Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS)

The goal of the CLPS project is to enable rapid, frequent, and affordable access to the lunar surface by helping to establish a viable commercial lunar landing services sector. Rather than NASA developing the spacecrafts directly, NASA contracts with CLPS providers for services such as delivery to the lunar surface from Earth, mobility, and lunar night survival. This allows commercial providers to maintain ownership of their landers and sell service capacity (mass, power, data transmission, etc.) to accommodate NASA and non-NASA payloads. So far, CLPS has contracted with five companies for eight deliveries to the lunar surface.

The image shows a graphic illustration of the rover known as VIPER. It is mostly grey with blue siding and the central structure is box-like. Four wheels are underneath the rover, which will help it traverse the lunar south pole. Mounted on top of the rover are a couple of additional small structures as well as lights that will shine the way in permanently shadowed regions (PSRS). In the background is a simulation of the Moon’s surface surrounded by black space.
Artist's concept of NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER. VIPER was to gather information on the location and concentration of ice and other resources at the Moon's South Pole. Development of the VIPER project was discontinued on July 17th, 2024. Click here for more information
NASA/Daniel Rutter

On the leading edge of the Artemis campaign, commercial deliveries beginning in early 2023 will perform science experiments, test technologies, and demonstrate capabilities to help NASA explore the Moon and prepare for human missions. With an expected cadence of two CLPS deliveries per year to the Moon’s surface, we will have more opportunities to test and advance new technology, address focused science questions, and train new scientists and engineers.

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The image is divided horizontally by an undulating line between a cloudscape forming a nebula along the bottom portion and a comparatively clear upper portion. Speckled across both portions is a starfield, showing innumerable stars of many sizes. The smallest of these are small, distant, and faint points of light. The largest of these appear larger, closer, brighter, and more fully resolved with 8-point diffraction spikes. The upper portion of the image is blueish, and has wispy translucent cloud-like streaks rising from the nebula below. The orangish cloudy formation in the bottom half varies in density and ranges from translucent to opaque. The stars vary in color, the majority of which have a blue or orange hue. The cloud-like structure of the nebula contains ridges, peaks, and valleys – an appearance very similar to a mountain range. Three long diffraction spikes from the top right edge of the image suggest the presence of a large star just out of view.

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