Story perspectives

NASA Grants Interlune $6.9 M Contract for Lunar Prospecting

5/5/2026

Summary

Story summary

NASA awarded Interlune a $6.9 million Small Business Innovation Research Phase 3 contract on May 4 2026 to build the Prospect Moon lunar resource-prospecting payload.
Prospect Moon will use a robotic arm to collect regolith, heat samples to release helium-3 and hydrogen gases, and sort material by size.
NASA will integrate the payload onto a lunar lander in fall 2027 and launch it in 2028, with the MSOLO mass spectrometer measuring gas concentrations.

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Story summary

NASA awarded Interlune a $6.9 million Small Business Innovation Research Phase 3 contract on May 4 2026 to build the Prospect Moon lunar resource-prospecting payload.
Prospect Moon will use a robotic arm to collect regolith, heat samples to release helium-3 and hydrogen gases, and sort material by size.
NASA will integrate the payload onto a lunar lander in fall 2027 and launch it in 2028, with the MSOLO mass spectrometer measuring gas concentrations.