Commercial Lunar Payload Services
Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) is a NASA program to hire companies to send small robotic landers and rovers to the Moon. Most landing sites are near the lunar south pole where they will scout for lunar resources, test in situ resource utilization (ISRU) concepts, and perform lunar science to support the Artemis lunar program. CLPS is intended to buy end-to-end payload services between Earth and the lunar surface using fixed-price contracts. The program was extended to add support for large payloads starting after 2025.
Models of the first three commercial landers selected for the program. Left to right: Peregrine by Astrobotic Technology, Nova-C by Intuitive Machines, and Z-01 by OrbitBeyond.
The lunar south pole region is of special interest because of the occurrence of water ice in permanently shadowed areas inside craters, near constant solar power at the crater rims, and abundant metals and oxygen in the regolith.
Astrobotic Peregrine
Nova-C lander by Intuitive Machines
The lunar south pole is the southernmost point on the Moon. It is of interest to scientists because of the occurrence of water ice in permanently shadowed areas around it. The lunar south pole region features craters that are unique in that the near-constant sunlight does not reach their interior. Such craters are cold traps that contain fossil record of hydrogen, water ice, and other volatiles dating from the early Solar System. In contrast, the lunar north pole region exhibits a much lower quantity of similarly sheltered craters.
The lunar south pole at the center of this image, situated on the rim of Shackleton Crater. Mosaic image created by LROC (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) and ShadowCam
Full Moon with south polar region features marked
The several hundred kilometer wide Lunar south polar region as irradiated during summer. The south pole lies at the rim of Shackleton crater. The region is shadowed by the well illuminated Leibnitz plateau, flanked on the right by the Nobile crater and to the left by the partly shadowed Malapert crater and its Malapert peak illuminated at the rim of Haworth crater.
Degree of the slopes found near the south pole of the Moon