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NASA initiated the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program for flights to the lunar surface. Astrobotic was awarded a NASA contract to accommodate NASA payloads onto their Peregrine lander Astrobotic Mission One (ABM-1). ABM-1 is scheduled to land near Lacus Mortis, 44°N 25°E, in 2021. The Near-InfraRed Volatile Spectrometer System (NIRVSS) has evolved over time and was chosen as a NASA payload for ABM-1 and the flight model is scheduled to be delivered to Astrobotic at the end of March 2020.

NASA's Resource Prospector (RP) mission is intended to characterize the three-dimensional nature of volatiles in lunar polar regions and permanently shadowed regions. RP is slated to carry two instruments for prospecting purposes. These include the Neutron Spectrometer System (NSS) and Near-Infrared Volatile Spectrometer System (NIRVSS). A Honybee Robotics drill (HRD) is intended to sample to depths of 1 m, and deliver a sample to a crucible that is processed by the Oxygen Volatile Extraction Node (OVEN) where the soil is heated and evolved gas is delivered to the gas chromatograph / mass spectrometer of the Lunar Advanced Volatile Analysis system (LAVA). For several years, tests of various sub-systems have been undertaken in a large cryo-vacuum chamber facility (VF-13) located at Glenn Research Center. In these tests a large tube (1.2 m high x 25.4 cm diameter) is filled with lunar simulant, NU-LHT-3M, prepared with known abundances of water. There are thermo-couples embedded at different depths, and also across the surface of the soil tube. The soil tube is placed in the chamber and cooled with LN2 as the pressure is reduced to approx.5-6x10(exp -6) Torr. Here we discuss May 2016 tests where two soil tubes were prepared and placed in the chamber. Also located in the chamber were 5 crucibles, an Inficon mass spectrometer, and a trolly permitting x-y translation, where the HRD and NIRVSS, were mounted. The shroud surrounding the soil tube was held at different temperatures for each tube to simulate a warm and cold lunar environment.