NASA has introduced the geology team to develop the surface science plan for Artemis III, the 2025-targeted, crewed moon landing mission to return humans to the moon’s surface—the first of its kind in 50 years.
The Artemis III geology team will work with NASA to determine Artemis III’s geological science objectives and design the mission’s geology surface campaign, the agency said Thursday.
Brett Denevi of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and Lauren Edgar of the U.S. Geological Survey will serve as principal investigator and deputy principal investigator, respectively.
They will lead a team of experts from the government and academia, including Yang Liu from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Katherine Joy from the University of Manchester in the U.K. and Gordon Osinski from the University of Western Ontario in London.
NASA expects the team to plan science activities during astronauts’ moonwalks such as field geology traverses, observations, lunar samples collection, imagery and scientific measurements.
“The Artemis III Geology Team will have the unique opportunity to analyze the first-ever samples from the lunar south pole region, helping us not only to unlock new information about the formation of our Solar System, but also with planning for future Artemis missions and establishing a long-term lunar presence,” said Jim Free, associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate.
