NASA's Tiny Seismometer Aims to Survive the Moon's Two-Week Polar Night

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center is testing the 66-pound Lunar Environment Monitoring Station (LEMS), a suitcase-sized seismometer designed to endure the Moon’s two-week polar night using an advanced multi-layer insulation blanket and a reworked lithium-ion battery charging method; if successful, LEMS would become the first American instrument to survive at the lunar south pole through darkness and operate for up to two years, providing seismic data to better map the Moon’s interior and supporting future Artemis missions.