NASA’s PRIME-1 mission has demonstrated its capability to operate in extreme lunar conditions, offering crucial insights for future Artemis missions, even though its time on the Moon was cut short. The mission’s hardware performed as expected, marking a significant milestone for lunar exploration.
“The PRIME-1 mission proved that our hardware works in the harshest environment we’ve ever tested it in,” said Janine Captain, co-principal investigator of PRIME-1 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Despite challenges, she emphasized this as an important advancement for building a sustainable lunar presence.
The technology rode aboard Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission, which launched on February 26, 2025, from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center. As part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative and the Artemis campaign, the IM-2 Nova-C lunar lander, named Athena, carried PRIME-1. This included the TRIDENT drill, designed to retrieve lunar regolith, and the MSOLO mass spectrometer, aimed at analyzing drill samples for gases potentially useful in future missions.
IM-2 landed on March 6, about 400 meters from its target at Mons Mouton near the Moon’s South Pole. However, the Athena lander came to rest on its side in a crater, which blocked solar charging and prematurely ended the mission.
“We were supposed to have 10 days of operation on the Moon, and what we got was closer to 10 hours,” said Julie Kleinhenz, NASA’s lead systems engineer for PRIME-1. Despite the short duration, she highlighted the achievement of operating in a lunar environment.
Kleinhenz, with two decades of experience in resource utilization research, underlined the importance of using local lunar materials. In-situ resource utilization (ISRU) minimizes the need for launches and resupply, reducing both costs and risks. With Artemis and future Mars missions on the horizon, such capabilities are vital.
“In-situ resource utilization is the key to unlocking long-term exploration, and PRIME-1 is helping us lay this foundation for future travelers,” added Captain.
PRIME-1 also aimed to study the properties of lunar soil, including its strength—critical data for designing ISRU systems that may produce infrastructure like landing pads or even fuel on the Moon.
“Once we got to the lunar surface, TRIDENT and MSOLO both started right up, and performed perfectly. From a technology demonstrations standpoint, 100% of the instruments worked,” Kleinhenz confirmed.
The TRIDENT drill, developed by Honeybee Robotics, is a lightweight, energy-efficient auger about one meter long. It features rotary and percussive systems to drill into the lunar surface, and it deposits samples for MSOLO analysis. MSOLO, a commercial spectrometer modified at NASA Kennedy, is designed to detect gases around the lander and analyze soil composition.
Upon arrival, TRIDENT executed all planned motions—rotation, extension, percussion, and heating—guided by technicians on Earth. Internal sensors helped monitor temperature shifts during operations.
Although MSOLO successfully scanned for gases, early data suggests most detected gases were anthropogenic—originating from spacecraft exhaust and Earth water rather than native lunar sources. PRIME-1 contributed part of the 6.6 GB of total data from IM-2, and analysis is ongoing, with findings to be published in the future.
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Disclaimer: This news report is a restructured version based on publicly available information from related sources. All technological specifications and mission details are subject to ongoing review and official publication by NASA.
