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NASA Awards Lunar Freezer System Contract
NASA has selected the University of Alabama at Birmingham to provide the necessary systems required to return temperature sensitive science payloads to Earth from the Moon.
The Lunar Freezer System contract is an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity award with cost-plus-fixed-fee delivery orders. The contract begins Thursday, Dec. 4, with a 66-month base period along with two optional periods that could extend the award through June 3, 2033. The contract has a total estimated value of $37 million.
Under the contract, the awardee will be responsible for providing safe, reliable, and cost-effective hardware and software systems NASA needs to maintain temperature-critical science materials, including lunar geological samples, human research samples, and biological experimentation samples, as they travel aboard Artemis spacecraft to Earth from the lunar surface. The awarded contractor was selected after a thorough evaluation by NASA engineers of the proposals submitted. NASA’s source selection authority made the selection after reviewing the evaluation material based on the evaluation criteria contained in the request for proposals.
For information about NASA and other agency programs, visit:
-end-
Tiernan Doyle
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
tiernan.doyle@nasa.gov
NASA Awards Lunar Freezer System Contract
NASA has selected the University of Alabama at Birmingham to provide the necessary systems required to return temperature sensitive science payloads to Earth from the Moon.
The Lunar Freezer System contract is an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity award with cost-plus-fixed-fee delivery orders. The contract begins Thursday, Dec. 4, with a 66-month base period along with two optional periods that could extend the award through June 3, 2033. The contract has a total estimated value of $37 million.
Under the contract, the awardee will be responsible for providing safe, reliable, and cost-effective hardware and software systems NASA needs to maintain temperature-critical science materials, including lunar geological samples, human research samples, and biological experimentation samples, as they travel aboard Artemis spacecraft to Earth from the lunar surface. The awarded contractor was selected after a thorough evaluation by NASA engineers of the proposals submitted. NASA’s source selection authority made the selection after reviewing the evaluation material based on the evaluation criteria contained in the request for proposals.
For information about NASA and other agency programs, visit:
-end-
Tiernan Doyle
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
tiernan.doyle@nasa.gov
To Celebrate 25 Years In Service, The Gemini Observatory Imaged The Butterfly Nebula
To celebrate 25 years since the completion of the International Gemini Observatory, students in Chile voted for the Gemini South telescope to image NGC 6302 — a billowing planetary nebula that resembles a cosmic butterfly. The International Gemini Observatory is partly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and operated by NSF NOIRLab.
Trump’s MRI Is Not Standard ‘Preventive’ Care, Say Experts
“It is certainly not standard medical practice to perform screening MRIs of the heart and abdomen,” says one expert
NASA’s Fly Foundational Robots Demo to Bolster In-Space Infrastructure
NASA and industry partners will fly and operate a commercial robotic arm in low Earth orbit through the Fly Foundational Robots mission set to launch in late 2027. This mission aims to revolutionize in-space operations, a critical capability for sustainably living and working on other planets. By enabling this technology demonstration, NASA is fostering the in-space robotics industry to unlock valuable tools for future scientific discovery and exploration missions.
“Today it’s a robotic arm demonstration, but one day these same technologies could be assembling solar arrays, refueling satellites, constructing lunar habitats, or manufacturing products that benefit life on Earth,” said Bo Naasz, senior technical lead for In-space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing (ISAM) in the Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This is how we build a dominant space economy and sustained human presence on the Moon and Mars.”
Artist concept of the FFR Mission’s robotic system payload atop the Astro Digital spacecraft. The robotic arm, provided by Motiv Space Systems, will perform robotic demonstrations in orbit.Motiv Space Systems
The Fly Foundational Robots (FFR) mission will leverage a robotic arm from small business Motiv Space Systems capable of dexterous manipulation, autonomous tool use, and walking across spacecraft structures in zero or partial gravity. This mission could enable ways to repair and refuel spacecraft, construct habitats and infrastructure in space, maintain life support systems on lunar and Martian surfaces, and serve as robotic assistants to astronauts during extended missions. Advancing robotic systems in space could also enhance our understanding of similar technologies on Earth across industries including construction, medicine, and transportation.
To demonstrate FFR’s commercial robotic arm in space, NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate is contracting with Astro Digital to provide a hosted orbital test through the agency’s Flight Opportunities program.
Guest roboticists will have the opportunity to contribute to the FFR mission, and participation will allow them to use Motiv’s robotic platform as a testbed and perform unique tasks. NASA will serve as the inaugural guest operator and is currently seeking other interested U.S. partners to participate.
The future of in-space robotics relies on testing robotic operations in space prior to launching more complex and extensive servicing and refueling missions. Through FFR, the demonstration of Motiv’s robotic arm operations in space will begin to push open the door to endless possibilities.
NASA’s Fly Foundational Robots demonstration is funded through the NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate’s ISAM portfolio and managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Motiv Space Systems of Pasadena, California, will supply the mission’s robotic arm system through a NASA Small Business Innovation Research Phase III award. Astro Digital of Littleton, Colorado, will flight test Motiv’s robotic payload through NASA’s Flight Opportunities program managed by NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.
Learn more about In-space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing at NASA.
By Colleen Wouters
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
NASA’s Fly Foundational Robots Demo to Bolster In-Space Infrastructure
NASA and industry partners will fly and operate a commercial robotic arm in low Earth orbit through the Fly Foundational Robots mission set to launch in late 2027. This mission aims to revolutionize in-space operations, a critical capability for sustainably living and working on other planets. By enabling this technology demonstration, NASA is fostering the in-space robotics industry to unlock valuable tools for future scientific discovery and exploration missions.
“Today it’s a robotic arm demonstration, but one day these same technologies could be assembling solar arrays, refueling satellites, constructing lunar habitats, or manufacturing products that benefit life on Earth,” said Bo Naasz, senior technical lead for In-space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing (ISAM) in the Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This is how we build a dominant space economy and sustained human presence on the Moon and Mars.”
Artist concept of the FFR Mission’s robotic system payload atop the Astro Digital spacecraft. The robotic arm, provided by Motiv Space Systems, will perform robotic demonstrations in orbit.Motiv Space SystemsThe Fly Foundational Robots (FFR) mission will leverage a robotic arm from small business Motiv Space Systems capable of dexterous manipulation, autonomous tool use, and walking across spacecraft structures in zero or partial gravity. This mission could enable ways to repair and refuel spacecraft, construct habitats and infrastructure in space, maintain life support systems on lunar and Martian surfaces, and serve as robotic assistants to astronauts during extended missions. Advancing robotic systems in space could also enhance our understanding of similar technologies on Earth across industries including construction, medicine, and transportation.
To demonstrate FFR’s commercial robotic arm in space, NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate is contracting with Astro Digital to provide a hosted orbital test through the agency’s Flight Opportunities program.
Guest roboticists will have the opportunity to contribute to the FFR mission, and participation will allow them to use Motiv’s robotic platform as a testbed and perform unique tasks. NASA will serve as the inaugural guest operator and is currently seeking other interested U.S. partners to participate.
The future of in-space robotics relies on testing robotic operations in space prior to launching more complex and extensive servicing and refueling missions. Through FFR, the demonstration of Motiv’s robotic arm operations in space will begin to push open the door to endless possibilities.
NASA’s Fly Foundational Robots demonstration is funded through the NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate’s ISAM portfolio and managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Motiv Space Systems of Pasadena, California, will supply the mission’s robotic arm system through a NASA Small Business Innovation Research Phase III award. Astro Digital of Littleton, Colorado, will flight test Motiv’s robotic payload through NASA’s Flight Opportunities program managed by NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.
Learn more about In-space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing at NASA.
By Colleen Wouters
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Ancient human artefacts found near caves in Arabian desert
Ancient human artefacts found near caves in Arabian desert
What Is a Bomb Cyclone? Why This Winter Storm Doesn’t Qualify
A rapidly intensifying low-pressure system off the coast is keeping the worst of the snow away from Boston, New York City and Washington, D.C.
Why quantum mechanics says the past isn’t real
Why quantum mechanics says the past isn’t real
Waxing Gibbous Moon
Waxing Gibbous Moon
The waxing gibbous moon rises above Earth’s blue atmosphere in this photograph taken from the International Space Station on Oct. 3, 2025, as it orbited 263 miles above a cloudy Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Quebec, Canada.
In our entire solar system, the only object that shines with its own light is the Sun. That light always beams onto Earth and the Moon from the direction of the Sun, illuminating half of our planet in its orbit and reflecting off the surface of the Moon to create moonlight. Sometimes the entire face of the Moon glows brightly. Other times we see only a thin crescent of light. Sometimes the Moon seems to disappear. These shifts are called Moon phases. The waxing gibbous phase comes just before the full moon.
Image credit: NASA
Waxing Gibbous Moon
The waxing gibbous moon rises above Earth’s blue atmosphere in this photograph taken from the International Space Station on Oct. 3, 2025, as it orbited 263 miles above a cloudy Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Quebec, Canada.
In our entire solar system, the only object that shines with its own light is the Sun. That light always beams onto Earth and the Moon from the direction of the Sun, illuminating half of our planet in its orbit and reflecting off the surface of the Moon to create moonlight. Sometimes the entire face of the Moon glows brightly. Other times we see only a thin crescent of light. Sometimes the Moon seems to disappear. These shifts are called Moon phases. The waxing gibbous phase comes just before the full moon.
Image credit: NASA
The Knotty Problem of Matter Asymmetry Might Be Solved By Extending Physics
Why is the Universe filled with matter? Why isn't it an equal amount of matter and antimatter? We still don't know the answer, but a new approach looks at the symmetries of extended models of particle physics and finds a possible path forward. It's a knotty problem that may just have a knotty solution.
NASA Tests Drones in Death Valley, Preps for Martian Sands and Skies
Next-generation drone flight software is just one of 25 technologies for the Red Planet that the space agency funded for development this year.
When NASA engineers want to test a concept for exploring the Red Planet, they have to find ways to create Mars-like conditions here on Earth. Then they test, tinker, and repeat.
That’s why a team from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California took three research drones to California’s Death Valley National Park and the Mojave Desert earlier this year. They needed barren, featureless desert dunes to hone navigation software. Called Extended Robust Aerial Autonomy, the work is just one of 25 projects funded by the agency’s Mars Exploration Program this past year to push the limits of future technologies. Similar dunes on Mars confused the navigation algorithm of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter during several of its last flights, including its 72nd and final flight on the Red Planet.
“Ingenuity was designed to fly over well-textured terrain, estimating its motion by looking at visual features on the ground. But eventually it had to cross over blander areas where this became hard,” said Roland Brockers, a JPL researcher and drone pilot. “We want future vehicles to be more versatile and not have to worry about flying over challenging areas like these sand dunes.”
Whether it’s new navigation software, slope-scaling robotic scouts, or long-distance gliders, the technology being developed by the Mars Exploration Program envisions a future where robots can explore all on their own — or even help astronauts do their work.
Desert dronesNASA scientists and engineers have been going to Death Valley National Park since the 1970s, when the agency was preparing for the first Mars landings with the twin Viking spacecraft. Rubbly volcanic boulders on barren slopes earned one area the name Mars Hill, where much of this research has taken place. Almost half a century later, JPL engineers tested the Perseverance rover’s precision landing system by flying a component of it in a piloted helicopter over the park.
For the drone testing, engineers traveled to the park’s Mars Hill and Mesquite Flats Sand Dunes in late April and early September. The JPL team received only the third-ever license to fly research drones in Death Valley. Temperatures reached as high as 113 degrees Fahrenheit (45 degrees Celsius); gathered beneath a pop-up canopy, team members tracked the progress of their drones on a laptop.
JPL researchers gather under a pop-up tent in Death Valley National Park while monitoring the performance of a research drone equipped with navigation software for Mars.NASA/JPL-Caltech
The test campaign has already resulted in useful findings, including how different camera filters help the drones track the ground and how new algorithms can guide them to safely land in cluttered terrain like Mars Hill’s.
“It’s incredibly exciting to see scientists using Death Valley as a proving ground for space exploration,” said Death Valley National Park Superintendent Mike Reynolds. “It’s a powerful reminder that the park is protected not just for its scenic beauty or recreational opportunities, but as a living laboratory that actively helps us understand desert environments and worlds beyond our own.”
For additional testing during the three-day excursion, the team ventured to the Mojave Desert’s Dumont Dunes. The site of mobility system tests for NASA’s Curiosity rover in 2012, the rippled dunes there offered a variation of the featureless terrain used to test the flight software in Death Valley.
“Field tests give you a much more comprehensive perspective than solely looking at computer models and limited satellite images,” said JPL’s Nathan Williams, a geologist on the team who previously helped operate Ingenuity. “Scientifically interesting features aren’t always located in the most benign places, so we want to be prepared to explore even more challenging terrains than Ingenuity did.”
One of three JPL drones used in recent tests flies over Mars Hill, a region of Death Valley National Park that has been visited by NASA Mars researchers since the 1970s, when the agency was preparing to land the twin Viking spacecraft on the Red Planet.NASA/JPL-Caltech Robot dogs
The California desert isn’t the only field site where Mars technology has been tested this year. In August, researchers from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston ventured to New Mexico’s White Sands National Park, another desert location that has hosted NASA testing for decades.
They were there with a doglike robot called LASSIE-M (Legged Autonomous Surface Science In Analogue Environments for Mars). Motors in the robot’s legs measure physical properties of the surface that, when combined with other data, lets LASSIE-M shift gait as it encounters terrain that is softer, looser, or crustier — variations often indicative of scientifically interesting changes.
The team’s goal is to develop a robot that can scale rocky or sandy terrain — both of which can be hazardous to a rover — as it scouts ahead of humans and robots alike, using instruments to seek out new science.
Wings for MarsAnother Mars Exploration Program concept funded this past year is an autonomous robot that trades the compactness of the Ingenuity helicopter for the range that comes with wings. NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, has been developing the Mars Electric Reusable Flyer (MERF), which looks like a single wing with twin propellers that allow it to lift off vertically and hover in the air. (A fuselage and tail would be too heavy for this design.) While the flyer skims the sky at high speeds, instruments on its belly can map the surface.
At its full size, the MERF unfolds to be about as long as a small school bus. Langley engineers have been testing a half-scale prototype, sending it soaring across a field on the Virgina campus to study the design’s aerodynamics and the robot’s lightweight materials, which are critical to flying in Mars’ thin atmosphere.
With other projects focused on new forms of power generation, drills and sampling equipment, and cutting-edge autonomous software, there are many new ways for NASA to explore Mars in the future.
News Media Contacts
Andrew Good
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-2433
andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov
Alise Fisher / Alana Johnson
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-617-4977 / 202-672-4780
alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov / alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov
2025-131
Share Details Last Updated Dec 02, 2025 Related Terms Explore More 6 min read NASA Rover Detects Electric Sparks in Mars Dust Devils, Storms Article 15 hours ago 5 min read NASA Orbiter Shines New Light on Long-Running Martian Mystery Article 1 week ago 6 min read NASA’s Mars Spacecraft Capture Images of Comet 3I/ATLAS Article 2 weeks ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics Mars ExplorationMars is the only planet we know of inhabited entirely by robots. Learn more about the Mars Missions.
Mars Reconnaissance OrbiterNASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is the second longest-lived spacecraft to orbit Mars, after 2001 Mars Odyssey.
MRO ScienceOverview Among other ongoing achievements, data collected by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter continues to help Mars scientists and engineers characterize potential…
Mars ExpressNASA Participation In partnership with their European colleagues, U.S. scientists are participating in the scientific instrument teams of the Mars…
NASA Tests Drones in Death Valley, Preps for Martian Sands and Skies
Next-generation drone flight software is just one of 25 technologies for the Red Planet that the space agency funded for development this year.
When NASA engineers want to test a concept for exploring the Red Planet, they have to find ways to create Mars-like conditions here on Earth. Then they test, tinker, and repeat.
That’s why a team from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California took three research drones to California’s Death Valley National Park and the Mojave Desert earlier this year. They needed barren, featureless desert dunes to hone navigation software. Called Extended Robust Aerial Autonomy, the work is just one of 25 projects funded by the agency’s Mars Exploration Program this past year to push the limits of future technologies. Similar dunes on Mars confused the navigation algorithm of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter during several of its last flights, including its 72nd and final flight on the Red Planet.
“Ingenuity was designed to fly over well-textured terrain, estimating its motion by looking at visual features on the ground. But eventually it had to cross over blander areas where this became hard,” said Roland Brockers, a JPL researcher and drone pilot. “We want future vehicles to be more versatile and not have to worry about flying over challenging areas like these sand dunes.”
Whether it’s new navigation software, slope-scaling robotic scouts, or long-distance gliders, the technology being developed by the Mars Exploration Program envisions a future where robots can explore all on their own — or even help astronauts do their work.
Desert dronesNASA scientists and engineers have been going to Death Valley National Park since the 1970s, when the agency was preparing for the first Mars landings with the twin Viking spacecraft. Rubbly volcanic boulders on barren slopes earned one area the name Mars Hill, where much of this research has taken place. Almost half a century later, JPL engineers tested the Perseverance rover’s precision landing system by flying a component of it in a piloted helicopter over the park.
For the drone testing, engineers traveled to the park’s Mars Hill and Mesquite Flats Sand Dunes in late April and early September. The JPL team received only the third-ever license to fly research drones in Death Valley. Temperatures reached as high as 113 degrees Fahrenheit (45 degrees Celsius); gathered beneath a pop-up canopy, team members tracked the progress of their drones on a laptop.
JPL researchers gather under a pop-up tent in Death Valley National Park while monitoring the performance of a research drone equipped with navigation software for Mars.NASA/JPL-CaltechThe test campaign has already resulted in useful findings, including how different camera filters help the drones track the ground and how new algorithms can guide them to safely land in cluttered terrain like Mars Hill’s.
“It’s incredibly exciting to see scientists using Death Valley as a proving ground for space exploration,” said Death Valley National Park Superintendent Mike Reynolds. “It’s a powerful reminder that the park is protected not just for its scenic beauty or recreational opportunities, but as a living laboratory that actively helps us understand desert environments and worlds beyond our own.”
For additional testing during the three-day excursion, the team ventured to the Mojave Desert’s Dumont Dunes. The site of mobility system tests for NASA’s Curiosity rover in 2012, the rippled dunes there offered a variation of the featureless terrain used to test the flight software in Death Valley.
“Field tests give you a much more comprehensive perspective than solely looking at computer models and limited satellite images,” said JPL’s Nathan Williams, a geologist on the team who previously helped operate Ingenuity. “Scientifically interesting features aren’t always located in the most benign places, so we want to be prepared to explore even more challenging terrains than Ingenuity did.”
One of three JPL drones used in recent tests flies over Mars Hill, a region of Death Valley National Park that has been visited by NASA Mars researchers since the 1970s, when the agency was preparing to land the twin Viking spacecraft on the Red Planet.NASA/JPL-Caltech Robot dogsThe California desert isn’t the only field site where Mars technology has been tested this year. In August, researchers from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston ventured to New Mexico’s White Sands National Park, another desert location that has hosted NASA testing for decades.
They were there with a doglike robot called LASSIE-M (Legged Autonomous Surface Science In Analogue Environments for Mars). Motors in the robot’s legs measure physical properties of the surface that, when combined with other data, lets LASSIE-M shift gait as it encounters terrain that is softer, looser, or crustier — variations often indicative of scientifically interesting changes.
The team’s goal is to develop a robot that can scale rocky or sandy terrain — both of which can be hazardous to a rover — as it scouts ahead of humans and robots alike, using instruments to seek out new science.
Wings for MarsAnother Mars Exploration Program concept funded this past year is an autonomous robot that trades the compactness of the Ingenuity helicopter for the range that comes with wings. NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, has been developing the Mars Electric Reusable Flyer (MERF), which looks like a single wing with twin propellers that allow it to lift off vertically and hover in the air. (A fuselage and tail would be too heavy for this design.) While the flyer skims the sky at high speeds, instruments on its belly can map the surface.
At its full size, the MERF unfolds to be about as long as a small school bus. Langley engineers have been testing a half-scale prototype, sending it soaring across a field on the Virgina campus to study the design’s aerodynamics and the robot’s lightweight materials, which are critical to flying in Mars’ thin atmosphere.
With other projects focused on new forms of power generation, drills and sampling equipment, and cutting-edge autonomous software, there are many new ways for NASA to explore Mars in the future.
News Media Contacts
Andrew Good
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-2433
andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov
Alise Fisher / Alana Johnson
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-617-4977 / 202-672-4780
alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov / alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov
2025-131
Share Details Last Updated Dec 02, 2025 Related Terms Explore More 6 min read NASA Rover Detects Electric Sparks in Mars Dust Devils, Storms Article 11 hours ago 5 min read NASA Orbiter Shines New Light on Long-Running Martian Mystery Article 1 week ago 6 min read NASA’s Mars Spacecraft Capture Images of Comet 3I/ATLAS Article 2 weeks ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics Mars ExplorationMars is the only planet we know of inhabited entirely by robots. Learn more about the Mars Missions.
Mars Reconnaissance OrbiterNASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is the second longest-lived spacecraft to orbit Mars, after 2001 Mars Odyssey.
MRO ScienceOverview Among other ongoing achievements, data collected by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter continues to help Mars scientists and engineers characterize potential…
Mars ExpressNASA Participation In partnership with their European colleagues, U.S. scientists are participating in the scientific instrument teams of the Mars…
Video: Highlights from a Sickle Cell Disease Event
Scientific American hosted an event at Morehouse School of Medicine to highlight medical advances in treating sickle cell disease and how far we still have to go