NASA-Backed Neutron Sensor Aims to Map Lunar Water Near the South Pole
NASA will supply the Neutron Spectrometer System to the LUPEX mission (JAXA/ISRO) to search for hydrogen-rich water ice beneath the Moon’s surface near the South Pole by detecting neutron interactions in lunar soil; the NSS, which uses helium-3 in gas tubes to sense neutrons, can infer water up to about three feet underground and will ride a rover no earlier than 2028. This effort aims to map near-surface lunar water to support future human exploration and in-situ resource utilization, with NSS already flown on Peregrine (launched Jan 2024) though it didn’t land and with NSS planned for NASA’s VIPER rover and the MoonRanger mission to broaden the survey.