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.

What is said in the film

NASA's first Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment, also known as PRIME-1, was designed for and is capable of robotically looking for ice and other resources below the lunar surface. Thanks to data from spacecraft orbiting the Moon, scientists believe that the polar regions contain water in the form of ice just below the surface. With the right technologies, that ice is a game changing resource that can be mined and used to produce propellant and breathable oxygen for future explorers. Through NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payloads Services Initiative, Intuitive Machines was selected to deliver the agency’s PRIME-1 drilling technology. PRIME-1 will land near the Moon’s South Pole and drill into the lunar surface, gaining key insight into the soil’s geotechnical characteristics while also detecting frozen gasses that may lie beneath the surface.

PRIME-1 is made up of two instruments: TRIDENT: The Regolith and Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain, and MSOLO: the Mass Spectrometer Observing Lunar Operations. TRIDENT will drill up to three feet into the lunar surface, extract lunar soil, and bring it up to the surface. TRIDENT drills to its maximum depth in multiple phases, stopping at different increments to measure unique characteristics at each depth. As it reaches each desired depth it will pause and retract the drill string to deposit lunar soil on the surface for analysis. This is where MSOLO comes in.

MSOLO is a commercial off-the-shelf technology modified for space flight. The Mass Spectrometer will evaluate any gases released from the lunar soil using high resolution photogrammetry. TRIDENT will then proceed to the next specified depth, and repeat the process until samples at all desired depths have been analyzed for volatile content. During the drilling process, TRIDENT is gathering valuable technical data about the lunar South Pole soil, while MSOLO is analyzing it. Data includes how much force is required to penetrate beneath the Moon’s surface, how much load the soil can carry and even temperature data.

This information will support future Artemis missions and a robust human presence on the Moon.

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