New NASA-funded Research Center to Characterize Lunar Environment and Volatile Elements / Compounds
Biochemistry Professor Thomas Orlando of Georgia Tech to lead interdisciplinary Center for Lunar Environment and Volatile Exploration Research (CLEVER) under NASA SSERVI award (US$1.5M/yr over 5 years, $7.5M total) to investigate space weather interactions with volatiles (H2O, OH, O2, CH4, H), invaluable substances for sustained human life support and energy needs of crewed Moon surface missions during Artemis and beyond; Additional CLEVER contributors are affiliated with Johns Hopkins University APL, UCF, University of Hawaiʻi, NASA AMES and KSC; 4 other lunar science teams to receive similar grants
As supply chain disruptions of LOX and LN2 create launch delays amid medical crisis, limitations of chemical propulsion generally (availability, risk, environmental effects) have prompted industry and academic thought leaders to conceptualize space ‘elevator’ as infrastructure alternative, championed by International Space Elevator Consortium; Moon-based elevators take advantage of low gravity, allowing use of conventional materials: Lunar Space Elevator (LiftPort / Michael Laine) and Spaceline (Columbia University); Hybrid concept Sky Ladder (CALT / Wang Xiaojun) would utilize tethered spaceports attached to both Earth and Moon at 4% cost of rocket-based transit
