NASA unveils $10 billion in moon base contracts, new lunar missions and the 'PROMISE' of a nuclear-powered rover. Published 4 hours ago The new contracts aim to pave the way for a permanent moon base. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA is pushing ahead with its plan to build a moon base for astronauts by 2032, with the agency unveiling up to $10 billion in contracts to launch and deliver cargo to the moon and other efforts on Saturday (Nov. 7). The NASA announcement, revealed here during the space agency's "Max Power" air show event at Kennedy Space Center, included plans for a new $10 billion Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) framework, dubbed CLPS 2, about$1.3 billion in funding for the agency's Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) program, and the nuclear-powered "PROMISE" rover on the moon. The announcements mark another step in NASA's effort to establish infrastructure on the moon before Artemis astronauts return to its surface, including a rover and other cargo and research elements. "Under the current CLPS contract, it's all all or nothing, which might be fine if you're only doing one or two of those [missions] per year," NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told Space.com during a press conference on Saturday. "But when you're trying to scale up to what we're talking about today, you want to have the flexibility to move pieces around." NASA unveils nuclear-powered moon rover built from Mars rover parts NASA has unveiled PROMISE, a new nuclear-powered lunar rover built using spare components and engineering test hardware from its Curiosity and Perseverance Mars rovers! Announced at NASA's MAX POWER event at Kennedy Space Center on Nov. 7, 2026, the PROMISE (Polar Rover for Observation, Mapping, and In-Situ Exploration) mission will explore the moon's south pole, searching for water ice and other resources that could support future astronauts and NASA's planned Moon Base. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech | edited by Space.com Landing cargo on the moon. NASA selected eight companies to compete for the new CLPS 2 missions under the framework: Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, ispace-U.S., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, SpaceX and Voyager Technologies. The contracts for the 10-year CLPS 2 architecture carry a combined maximum value of $10 billion, rather than $10 billion in immediately awarded missions. NASA also increased the ceiling of its existing CLPS contract from $2.6 billion to $4.2 billion to support the agency's "Phase One" Moon Base objectives. NASA is also following through on a promise Isaacman made in June, when he proposed repurposing an engineering model of the Perseverance and Curiosity Mars rovers (essentially an Earth-based twin) as a mission-ready rover to send to the moon. That rover, called PROMISE (short for "Polar Rover for Observation, Mapping, and In-Situ Exploration"), is a nuclear-powered robot intended to explore the lunar south pole beginning in late 2028. The autonomous rover will carry a drill and scientific instruments to search for volatiles and water ice on the lunar surface. NASA awarded Blue Origin a $94 million base contract, with an additional $140 million option period based on performance, to deliver PROMISE to the lunar surface aboard its Blue Moon Mark 1 lander. NASA provides Artemis mission update to accelerate a return to the moon NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman provided an update on Oct. 23 outlining acceleration plans for the agency's Artemis Program, and providing timelines for the readiness of the program's two commercial lunar landers, SpaceX's Starship and Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander. CreditL NASA Communication satellites, navigation tests and more. In addition to that contract for Blue Origin, NASA awarded six launch and orbital transportation task orders worth a total of approximately $1.3 billion to Arrow Science and Technology, Blue Origin and Impulse Space under its Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) program. The missions will demonstrate commercial launch and orbital transportation capabilities, including cargo transfers between Earth and lunar orbits, navigation tests with the CAPSTONE 2 spacecraft and lunar scouting with "MoonFall" drones. Blue Origin, SpaceX and Relativity Space will provide launch support with their New Glenn, Falcon 9 and Terran R rockets, respectively. Under a separate lunar logistics contract, NASA selected SpaceX to launch communications satellites aboard its Starship megarocket in 2028, helping to establish a future lunar communications network with spacecraft similar to the company's Starlink spacecraft. NASA also awarded contracts to Honeybee Robotics, Redwire and Yank Technologies to develop components for a lunar power and communications tower, known as miniCAST. The announcements support NASA's Phase One Moon Base strategy, which is scheduled to extend through 2029 and focuses on robotic exploration, infrastructure demonstrations and commercial deliveries. Phase Two, which runs from 2029 to 2032, will continue to build out infrastructure for the base, which will get up and running during Phase 3. Staff Writer, Spaceflight Josh Dinner is Space.com's Spaceflight Staff Writer and a photographer with a passion for science and exploration. He has worked the space beat since 2016, covering the evolution of NASA's commercial spaceflight partnerships and crewed missions, planetary science missions, the Artemis program and humanity's return to the moon. He also enjoys building 1:144-scale model rockets and spacecraft. Find some of Josh's launch photography on Instagram, and follow him on X, where he mostly posts in haiku.

NASA is sending instruments to this lunar pit to find out what is hidden beneath the moon. NASA's GIMLI mission will probe beneath the Marius Hills pit to find out whether one of the moon's most intriguing openings leads into a vast hidden lava tube. Published on October 3, 2026 at 11:45 | Written by Lydia Amazouz | Reading time: 6 minutes NASA has selected a mission concept designed to determine whether a large underground cave or lava tube extends from the Marius Hills pit on the moon, a finding that could reshape scientists' understanding of lunar volcanism and identify natural shelters for future astronauts. According to the Planetary Science Institute, the project will combine seismic measurements, ground-penetrating radar and gravity observations to probe beneath the lunar surface from close range. A lunar pit may open into something far larger underground. The mission, called Geophysical Instruments for Marius Lunar pit Investigation, or GIMLI, will focus on the Marius Hills pit, a deep opening located in one of the moon's most volcanically diverse regions. For years, orbital observations have suggested that some lunar pits may be skylights created when sections of ancient lava tubes collapsed, exposing openings into underground cavities. What scientists still lack is direct geophysical evidence showing whether those cavities actually extend beyond the visible walls of the pits and, if they do, how large they may be. Led by Planetary Science Institute associate director and senior scientist Than Putzig, GIMLI is intended to answer that question from the lunar surface rather than from orbit. The project brings together PSI, Honeybee Robotics, the Norwegian Space Agency and researchers from several universities and planetary science institutions. A lander and rover supplied through NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative are expected to carry the instruments needed to investigate the subsurface around the pit. The scientific stakes go beyond finding an empty space underground. A confirmed lava tube could preserve geological structures that have remained protected from micrometeorite impacts, radiation and the constant reworking of exposed lunar soil. Such a cavity could provide researchers with a more intact record of the moon's volcanic past and potentially offer future crews a naturally shielded environment. "GIMLI represents the type of ambitious planetary science that PSI was built to pursue," said PSI director and CEO Amanda Hendrix. "Than and his team are taking a scientific question we've been studying from orbit and have developed a way to investigate it directly on the moon. We're excited to have PSI leading this effort and to be partnering with NASA and Honeybee Robotics to learn more about the moon and its volcanic past." GIMLI will search below the moon using three complementary techniques. Instead of relying on a single instrument, the mission will combine several methods that can reveal different characteristics of the lunar subsurface. Ground-penetrating radar will send electromagnetic signals downward and measure reflections from buried boundaries or voids. Seismic sensors will track how deliberately generated vibrations travel through the ground. A gravimeter will measure small changes in the local gravitational field that could indicate differences in underground density. Used together, these tools could give scientists a three-dimensional picture of what lies beneath the terrain surrounding the Marius Hills pit. A hollow lava tube would affect radar reflections, seismic-wave propagation and local gravity in different but complementary ways. Detecting consistent signatures with all three methods would provide much stronger evidence than relying on orbital imagery alone. The approach also marks a return to a technique with deep roots in lunar exploration. "It's long been a desire of mine to reintroduce intentional active-source seismic methods to planetary science, as it has essentially not been done since the Apollo astronauts conducted the first seismic surveys on the moon," shared Putzig. "Combining that method with ground-penetrating radar and gravity measurements makes it all the more exciting, as these methods together will allow us to get a much better understanding of subsurface properties - including the anticipated detection of a lava tube extending away from the Marius Hills pit." The project will also use cameras to document the landscape and exposed pit walls. Those images can help scientists place the geophysical measurements in context by showing visible layers, fractures and structural features around the opening. Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin company, will build key elements of the active-source seismic system, gravimeter and camera package while supporting integration and lunar operations alongside PSI. Even finding no cave could answer A major question about the moon. A negative result would not make the mission scientifically empty. If GIMLI finds no extensive cavern beneath the Marius Hills pit, its observations could still reveal how the pit formed and how deeply its structure extends into the lunar crust. Scientists have proposed that lunar pits may result from collapsed lava tubes, but direct measurements around Marius Hills could test whether that explanation fits the geology at this particular site. The surrounding terrain contains evidence of repeated volcanic activity. Marius Hills is known for volcanic domes and lava flows, and the pit cuts through material that would otherwise remain buried. Its walls expose layers of regolith and solidified lava, giving researchers access to a vertical geological record of eruptions that occurred over long periods of lunar history. By studying the thickness and arrangement of those layers, researchers may be able to reconstruct how lava moved across the region and determine whether eruptions happened in rapid succession or were separated by long intervals. Those details matter because they can reveal how volcanic activity on the moon evolved as its interior gradually cooled. The Planetary Science Institute says the measurements could therefore address two questions at once: whether a subsurface void exists and how the volcanic terrain surrounding the pit developed. That makes the site valuable even if the most dramatic possibility - a broad accessible cave - is not confirmed. A lava tube could preserve evidence of ancient lunar volcanism. Lava tubes form on Earth when the surface of a flowing lava channel cools and hardens while molten rock continues moving underneath. Once the eruption stops, the remaining channel can be left behind as a hollow tunnel. Similar processes may have occurred on the moon when large volumes of basaltic lava spread across its surface billions of years ago. Because the moon lacks the weather, flowing water and active plate tectonics that continually reshape Earth's surface, lunar lava tubes could preserve evidence of those ancient volcanic processes with comparatively little alteration. Their dimensions could also provide clues about eruption rates, lava viscosity and the conditions that existed inside ancient lunar flows. "Confirming a substantial lava tube would give us an insight into how volcanism operated on the moon," explained Gareth Morgan, PSI senior scientist and deputy principal investigator on the GIMLI program. "Lava tubes are a common feature of basaltic volcanism on Earth, so identifying them on the moon means we could use knowledge of such terrestrial caves to better understand lunar history." That comparison between terrestrial and lunar lava tubes could allow geologists to use well-studied volcanic caves on Earth as analogs for interpreting formations that cannot yet be entered directly. At the same time, differences in lunar gravity, atmospheric conditions and eruption behavior mean that any confirmed tube could reveal structures that have no exact counterpart on Earth. The interiors of such cavities may also preserve surfaces that have experienced far less radiation exposure and micrometeorite bombardment than the open lunar landscape. In geological terms, they could function as protected archives of the moon's volcanic evolution. Who is the author, Lydia Amazouz? Lydia holds a Bachelor's degree in English (2018) and a Master's degree in Language and Communications (2021) from Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi Ouzou. With a strong background in linguistics, media, and intercultural communication, she brings an analytical and nuanced perspective to The Daily Galaxy. Her work bridges science and storytelling, turning complex concepts into clear, compelling narratives that invite readers to explore the wonders of the universe. The Daily Galaxy -Great Discoveries Channel is an independent media. Support Daily Galaxy by adding Daily Galaxy to your Google News favorites: