US space agency Nasa has selected three new lunar science payloads to fly to the Moon as part of its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.

Targeted for a lunar landing in 2028 at the earliest, the research payloads will provide new data on the Moon’s surface and interior to help enhance knowledge of the lunar environment and support future missions.

The payloads will be delivered by US commercial space companies under the CLPS programme. This initiative helps Nasa work with industry to advance the Artemis programme’s goals of scientific discovery and future crewed lunar missions.

Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration in science mission directorate at Nasa, said: “With CLPS, Nasa has been taking a new approach to lunar science, relying on US industry innovation to travel to the surface of the Moon.

“These selections continue this pipeline of lunar exploration through research that will not only expand our knowledge about the Moon’s history and environment, but also inform future human safety and navigation on the Moon and beyond.”

The first selected payload, from the University of Arizona, is EMILIA-3D (emission imager for lunar infrared analysis in 3D), which will create 3D thermal models of the lunar terrain to help better understand the temperature and properties of the dusty lunar soil, known as regolith.

The second, from Texas Tech University, is LISTER (lunar instrumentation for subsurface thermal exploration with rapidity), which will measure the heat flow of the Moon’s interior by drilling beneath the lunar surface to provide an understanding of its thermal history.

Third, from Johns Hopkins University, is SELINE (site-agnostic energetic lunar ion and neutron environment), which will study, for the first time at the lunar surface, the radiation from both primary galactic cosmic rays and their secondary particles and how this radiation interacts with regolith. 

Nasa says that through CLPS and by supporting a steady cadence of lunar deliveries, the aim is that it will continue to enable a growing lunar economy while leveraging the entrepreneurial innovation of the commercial space industry.

In July 2025, private firm Firefly Aerospace was awarded a $177m contract by Nasa to deliver five payloads to the Moon’s south pole in 2029.

However, US President Donald Trump said last month that he wants Nasa to move faster, ordering the agency to prepare for a manned lunar landing in 2028 and to lay the groundwork for a permanent Moon base by 2030.