UMD Astronomer Gears Up for NASA’s Exciting Quest to Unravel the Secrets of Enigmatic Lunar Domes

With NASA’s choice of a collaborator to transport the Lunar VISE mission payload to the moon’s Gruithuisen Domes, researchers make further progress towards comprehending lunar formation and evolution.

NASA recently revealed that Firefly Aerospace is set to deliver the Lunar Vulkan Imaging and Spectroscopy Explorer (Lunar-VISE) payload to the Gruithuisen Domes, one of the most mysterious sites on the moon. Headed by the University of Central Florida (UCF) and backed by collaborators including the University of Maryland, the Lunar-VISE initiative intends to explore the Domes’ perplexing origins—and examine whether the moon’s surface may harbor valuable resources for forthcoming lunar exploration.

As a co-investigator and instrument scientist on the project, UMD Professor of Astronomy and Geology Jessica Sunshine regards the announcement as a significant achievement in the pursuit to enhance our understanding of the moon’s volcanic past and its progression over time.

“We are starting to have actual hardware, and we are constructing our instruments, and now we understand how they will be deployed on the lunar surface and what design our rover will have,” stated Sunshine. “What commenced as a concept and later figures in a proposal is now astonishingly becoming a reality. While the initiative has much work ahead, especially as we collaborate with Firefly, this signifies an exhilarating new phase that brings us tantalizingly close to transitioning from paper to the moon.”

The Lunar-VISE mission, presently in its development stage, is scheduled for a launch in 2028 and will traverse the Gruithuisen Domes on the moon’s near side for 10 days. One of the primary objectives of Lunar-VISE is to scrutinize how these silica-rich volcanic domes originated—a phenomenon that remains a mystery to researchers due to the absence of Earth-like conditions (such as oceans and plate tectonics) that could create similar structures. The instruments on Firefly’s rover will also perform comprehensive analyses of the surrounding lunar terrain, investigating ancient lava flows near the landing location and other vital geological features that may assist scientists in piecing together the moon’s history from its formation to its current condition.

Sunshine mentions that throughout much of the initial half of 2025, the Lunar-VISE team will be assembling, testing, and calibrating flight instruments for the upcoming mission—this includes visible and near-infrared cameras utilized for detecting electromagnetic waves for remote sensing and imaging purposes. The team is optimistic about completing the final testing of components by August 2025 to guarantee that they fulfill all operational criteria and safety regulations for lunar deployment by the time of the project’s official launch.

“I am extremely proud of our Lunar-VISE team for developing, constructing, and testing our payload instruments and preparing for integration onto Firefly’s [Blue Ghost 3] lunar lander and rover,” expressed the project’s principal investigator Kerri Donaldson Hanna, an associate professor in UCF’s Department of Physics. “The Lunar-VISE team is enthusiastic to collaborate with Firefly to devise our scientific and exploratory operations at the Gruithuisen Domes in 2028.”

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This article has been modified from text provided by the University of Central Florida.