The European Space Agency is moving "full steam ahead" with development of a robotic mission to Venus after NASA officials determined they were unlikely to fulfill a commitment to provide a US-built radar instrument for the spacecraft, the mission's project scientist said.
The European orbiter, named Envision, will map the Venusian surface at 10 times higher resolution than the last radar mission sent to Venus by NASA in the 1990s. The planet is enshrouded in a blanket of thick clouds of sulfuric acid, rendering its mysterious surface unseen by optical cameras in orbit. Radar is the most effective way to penetrate the clouds of Venus to reveal the terrain below, and scientists will use Envision to look for signs of active volcanism.
NASA and ESA signed a memorandum of understanding in 2024 outlining their partnership on Envision. NASA agreed to supply a US-made synthetic aperture radar instrument, Envision's primary means of mapping the surface of Venus, along with providing tracking and communications support through NASA's Deep Space Network. In exchange, ESA would include US researchers on Envision's science team. Europe would build the Envision spacecraft and the rest of its science instruments and provide the launch on an Ariane 6 rocket.
The BepiColombo mission cleared a major milestone this week in the final stretch of an eight-year interplanetary voyage to Mercury, the hard-to-reach, scorching hot iron world at the Solar System's innermost frontier.
The robotic science mission, with a price tag of nearly $2 billion, is led by the European Space Agency with contributions from Japan and the United States. Since its launch in 2018, BepiColombo has spiraled closer to the Sun using a combination of plasma propulsion and a series of flybys of Earth, Venus, and Mercury. The maneuvers changed the spacecraft's velocity and steered it toward a final encounter with Mercury later this year.
Next time it reaches Mercury, BepiColombo will be traveling at just the right speed for the planet's gravity to capture the spacecraft into orbit. Scientists working on interplanetary missions are accustomed to long waits for scientific payoffs. It took nearly 10 years for NASA's New Horizons spacecraft to travel from Earth to Pluto. It turns out traveling to fleet-footed Mercury and then entering orbit requires more energy, or delta-v, than sending a probe to fly by Pluto.
For the first time in more than 30 years, NASA has no firm plans to send any new landers or rovers to Mars. Instead, the agency's near-term focus at the red planet is on aerial drones, a pioneering mode of exploration that didn't seem realistic until a few years ago.
The first real use of drones for science at Mars will come with the SkyFall mission, a fleet of three helicopters set for launch as soon as late 2028. SkyFall's helicopters will ride to the red planet with NASA's Space Reactor-1 "Freedom" mission, which has the primary objective of demonstrating nuclear electric propulsion in deep space.
The launch schedule is aggressive for SR-1 Freedom and SkyFall, projects that didn't even exist in NASA's portfolio six months ago. NASA's plan for the SR-1 Freedom mission, estimated to cost $2.1 billion, calls for repurposing the core module of the canceled Gateway lunar space station into a testbed for nuclear electric propulsion. SkyFall will build on NASA's success with the Ingenuity helicopter, an experimental vehicle that became the first rotorcraft to fly on another world in 2021.
This image was taken by an Artemis II astronaut from the Orion capsule in April 2026, as the spacecraft traveled past the Moon and back over 10 days. The gray-brown, heavily cratered Moon dominates the frame against black space, with a partially lit crescent Earth setting behind its upper-left edge.
Some of Earth’s microbes likely to hitch a ride to space with human explorers could survive in the shaded nooks and crannies of the Moon’s South Pole region, NASA scientists say.
Published on Aug. 19, 2026, in Science Advances, these findings highlight a need to better understand microbial persistence in extreme lunar environments. As humans build a permanent presence on the Moon, it may become difficult to distinguish ancient lunar chemistry from contamination delivered by visiting astronauts. The concern extends beyond the Moon and on to Mars, scientists say.
“Humans are natural explorers, and with them come their voices, their memories … and their microbes,” said Prabal Saxena, a planetary scientist who led the study from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “For some scientists, myself included, that reality can be unsettling. But it also creates an opportunity to turn an imperfect situation into a useful experiment.”
Bringing microbes along is unavoidable: Humans have, on average, 1 million bacteria living on each patch of skin the size of a pencil eraser, for example. These bacteria vent from spacesuits and habitats. Though the paper’s authors worry about contamination interfering with the search for chemical clues to ancient geology or biology, they also argue that the Moon should be used as a natural lab. In shaded areas around the South Pole, scientists could carefully test the real-life limits of microbial survival in an environment that can’t easily be reproduced on Earth.
The Apollo program landed six pairs of astronauts on the Moon between 1969 and 1972. All six landing sites are near the lunar equator. In this visualization, the Apollo sites are contrasted with the South Pole, an area with enormous potential for future exploration. Time passes as we zoom toward Shackleton crater at the South Pole, revealing illumination conditions quite different from those near the equator. While many craters remain in permanent shadow, some nearby mountains and ridges are in persistent sunshine, making them attractive candidates for solar power and long-term habitation.
Before any surface science can happen, scientists need a baseline measurement of what contaminants humans bring, the authors say.
“We need to understand what was there before us, because when we go to Mars to search for signs of life beyond our planet, we will want to make sure it’s not stuff we brought,” said Andrew Needham, a NASA Goddard-based paper co-author who is an Artemis contamination‑control scientist for lunar samples.
Even with strict sterilization procedures, some organisms are stubbornly resilient. A good example is Aspergillus niger, which is a fungus that thrives in warm, damp places like household bathrooms and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems. Astronauts have sampled it inside the International Space Station, and experiments demonstrate that the fungus can survive outside the station as well. Aspergillus niger was one of five microbes, including bacteria and fungi, selected for this study because of its known toughness in spaceflight environments.
That microbes survived on the space station’s exterior surprised scientists. These species are typically not considered “extremophiles” that can withstand harsh conditions, such as the vacuum of space, according to Aaron Regberg, a geomicrobiologist at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
“I would have expected these microbes to have dried out,” said Regberg, who studies space station bacteria and was a co-author on the paper.
NASA astronaut Kate Rubins on Oct. 14, 2016, collecting microbes in the Japanese Experiment Module aboard the International Space Station.
JAXA/Takuya Onishi
He pointed out that NASA often bakes robotic spacecraft at temperatures above 400 degrees Fahrenheit to reduce the number of living organisms on them. But that’s not possible with astronauts, so contamination concerns take on new meaning in crewed exploration of the Moon’s south polar environment.
A clearer picture of where microbes might survive comes from understanding how sunlight behaves at the poles. Survival in this study means the microbe can stay alive for at least one Earth day, which does not mean that it can grow and reproduce.
Because the Moon has a very small tilt on its axis, the view from its poles is of a Sun that appears to hover just above the horizon, skimming the surface like a flashlight laying on a table. As a result, elevated parts of the surface, including crater ridges, mountains, and even small bumps, block light from reaching low-lying terrain. This produces pockets of shadowed areas that can remain cold and preserve water, as well as shield fragile molecules and possible microorganisms from lethal radiation.
With that scientific context in mind, the team set out to test which Earth microbes could survive extreme polar conditions. They focused on organisms commonly found in spaceflight environments and those common on human skin. Besides Aspergillus niger, these included Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Deinococcus radiodurans, and several species of Fusarium. Based on an analysis of previous studies, the scientists noted the maximum amount of heat and ultraviolet (UV) radiation each organism can withstand.
Then, the organisms were tested in simulations of three regions near the lunar South Pole — Nobile Rim, Connecting Ridge, and De Gerlache Rim. Those simulations used detailed environmental maps built from elevation and temperature data collected by instruments aboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, combined with models of how radiation strikes the surface.
The models showed maps of “survivable niches” that range in size from a miles-wide crater floor to an astronaut’s boot print. Aspergillus niger, which was most resistant to UV radiation, was able to survive even in areas with some sunlight exposure. UV radiation is so deadly to most microbes that it’s used for sterilization in hospitals.
“When we think of the Moon, we don’t typically think of biology,” said Heather Graham, a paper co-author at NASA Goddard who helps develop tools and techniques for detecting biology that may look nothing like Earth’s. “But the Moon is a place where a cell can survive, so our first exploration of these sites should pay extra attention to our microbial hitchhikers and work hard to characterize lunar chemistry before our visits change what we will find.”
The authors note that while some microbes can survive in a dormant state in regions around the South Pole, and thereby confuse some future scientific investigations, there is no evidence the Moon has key ingredients to sustain growth and replication. Such ingredients include liquid water, which typically requires an atmosphere and moderate temperatures.
International Observe the Moon Night, Sept. 19, 2026
Each year, observers around the world come together to celebrate Earth’s Moon through direct observations, hands-on activities, lunar-themed music, artwork, readings, and more.
The Moon
From lighting up our skies to preserving evidence of our solar system’s history, Earth’s closest neighbor plays a pivotal role in the study of our planet and beyond.
About the Author
Lonnie Shekhtman
Senior Science Writer
Shekhtman helps communicate NASA planetary science to the world through news and feature stories on NASA.gov, videos for NASA+ and YouTube, and by working with the media. She reports on lunar and Mars science and exploration; NASA’s search for life; missions to Venus, Titan, and Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids; and many other topics related to NASA’s exploration of our solar system and beyond.
NASA’s LRO Images Falcon 9 Crater on Moon, Learns New Details
This is an animated before-and-after view of the crater formed after a Falcon 9 upper stage struck the Moon’s surface on Aug. 5, 2026. These images were taken between Aug. 11 and 12 by the Narrow-Angle Camera on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. These images are enlarged three times from the original, with north facing up, and they cover an area about a quarter of a mile wide.
NASA Goddard/Intuitive Machines
Between Aug. 11 and 12, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) captured a series of images of a new crater on the Moon. The crater formed on Aug. 5, when a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage impacted the surface following its January 2025 launch of the Firefly Blue Ghost 1 mission.
To capture imagery of the impact, engineers tilted the spacecraft so its cameras would point toward the crater each time LRO passed about 60 miles above the Moon, traveling 1 mile per second. The orbiter circles the Moon from pole to pole every two hours, while the Moon slowly rotates underneath it. To photograph a specific spot, the spacecraft must wait until that location turns into view, which took six days in this case.
Getting the pointing right was only half the challenge; timing had to be accurate as well. If the camera snapped even 10 seconds too early or too late, the target would drift off-center by 10 miles.
An artist concept video showing NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter circling the Moon.
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab
Because of the variety of viewing angles, scientists could see the crater under multiple lighting conditions that revealed unique features. In images where the crater rim stood out, scientists measured its 60‑foot width. Scientists also determined the crater is less than 10 feet deep based on the length of its shadow.
To capture these details, LRO used its Narrow-Angle Camera, which can spot features as small as 3 feet wide.
Collected between Aug. 11 and 12 by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, six days after a Falcon 9 upper-stage booster impacted the Moon, these images were taken from different viewing angles, bringing out different features. The darker area that fans around the crater in the upper-left image is rougher than the surroundings, as this surface material has been altered over a long time by solar wind, galactic cosmic rays, and micrometeorite impacts. The brighter rays and splotch above the crater in the lower-right image is fresher material that was excavated from deeper below the surface. The pictures are arranged in the order they were taken, starting at the top left and moving toward the bottom right, with the lighting angle from the Sun gradually changing from one image to the next. Each image is enlarged two times and shows an area of the Moon about 1,000 feet wide.
NASA Goddard/Intuitive Machines
The images above show bright and dark rays stretching out from the crater. The darker streaks are made of surface dust and rocks altered over a long time by solar wind, galactic cosmic rays, and micrometeorite impacts. This weathered material was excavated by the collision from 1.5 feet into the lunar surface. The brighter streaks near the crater rim are made of fresh material excavated from deeper underground.
This image from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter shows two oval regions where the Falcon 9 upper stage was likely to impact the Moon, based on calculations by engineers with NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies. Both ellipses are 2.1 miles long and 0.4 miles wide. Both predictions use the same booster-trajectory calculations, but only the blue ellipse takes into account the lunar terrain. The red and blue dots show predicted impact locations, whereas the cyan dot shows the actual impact site.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Finding the impact site took global coordination among experts and hobbyists. Independent astronomers first identified the rocket’s trajectory using publicly available data. NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies, which tracks natural objects that could pose hazards to Earth for the agency’s Planetary Defense program, used this opportunity to test and validate tools and techniques for predicting impacts.
Based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the center incrementally refined the trajectory until identifying the location of impact, which it provided to the Republic of Korea for their Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (Danuri) team. The team used the high-resolution LUTI camera on Danuri a few hours later to image the crater, finding the prediction was accurate to about 0.6 miles.
After capturing images of the crater, the Danuri mission sent coordinates to NASA’s LRO team to help refine their follow-up imaging sequence. Comparing their new crater images with the pre-impact images, the LRO team updated the crater center coordinates: 19.4759°N, 266.7138°E, 511 meters elevation.
Next Generation of Planetary Scientists Learn Public Engagement Skills
Group photo of undergraduate research interns and FORCE leaders standing together beside the high-pressure laboratory equipment.
The NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Community of Practice for Education (SCoPE) – part of the NASA Science Activation (SciAct) Program portfolio – enables Earth and Space Science and Engineering Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) – especially NASA-funded SMEs – to efficiently and effectively share their science with support from SciAct education experts.
In Summer 2026, NASA SCoPE partnered with Arizona State University’s Facility for Open Research in a Compressed Environment (FORCE) Summer School to help seven undergraduate student interns build the science communication skills needed to share their research with a variety of audiences. FORCE is a world-class laboratory that uses high-pressure experimental equipment to recreate the extreme conditions found deep within Earth and other planetary bodies, enabling researchers to better understand how planets form, evolve, and behave under immense pressures.
As part of the Summer School, SCoPE facilitated two hands-on workshops on June 25 and 26, followed by office hours the following week, to help interns translate their technical research into compelling stories for non-expert audiences. The training focused on identifying the central themes of their work, developing clear and engaging messages, planning effective visitor interactions, and thinking through the logistics of public engagement. Interns also received guidance on preparing both their research posters and individual outreach stations.
The training culminated in two complementary outreach experiences. The first was the FORCE Open House, which welcomed approximately 50 members of the general public for an inside look at the laboratory. Visitors toured the facility, met the research team, explored the specialized equipment used to simulate the interiors of Earth and other planets, and interacted with interns at themed outreach stations designed to explain the science behind the experiments in accessible, engaging ways.
At the second event, a poster session for ASU faculty, staff, and students, the interns presented their research, providing an opportunity to discuss their scientific findings with members of the university community and receive feedback on their presentations.
By integrating science communication training into the Summer School experience, NASA SCoPE helped equip emerging planetary scientists with practical skills for engaging both scientific peers and public audiences. The poster session and Open House demonstrated how thoughtful communication training can strengthen researchers’ confidence while building stronger connections between cutting-edge planetary science and the communities it serves. NASA SCoPE is supported by NASA cooperative agreement award number 80NSSC21M0006 and helps enrich and enhance the impact of the NASA Science Activation Program portfolio, which connects learners with authentic NASA science experiences through partnerships with educators and community organizations.
The fully-integrated LEMS (Lunar Environment Monitoring Station) ready for environmental testing. A small suitcase-size instrument suite built at NASA Goddard, LEMS is designed to carry out continuous, long-term monitoring of the seismic environment at the Moon, including surface motion caused by moonquakes and meteorite impacts in the lunar south polar region.
NASA Goddard/Mike Guinto
NASA has declared “wrenches down” on the first completed payload designed for Artemis astronauts to deploy on the Moon’s surface. Engineers working on NASA’s Lunar Environment Monitoring Station, or LEMS, have completed hardware development and testing and the payload is ready for its permanent home near the lunar South Pole. With the hardware complete, LEMS is ready to support one of the Artemis program’s core goals: enabling sustained lunar science and exploration.
The LEMS instrument package contains two highly sensitive seismometers that will monitor ground vibrations from moonquakes and meteorite impacts, providing scientists with insights into the Moon’s interior and the seismic hazards astronauts might encounter at the surface. Its modular design allows the system to be adapted or expanded to host new instruments in the future, creating a reusable platform that can evolve as scientific priorities grow.
The payload will remain in a clean room at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, where it was built, until it is assigned to an Artemis mission for deployment to the lunar surface.
“The completion of the LEMS scientific instrument is a major step in a new era of lunar surface science. Innovative science experiments will uncover, measure, and reveal the Moon’s secrets while astronauts open new frontiers for discovery,” said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters in Washington. “And, behind the scenes, countless teams across NASA and our partners are pushing the boundaries of what surface instruments can do, building the tools that will make future exploration possible and safer.”
A scientist wearing NASA’s xEMU prototype space suit is testing the handling of a mockup version of NASA’s Lunar Environment Monitoring Station, or LEMS. The testing took place at the Active Response Gravity Offload System, a simulated reduced gravity environment at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
NASA Johnson
The LEMS payload builds on a legacy of lunar seismic tracking. Apollo astronauts deployed a network of seismometers on the Moon’s nearside equatorial region between 1969 and 1972. Those instruments operated until 1977, recording about 13,000 moonquakes and other ground vibrations that helped scientists begin to understand the composition of the Moon’s interior. For decades, researchers have hoped to spread more seismometers, updated with new technologies, across the lunar surface.
Now, LEMS will carry the first seismometers to be deployed by future astronauts to listen for faint ground vibrations, collecting new clues to the Moon’s internal structure and ongoing seismic activity. The sensors will be the most compact, sensitive, and energy-efficient seismometers ever built for planetary exploration.
LEMS itself is about the size of a small suitcase, weighing 11 pounds in the Moon’s low-gravity environment. It will carry not just these seismic sensors, but everything it needs to function independently of humans after deployment. LEMS is built to manage its own power production via a lightweight, flexible solar array that conforms to the shape of the LEMS unit. It also will manage its operational activities to ensure continuous data collection based on a preset plan, and monthly data transmission to Earth. The payload will do all this while maintaining a stable internal temperature throughout the massive day-to-night temperature swings of the South Pole region.
Mechanical Engineer Brie Ludwig inspects the Lunar Environment Monitoring Station (LEMS) in preparation for testing in a thermal vacuum chamber at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, on March 31, 2026. LEMS is a compact, autonomous, and self-sustaining seismometer suite designed to carry out continuous, long-term monitoring of the lunar seismic environment at the South Polar region.
NASA/Denny Henry
“When we conceived of LEMS, we weren’t just thinking about the next mission, we were thinking about the next generation of lunar exploration,” said Mehdi Benna, a University of Maryland Baltimore County scientist who leads LEMS from NASA Goddard. “Our vision was to create a scientific buoy for the Moon. Like an ocean buoy on Earth, LEMS is designed to be easy to build, adaptable to different scientific objectives, and capable of operating independently for years.”
Before any surface science could happen, Benna and his team had to ensure that LEMS could survive the trip to the Moon and the harsh environment of its surface. Over the past five months, LEMS and its components have been subjected to a demanding series of environmental and operational tests. Engineers verified LEMS can endure the violent shaking of launch, the journey to the lunar surface, and the Moon’s temperature and radiation environment. The team also showed that the instrument package’s mechanical and electrical design is safe for astronaut handling.
The LEMS payload was built to operate through the lunar night, which lasts two Earth weeks, without external power assistance or a heat source. Past lunar surface instruments relied on radioisotope heaters for warmth and power. But LEMS instead will withstand temperatures that dip to minus 400 degrees Fahrenheit in some areas by using advanced insulation materials, low-thermal-conductivity cables that minimize heat loss, and a thermal regulator that conducts heat away during the day to prevent overheating and helps retain heat at night.
These innovations reduce mass and power needs, setting the stage for lighter, energy-efficient instruments that can operate continuously at future Artemis landing sites and the NASA-led Moon Base.
The LEMS payload is led by University of Maryland Baltimore County and University of Maryland College Park. Technical implementation is led by NASA Goddard. The University of Arizona, in partnership with Silicon Audio, Inc., supplied LEMS’ two state-of-the-art seismometers. Morehead State University in Kentucky provided LEMS’ telecommunication system and will operate the instrument on the surface. Washington University in St. Louis will manage the instrument’s data processing and dissemination to the larger scientific community.
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
This annotated composite of nine images taken by Perseverance’s Mastcam-Z on July 2, 2026, shows Earth — the small bright dot moving from upper left to lower right — passing behind the Martian moon Phobos. The images in the inset were captured from the same rectangular patch of sky outlined in black.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS/SSI
The timecode annotations in the inset show the local solar time on Mars during which five individual images of the occultation were captured by NASA’s Perseverance on July 2, 2026. Earth disappears — and then reappears — behind the Martian moon Phobos.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS/SSI
Earth and the Martian moon Phobos dance together in a series of images recently acquired by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. Earth appears as a point of light in the Martian sky, disappearing behind the crescent of Phobos, the larger of Mars’ two moons.
This is the first time humanity has captured from the surface of another planet an observation of Earth disappearing behind an object.
The image sequence was taken by the rover’s Mastcam-Z instrument at about 7 p.m. local solar time (the Martian evening time where the rover is located) on July 2, the 1,907th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. In the composite image, Earth travels from the upper left of the frame toward the lower right while Phobos, moving from lower left to upper right, sweeps across its path. In the third frame of the sequence, the two meet, and our planet winks out behind the little moon’s shadowed edge.
“The composite image makes for a unique Earth self-portrait, taken from the surface of another planet, with a Phobos photobomb,” said Justin Maki, the Mastcam-Z deputy principal investigator and imaging scientist for Perseverance at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
From where Perseverance sits on the rim of Mars’ Jezero Crater, the two objects could hardly look more different. Phobos, a lumpy, potato-shaped moon about 17 miles (27 kilometers) across at its widest, orbits so close to Mars (4,850 miles, or 7,800 kilometers, away) that when the images were taken, Phobos appears roughly one-third the width of Earth’s Moon as seen from our planet. Some 195 million miles (314 million kilometers) away at the time, Earth is reduced to a single, pixel-size dot.
“Phobos crosses the Martian sky three times a day, and Earth is visible for months at a stretch, but catching one directly behind the other takes planning and a little luck,” said Mark Lemmon, a Mastcam-Z co-investigator at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, who planned the observation and assembled the composite.
This composite of seven images of Earth passing behind the Martian moon Phobos was acquired from data taken on July 2, 2026, 1,907th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The black background is the result of image processing that removed extraneous light in the background to enhance detail.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS/SSI
Transits, occultations, eclipses
Astronomers call the event captured in this observation an occultation: when a larger-appearing body completely blocks the one behind it from the viewer’s standpoint. By contrast, an eclipse occurs when one object moves into the shadow of another. When the Moon passes through Earth’s shadow, it’s called a lunar eclipse; when one object that appears to be the same size as another blocks it, like when the Moon passes before the Sun, it’s known as a solar eclipse.
When the roles are reversed, with a smaller-looking object crossing the face of a larger-looking one, astronomers call that a transit. Perseverance has observed those, too: when Phobos or Deimos crosses the disk of the Sun as seen from Mars. These are sometimes described informally as “Martian solar eclipses.”
More about Perseverance
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which is managed by Caltech, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover on behalf of the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, as part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program portfolio. Arizona State University leads the operations of the rover’s Mastcam-Z instrument, working in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, on the design, fabrication, testing, and operation of the cameras.
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