It will measure with a mass spectrometer how much ice in the sample is lost to sublimation as the ice turns from a solid to a vapor in the vacuum of the lunar environment.
Besides the US, other founding member nations that have signed the Artemis Accords are Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom, NASA said on Tuesday.
Originally scheduled for October 31st, the planned six-month mission was delayed as Elon Musk-run SpaceX evaluates off-nominal behaviour of Falcon 9 first stage engine gas generators observed during a recent non-NASA mission launch attempt.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine will discuss NASA's Artemis programme and announce the agency's latest ‘Tipping Point' selections and their potential impact on sustainable lunar exploration on October 14.
Unlike similar instruments aboard Mars orbiters, which study the planet from space, RIMFAX will be the first ground-penetrating radar set on the surface of Mars.
As Ferguson withdrew for "personal reason", veteran NASA astronaut Barry "Butch" Wilmore will join astronauts Mike Fincke and Nicole Mann for the Boeing crew flight test, the US space agency said on Wednesday.
The US space agency recently pushed back the target for the launch of its next great space observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope, from March 2021 to October 2021.
At 5.32 a.m. EDT (3 p.m. India time), Expedition 63 Commander Chris Cassidy of NASA used the robotic Canadarm2 to grapple the Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft as Ivan Vagner of Roscosmos monitored Cygnus systems during its approach.
