Tiny NASA cameras to capture invaluable imagery during lunar descent and landing

Intuitive Machines is gearing up to launch its Nova-C lander to the Moon's South Pole later this month. When the lander, named Odysseus, descends toward the lunar surface an array of tiny NASA cameras will capture how the surface changes from interactions with the spacecraft's engine plume.

Dubbed the Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies (SCALPSS), the tiny cameras will capture invaluable imagery during lunar descent and landing, which will help future missions to the Moon and beyond.

As part of NASA's CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative delivery, SCALPSS 1.0 - the version of SCALPSS on Nova-C lander - is dedicated to how the lander alters the surface of the Moon during landing. It will start capturing imagery from before the time the lander's plume begins interacting with the lunar surface until after the landing is complete.

"If we're placing things – landers, habitats, etc. – near each other, we could be sandblasting what's next to us, so that's going to drive requirements on protecting those other assets on the surface, which could add mass, and that mass ripples through the architecture. It's all part of an integrated engineering problem," said Michelle Munk, principal investigator for SCALPSS and acting chief architect for NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters.

You can't go to the Moon without bringing a camera! As @Int_Machines' lander descends toward the Moon, four tiny NASA cameras will collect imagery of how the lunar surface changes from interactions with the spacecraft's engine plume. https://t.co/OnmrL2LNN8 pic.twitter.com/WF96XhRg3K

— NASA Moon (@NASAMoon) February 2, 2024

Intuitive Machines' Nova-C lander carrying NASA robotic science and other commercial payloads to the Moon will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It will land near the Malapert A crater in the South Pole region of the Moon.