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Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment 1 (PRIME-1)

NASA's PRIME-1 experiment will launch on Intuitive Machines-2 and perform a drilling demonstration on the Moon.

Future Mission

Lead Center

Kennedy Space Center

Instruments

TRIDENT and MSOLO

Space Technology Mission Directorate

Game Changing Development

Before Artemis astronauts land on the Moon, robots will scout the surface for resources and collect information. Some landers and rovers will come equipped with handy tools, including drills and chemical analyzers, to examine what lies below the lunar surface. NASA’s Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment 1 (PRIME-1) will demonstrate drilling into the Moon’s surface where it lands, bring regolith to the Moon’s surface, and use a mass spectrometer to look for the presence of volatiles.

Mission Type

Lunar Drilling Experiment

LaunchinG

Early 2025 from NASA Kennedy

Industry Partners

Honeybee Robotics + INFICON

Demonstration Location

Lunar South Pole Region

What is PRIME-1?

The data from PRIME-1 will help scientists understand in-situ resources on the Moon, including resource location mapping.

Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1) is a suite of two instruments designed to demonstrate technologies that will help scientists better understand lunar resources, in preparation for planned Artemis missions to send humans to the Moon. The TRIDENT drill will demonstrate that we can extract lunar soil, or regolith, up to about three feet below the surface, and MSOLO, a mass spectrometer, is designed to analyze the composition of that sample for water and other components.

Learn More About Payloads Flying with PRIME-1

The Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1) The technology consists of a Mass Spectrometer for Observing Lunar Operations (MSOLO) and The Regolith and Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain (TRIDENT). Intuitive Machines of Houston is scheduled fly PRIME-1 to the Moon in 2025 under the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative.

NASA/Advanced Concepts Lab

Honeybee Robotics Systems Engineer in a button-down shirt with his sleeves rolled up is seen in a lab or hangar installing the TRIDENT drill on a trolley in preparation for thermal vacuum chamber testing. — Honeybee Robotics Systems Engineer Zach Mank installs TRIDENT on a trolley for thermal vacuum chamber testing.

Mass Spectrometer Observing Lunar Operations (MSolo) test unit instrument. — The Mass Spectrometer Observing Lunar Operations (MSolo) test unit instrument is prepped for the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1) mission. This commercial off-the-shelf mass spectrometer is modified to work in space and will help analyze the chemical makeup of lunar landing sites.

The PRIME-1 thermal vacuum chamber test team stand with TRIDENT and the test trolley. — Members of the PRIME-1 thermal vacuum chamber test team (from left) Janine Captain, Zach Mank, Erin Rezich, and Julie Kleinhenz with TRIDENT and the test trolley.

Media

10 Images

Mass Spectrometer Observing Lunar Operations (MSolo) test unit instrument.

Mass Spectrometer Observing Lunar Operations (MSolo) instrument

lunar rover communicates with lander

The Nova-C lunar lander sits in front of an American flag with dramatic lighting against it.

Engineers inspect the TRIDENT drill in a clean room.

The Regolith and Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain (TRIDENT) performs testing at Honeybee Robotics.

The Nova-C lunar lander is seen in the high bay of Intuitive Machines Headquarters in Houston, before it shipped to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for integration with a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for launch as part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign.

The Intuitive Machines Nova-C lander for the company's first Commercial Lunar Payload Services delivery is positioned before being encapsulated inside its launch fairing. The lander is yellow, grey, black, and white and an American flag and NASA and Intuitive Machines logos can be seen on the spacecraft’s surface. The background of the facility that the spacecraft is in is white, and a large American flag can be seen on the wall behind it.

NASA Tipping Points

What's Flying with PRIME-1?

In addition to PRIME-1, the Intuitive Machines Nova-C lander will also carry two commercial payloads developed with NASA investment. These Tipping Point technology demonstrations were funded by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.

A small rover developed by Lunar Outpost will test Nokia’s wireless network at various distances. Micro-Nova, a hopper robot developed by Intuitive Machines, will aim to deploy to the surface and hop into a nearby crater to survey the lunar surface and send science data back to the lander.  

Learn More About Tipping Points

An artist’s illustration of Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar lander on the Moon.

Nokia Bell Labs

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