To support NASA’s goals of returning humans to the Moon for long-term missions through Artemis, the agency’s Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative (LSII), within the Space Technology Mission Directorate, brings together a full range of stakeholders including NASA experts, industry, small business, academia, entrepreneurs and non-profit institutions to bring new technologies online for long-duration surface missions.   

Technology development areas include power and thermal management, autonomous robotics, excavation and construction, and dust mitigation to address capabilities to support successful missions on the Moon. Maturation of technologies leads to ground demonstrations, test flights, and demonstrations in relevant lunar environments. Several technologies supported by LSII have flown with providers through NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, demonstrating successfully on the Moon while returning valuable data.  

LSIC by the Numbers

~4,000 members from government, industry, academia, non-profit organizations	~100,000 hours developing ​relevant content, ​equivalent to ~50 years​ of knowledge building ​
1,000+ private sector organizations	50 states, District of Columbia (D.C.),  Puerto Rico, Guam; 73 countries

LSIC Bi-Annual Meetings

Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium (LSIC) Spring and Fall meetings bring together leading experts in the field of lunar surface technology development whose goal is to harness the best technologies in the nation to advance a U.S.-led sustainable lunar economy. Community members and stakeholders share developments and findings in a wide array of capability areas that are of priority to NASA, including surface power, environments, In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU), excavation and construction, and dust mitigation – with a shared goal of accelerating progress and expediting development.