All About Polar Resource Ice Mining Experiment-1

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.

Launching no earlier than Feb. 26 aboard the Intuitive Machines second Moon mission, NASA’s Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment 1 (PRIME-1) will demonstrate drilling into the lunar surface where it lands, bring regolith to the Moon’s surface, and use a mass spectrometer to look for the presence of volatiles.

This technology demonstration will help us better understand the Moon and its subsurface resources, paving the way for sustainable human exploration under the agency’s Artemis campaign for the benefit of all.