Preparing for Lunar South Pole Science Investigations | NASA Artemis Program

Preparing for Lunar South Pole Science Investigations | NASA Artemis Program

Trevor Graff, the Artemis Science Team Hardware and Testing Lead, can be seen deploying a mockup of the Lunar Environment Monitoring Station (LEMS) during testing with the Active Response Gravity Offload System (ARGOS) at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. 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. The instrument will characterize the regional structure of the Moon’s crust and mantle. This will add valuable information to lunar formation and evolution models. 

LEMS can operate autonomously and sustainably for years at the Moon to collect geophysical measurements continuously during lunar days and nights. LEMS is intended to operate on the lunar surface from three months up to two years and may become a key station in a future global lunar geophysical network.

During NASA's Artemis IV Mission in 2028, landers will bring astronauts to the lunar surface—this time to stay.

Learn more about NASA’s Artemis program:

https://www.nasa.gov/artemis

Image Credit: NASA/James Blair
Image Date: April 21, 2025

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