New Technology
Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA)
The European Space Agency’s ExoMars rover is part of a series of missions designed to study the potential for past life on Mars. The rover will be the first mission to combine the capability to move across the surface and to study Mars at depth. The rover will collect samples with a drill down to a depth of 2 m…
Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS)
JPSS is the nation’s advanced series of polar-orbiting environmental satellites. JPSS includes five polar-orbiting satellites with four or more instruments and a versatile ground system. The satellites currently in orbit are Suomi-NPP, NOAA-20 (JPSS-1), and NOAA-21 (JPSS-2). JPSS-3 and JPSS-4 are currently…
Ocellus 3D
Next generation autonomous planetary exploration missions require advanced sensing capabilities for choosing proper landing areas for the vehicles. Current tools do not have the capability to allow vehicles outside the range of terrestrial control to autonomously perform safe landing operations. The Ocellus 3D lidar developed…
Landsat NeXt
Landsat Next, expected to launch in late 2030/early 2031, is an innovative Landsat mission that represents a quantum leap in measurement capabilities with improved temporal, spatial, and spectral resolutions. The mission will satisfy global Landsat data user needs and support evolving and emerging applications, all while maintaining…
The Atmosphere Observing System (AOS)
The Atmosphere Observing System (AOS) mission goal is to optimize how we examine links among tiny particles known as “aerosols”, clouds, atmospheric convection, and precipitation. AOS will deliver key data for improved forecasts of weather, air quality and climate. How? By providing unmatched…
Dragonfly
Dragonfly may be the most ambitious science mission NASA has ever attempted: sending a car-sized, nuclear-powered octocopter to explore the surface of a distant ocean world. In a voyage straight out of science fiction, Dragonfly will deliver the most expansive suite of science instruments ever dispatched to another celestial body. Dragonfly will cover…
Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO)
Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) is a collaborative NOAA and NASA program that will provide continuous imagery and data on Earth’s atmosphere, land and ocean for operational forecasts and warnings. NASA will build and launch the GeoXO satellites and NOAA will operate them…
Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Sensor – 2
NASA’s Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Sensor – 2, or TSIS-2, will measure the Sun’s energy input to Earth. Since 1978, various satellites have measured the Sun’s brightness above Earth’s atmosphere. TSIS-2 will add solar irradiance measurements to four decades of continuous data records. Unlike…
Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA)
LISA consists of three spacecraft that are separated by millions of miles and trailing tens of millions of miles, more than one hundred times the distance to the Moon, behind the Earth as we orbit the Sun. These three spacecraft relay laser beams back and forth between the different spacecraft and the…
Hazard Detection Lidar
Hazard Detection Lidar (HDL) is one of a complement of sensors under development as part of the Safe & Precise Landing – Integrated Capabilities Evolution (SPLICE) Program managed out of Johnson Space Center (JSC). HDL is a hybrid scanning-imaging lidar that performs rapid 3-D landing site imaging with real-time Digital Elevation…