The Mars Society is planning to build a Pacific Northwest research station suitable for simulating missions to the moon or Mars, in partnership with South Seattle College.

The nonprofit space advocacy group announced today that its executive director, James L. Burk, and the college’s president, Monica Brown, have signed a 10-year memorandum of agreement establishing the partnership.

The plan calls for the Mars Society to lease land on the college’s 87-acre West Seattle campus and build the research station, contingent on funding. Both parties will raise funds from aerospace companies and other donors to support construction, with the goal of opening the station at the start of the 2027-2028 academic year.

The agreement provides for the creation of a joint space studies curriculum and certificate program; a student capstone project and internship program tied to industry partners; and a regional workforce pipeline and community engagement effort.

The Seattle facility would be the third analog research station operated by the Mars Society, joining the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station on Canada’s Devon Island and the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah.

Those two stations were built more than two decades ago to reflect the designs for Mars habitats. They provide opportunities for teams of researchers to test the tools and techniques that future astronauts might use for extraterrestrial exploration. During their missions, the researchers live and work under simulated Mars conditions. For example, they’re required to put on simulated spacesuits every time they venture outside their habitat.

Burk said the Seattle research station will reflect NASA’s growing emphasis on moon exploration as a precursor to crewed Mars missions, as well as South Seattle College’s traditional emphasis on workforce training. “For more than two decades, the Mars Society has operated analog research stations in the Utah desert and the Canadian Arctic that have shaped how humanity will live and work on other worlds. Bringing that capability to an urban community college campus is something new, and it is deliberate,” he said.

“The moon and Mars programs the federal government has now committed to are going to need a workforce we have not trained for in 50 years,” Burk said. “South Seattle College knows how to train people for the industries that actually build things. That approach is exactly what we need for preparing for planetary surface operations on the moon and Mars.”

The analog research projects would build upon the college’s existing training programs. For example, students learning about electric vehicle maintenance and repair could work on projects involving battery-powered rovers and drones. Students in the college’s culinary arts program could contribute to research into growing vegetables in space environments.

“South Seattle College has a long tradition of meeting our region’s workforce needs in aerospace, applied science, and skilled trades,” Brown said. “This partnership extends that tradition, and this initiative reflects our commitment to exploring bold, future-oriented opportunities that expand access, inspire imagination, and ensure our students are prepared to lead in emerging industries.”

The Mars Society is headquartered in Colorado but has plenty of Pacific Northwest connections. The Seattle chapter was created in 1998, shortly after the national organization was founded. Burk, a former Microsoft project manager, lives and works in North Bend, Wash.

During a 2023 podcast interview, Mars Society President Robert Zubrin — who earned his Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from the University of Washington — said the Pacific Northwest was “perhaps at the top of the list” of potential sites for a Mars Technology Institute. Today’s announcement appears to be consistent with Zubrin’s assessment of the region.

In its news release, the Mars Society noted that the Pacific Northwest “hosts one of the largest concentrations of commercial space activity in the United States.” The society specifically cited Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture, SpaceX’s Starlink satellite factory and L3Harris Technologies’ Aerojet Rocketdyne facility in Redmond.

To raise public awareness of the Seattle project, the Mars Society said it plans to install an inflatable mockup of a research habitat in South Seattle College’s Aviation Maintenance Technology facilities this summer. The society also hinted at more to come, saying that there’s “a public event in the works.”

Seattle-based Interlune says it has managed to produce 99% pure helium-3 from a standard supply of industrial-grade helium, marking a milestone for a technology that the company aims to use on the moon.

The process, known as Cold Capture, could be profitably used on Earth even before Interlune begins lunar mining operations.

Only 0.000137% of the world’s helium exists in the form of helium-3, as opposed to the much more common helium-4 isotope. But helium-3 is uniquely suited for use as a refrigerant for quantum computers. It can also be used in radiation detectors, medical scanners and eventually fusion reactors.

Because of its rarity and utility, the price of helium-3 can range as high as $20 million per kilogram ($9 million per pound). Interlune is betting on the proposition that helium-3 is more abundant and easier to access on the moon, due to the lunar surface’s exposure to the solar wind. If Interlune’s business model works out, the company will be able to turn a profit by delivering lunar helium-3 to Earth for industrial applications.

Interlune’s first objective was to show that Cold Capture could work as advertised. The process uses cryogenic distillation to separate helium-3 from ordinary helium at temperatures approaching absolute zero.

“Capturing helium-3 from existing helium sounds deceptively simple,” Gary Lai, Interlune’s chief technology officer, said in a news release. “But helium-3 and ordinary helium are almost chemically identical, making them extraordinarily difficult to separate. Cold Capture exploits subtle physical differences between the two isotopes at cryogenic temperatures to recover helium-3 in a process designed to scale.”

Interlune demonstrated Cold Capture at a small scale in early 2025, and received a $1.25 million small-business grant from the Department of the Air Force last November to scale up the technology for commercial production.

Based on the experiments conducted since then, Interlune projects that its technology could triple the current domestic production rate of helium-3.

“Every liter of helium produced in the world contains trace amounts of helium-3,” said Rob Meyerson, co-founder and CEO of Interlune. “Cold Capture plugs into existing helium liquefaction plant infrastructure to recover that helium-3 and turn it into a valuable product.”

Interlune has already struck deals with the U.S. Department of Energy and Maybell Quantum to deliver shipments of helium-3. The first shipments are likely to come from terrestrial sources of helium, courtesy of Cold Capture.

Meanwhile, the company is following a step-by-step plan for lunar prospecting and production. A camera designed to estimate lunar levels of helium-3 is due for delivery to the moon late this year aboard Astrobotic’s Griffin-1 lander.

That mission, known as Crescent Moon, is expected to open the way for a NASA-supported experiment called Prospect Moon in 2028. The experiment will test methods to extract gases such as helium-3 and hydrogen from lunar soil and rocks.

Follow-up missions could focus on harvesting hydrogen for rocket fuel and other lunar power applications, while also collecting helium-3 for delivery to Earth.

Interlune was founded in 2020 and reported raising $18 million in seed capital in 2024. This January, the company announced an additional $5 million investment offering aimed at advancing key technical milestones.

The waxing gibbous moon is nestled in the darkness of space in this June 26, 2026, image from the International Space Station. The space station was 264 miles above the Indian Ocean southeast of Madagascar at the time.

The waxing gibbous phase comes before the full moon phase. During this time, the Moon appears brighter in the night sky to viewers on Earth.

Image credit: NASA

As NASA prepares for a sustained human presence on the Moon, missions will increasingly require spacecraft that can navigate and communicate without a direct connection to Earth.

NASA’s Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, or CAPSTONE, validated and advanced these capabilities.

Designed to test and validate technologies in lunar orbit, CAPSTONE launched in June 2022 and became the first U.S. commercial mission at the Moon. The spacecraft tested operations in three-body orbits around the Moon, using the combined gravity of Earth and the Moon to reduce the fuel needed to maintain a stable lunar path. It became the first spacecraft to fly and characterize this orbit for future exploration and science missions. Owned and operated by Advanced Space, the microwave-sized spacecraft then received a 15-month mission extension, becoming a testbed for advanced communications, networking, autonomous navigation, and software-defined satellite technologies.

Rather than launch a new satellite, NASA’s Research and Technology Mission Directorate demonstrated that CAPSTONE’s existing hardware could host new applications after launch, transforming the spacecraft into a cost-effective, flexible lunar technology demonstration platform. NASA’s SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) Division will now use the data to demonstrate innovative networking and navigation techniques on future experiments.

“Operating multiple experiments simultaneously aboard the same spacecraft allows NASA to evaluate how these technologies perform together in a real lunar environment,” said Greg Stover, director of the Advanced Research and Technology Division within NASA’s Research and Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Investments in autonomous operations and resilient communications infrastructure are essential to ensuring U.S. leadership as activity around the Moon continues to increase.”

Two experiments aboard CAPSTONE used software-defined infrastructure to advance two future mission essentials: autonomous navigation and deep space communications. The autonomous Navigation, Guidance, and Control software, or autoNGC, is designed to allow a spacecraft to determine where it is, where it is going, and how to get where it needs to be without waiting for instructions from the ground. While portions of the software had previously flown in Earth orbit, CAPSTONE marked the first time autoNGC was tested at the Moon.

“To really demonstrate that something works, you have to fly it,” said Sun Hur-Diaz, principal investigator for the autoNGC technology development project at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “The real environment is key.”

Researchers also evaluated how autoNGC performed with limited contact to Earth. While NASA’s Deep Space Network antennas were supporting the Artemis II crewed test flight around the Moon, CAPSTONE’s communications window dropped to just a few passes per week.

Those gaps became one of the experiment’s most valuable tests. Without data from Earth, autoNGC determined CAPSTONE’s location using an onboard star tracker camera to image the Moon, Earth, and other celestial bodies. The camera-based system, known as optical navigation, at times outperformed ground-based methods for real-time onboard navigation, advancing technologies for future deep-space missions.

Alongside autonomous navigation testing, CAPSTONE also tested delay/disruption tolerant networking (DTN), a communications architecture designed for deep space. Unlike Earth-based internet systems, deep space communications must function despite long delays and frequent signal gaps. The DTN system addresses those challenges by storing information on the spacecraft when no connection is available and automatically forwarding it once communications are restored. With these demonstrations, CAPSTONE became the first to fly the latest DTN protocols beyond Earth orbit and the first to run them in NASA’s core Flight System, an open-source framework that can be implemented on any spacecraft.

In one demonstration, engineers began transmitting data from CAPSTONE to Earth, but the connection ended before the transfer was complete. The spacecraft stored the remaining data until the next communications opportunity, and transmission resumed automatically. Every piece of data made it home.

“You can imagine an astronaut walking behind a lunar hill or descending into a crater and temporarily losing connectivity,” said Ben Anderson, a systems engineer for the Near Space Network at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “This technology allows that data to be automatically retransmitted once communications are restored.”

In addition to its primary achievements, CAPSTONE’s second life as a software-defined testing platform demonstrated that new technologies can be affordably tested and proven directly in their operational environment.

After nearly four years of technology maturation, NASA’s activities on CAPSTONE concluded in June 2026, while Advanced Space will continue to use the spacecraft as a technology development testbed.

The CAPSTONE spacecraft was designed and built by Terran Orbital and is owned and operated by Advanced Space. NASA’s Research and Technology Mission Directorate managed the mission through the Small Spacecraft and Distributed Systems program, based at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. Elements of the CAPSTONE technology suite were supported by NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program. The autoNGC and DTN demonstrations conducted during CAPSTONE’s extended mission were managed by NASA’s SCaN Division, based at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

A predawn Moon-and-planets meetup, a returning comet, a great chance to see the Milky Way, and Saturn’s rings at a new angle.

Skywatching Highlights

• July 7: Last Quarter Moon
• July 11 + 12: Dawn alignment of the Moon, Mars, Saturn, and Uranus
• July 14: New Moon; best dark-sky window for Comet 10P/Tempel 2 and the Milky Way
• Later in July: Saturn’s unusually thin rings are a rewarding telescope target
• July 21: First Quarter Moon
• July 29: Full Moon

Transcript

An early morning hangout with the Moon and planets, a comet swings by, prime time for the Milky Way, and Saturn’s rings shine at a new angle. That’s What’s Up for July.

Before sunrise on July 11 and 12, look toward the eastern sky for a lineup of the Moon and planets. On these mornings, the waning crescent Moon helps point the way to Mars, with Saturn shining nearby in the morning sky.

Uranus is in the same general part of the sky, too, but it is much fainter, so you will need binoculars or a telescope to see it.

Mars will look like a small reddish point of light, Saturn is brighter and easier to spot, and the Moon makes the whole scene easy to locate.

Around the New Moon on July 14, Comet 10P/Tempel 2 swings by.

This is a short-period comet, meaning it returns to the inner solar system on a regular orbit. In this case, it comes back about every 5½ years. It is not a dramatic comet that you see just by looking up at the sky, though.

Through binoculars or a telescope, find the constellation Capricornus and look for a small fuzzy glow nearby, possibly with a brighter central knot and a short, broad, fan-shaped tail.

For the best chance to view the comet, head somewhere dark, away from city lights. Start looking once the sky is fully dark, ideally about 45 to 60 minutes after sunset.

Those same dark nights around the July 14 New Moon are also the best time this month to look for the Milky Way.

From a dark location, away from city lights, the Milky Way appears as a pale, cloudy band across the summer sky. The bright, cloudy region of the Milky Way marks the direction of the galactic center. It looks so dense because we’re looking toward one of the most crowded parts of our galaxy, where countless stars glow behind dark clouds of cosmic dust.

Late in the evening, look low in the southern sky for a group of stars shaped like a big hook or scorpion tail. That’s Scorpius. The bright, cloudy part of the Milky Way is nearby, close to another group of stars called Sagittarius.

For the best chance to see the Milky Way, go somewhere dark, give your eyes time to adjust, and try not to look at your phone.

Later in July, Saturn is a rewarding target for telescope users.

Saturn’s rings are still tilted at a very shallow angle from our point of view, making them look unusually thin. The rings aren’t disappearing, but how they appear from Earth is changing. It’s a great reminder that our view of the solar system is always in motion.

Here are the phases of the Moon for July.

You can stay up to date on all of NASA’s missions exploring the solar system and beyond at science.nasa.gov. I’m Raquel Villanueva from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and that’s What’s Up for this month.

NASA is considering repurposing an engineering development version of the nuclear-powered Mars rovers for a different destination: the moon’s south polar region.

The plan calls for turning the test rover, which is currently sitting at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, into a lunar explorer named PROMISE (“Polar Rover for Observation, Mapping and In-Situ Exploration”).

During an update on the space agency’s long-range plan to build a moon base, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman stressed that the PROMISE mission was still being defined, but added that “there’s very little that would hold us back from making use of that hardware.”

NASA is already planning to send a rover called VIPER (“Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover”) to the moon by the end of next year. But Carlos García-Galán, NASA’s program manager for the Moon Base effort, said PROMISE would bring some capabilities that VIPER lacks. For example, PROMISE’s plutonium power source makes that rover more suited for exploring permanently shadowed lunar craters that are thought to contain valuable water ice.

“VIPER uses solar power, so we’re constrained to the terrain that we put it on, how much illumination that’s going to get, the time of year, where it can go,” García-Galán explained. “It could certainly not potentially go into some of these permanently shadowed regions and stay deep in there — and then, based on the lunar nights, it will have a lifespan that’s limited.”

In contrast, the nuclear-powered Curiosity rover is still going strong 14 years after landing on Mars, and the Perseverance rover is still persevering after five years of operation.

Today’s Moon Base update provided a status report on several aspects of NASA’s plans to build a permanent base on the moon in the 2030s. Among the highlights:

• A robotic lunar lander that’s being built by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture “looks like it’s almost done,” García-Galán said. The Blue Moon Mark 1 lander, dubbed Endurance, had been due for launch this year on Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, though a recent New Glenn explosion raised questions about the timeline. Isaacman said launching New Glenn was still “Plan A” for the Blue Moon mission. If the launch slips past mid-2027, NASA will look at other options, García-Galán said.
• Two other missions for the first phase of the Moon Base program are also progressing. Astrobotic’s Griffin 1 lunar lander appears on track for launch this year, while Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander “is looking pretty good,” García-Galán said.
• NASA announced that it would fund four more robotic lunar lander missions during Phase 1 of the Moon Base program, which runs through 2029. Astrobotic has been awarded $297.9 million for two deliveries. NASA will give $144.2 million to Firefly Aerospace and $148.3 million to Intuitive Machines for one delivery each. Each lander will carry cameras to document the effects of rocket blasts on lunar soil, deposit reflective location markers and monitor the lunar radiation environment. Other payloads could be added to each mission.
• Isaacman pressed García-Galán to promise that one of the robotic landers would carry a soccer ball to the moon if the U.S. wins the World Cup. “We will absolutely find a space,” García-Galán replied. Isaacman said that would serve as “a little bit of motivation” for the U.S. team. “We’re going to one-up Alan Shepard and the golf game on the lunar surface,” the administrator told García-Galán. “We’re going to get the soccer ball there. I don’t know which lander it’ll wind up going on. I’ll leave that to you guys to handle the payloading.”

NASA officials said Tuesday that they are seriously considering sending the full-scale engineering model of the Perseverance rover, which is currently housed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, to the Moon to expedite their efforts to explore the south pole region.

The car-sized rover nicknamed "Promise," which serves as a testbed for Perseverance and was not otherwise planned for a launch, would land equipped with a multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator (MMRTG) to power it across difficult terrain and through the lunar night. NASA's other rovers primarily operate on solar power.

"We are thinking very hard right now about sending Promise to the Moon," NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said Tuesday during a monthly update on the agency's plans to build a Moon base.

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