’21, PhD ’23, HUMANS consists of a 2-inch disc crafted from a silicon wafer, etched with nanometer-scale patterns utilizing technology supplied by MIT.nano. The engravings are inspired by The Golden Record, a phonograph disc that was launched into space with NASA’s Voyager probes in 1977. The HUMANS disc features recordings of individuals from around the globe, expressing in their native tongues what space exploration and humanity signify to them.

“We carry the hopes, dreams, and narratives of individuals from diverse backgrounds,” Nasr states. “(It’s a) compelling reminder that space is not merely the privilege of a select few, but the collective heritage of everyone.”

The MIT Media Lab intends to broadcast the March 6 landing on a screen in the building’s atrium for the public to observe in real-time. Scholars from MIT’s Department of Architecture, under the guidance of Associate Professor Skylar Tibbits, have also constructed a lunar mission control room — a circular, architectural space where engineers will oversee and manage the mission’s payloads. If everything proceeds as planned, the MIT group views the mission as a foundational step toward establishing permanent human presence on the lunar surface, and possibly beyond.

“Our return to the Moon is not solely about technological advancement — it’s about motivating the next generation of explorers who are alive today and will venture to the moon within their lifetimes,” Ekblaw articulates. “This landmark mission for MIT unites students, staff, and faculty from across the Institute on a foundational endeavor that will facilitate a future sustainable lunar settlement.”