Elements
![Four people gather around in front of the Research and Development of Intuitive Machines’ lunar lander. The man second from the right, Time Crain, speaks while his hand is raised towards the lander to the others around him. Thomas Zurbuchen, second from the left, looks at the lunar lander that is twice his size while Crain is talking to the group. The lander has a black outer shell with silver structures that are resting within.](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/ldep-10-jpeg.webp?w=4096&format=png)
Tim Crain, second from the right, speaks with Thomas Zurbuchen, second from the left, about the lunar lander pictured. Crain is the vice president of Research and Development of Intuitive Machines which is one of three companies that will provide the first lunar landers for the Artemis program’s lunar surface exploration. Zurbuchen is the NASA Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) and he met Crain at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
NASA/Aubrey Gemignani
The Lunar Discovery and Exploration Program (LDEP) has several coordinated and focused elements to facilitate study and exploration of the Moon. LDEP supports industry partnerships and innovative approaches to accomplishing exploration and science goals, including the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS). The LDEP portfolio includes science instrument suites that will fly on commercial landers through CLPS, Artemis surface instruments and the Artemis Science Team, small satellites (SmallSats) and cube satellites (CubeSats), support for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), and instruments that will be mounted on the Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV).
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