As NASA continues plans for multiple commercial deliveries to the moon's surface per year, the agency has selected three new scientific investigation payload suites to advance understanding of Earth's nearest neighbor. Two of the payload suites will land on the far side of the moon, a first for NASA. All three investigations will receive rides to the lunar surface as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, initiative, part of the agency's Artemis approach.

The payloads mark the agency's first selections from its Payloads and Research Investigations on the Surface of the Moon (PRISM) call for proposals.

"These selections add to our robust pipeline of science payloads and investigations to be delivered to the moon through CLPS," said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration in NASA's Science Mission Directorate. "With each new PRISM selection, we will build on our capabilities to enable bigger and better science and prove technology which will help pave the way for returning astronauts to the moon through Artemis."

Lunar Vertex, one of the three selections, is a joint lander and rover payload suite slated for delivery to Reiner Gamma—one of the most distinctive and enigmatic natural features on the moon, known as a lunar swirl.

From worms to quail, the ISS has housed all kinds of creatures great and small over the years. Animal research in space is about to welcome some new members to the club.

Aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, 128 baby glow-in-the-dark bobtail squid and about 5,000 microscopic animals are headed to the ISS. The animals are tardigrades, better known as water bears, and they can be found everywhere on Earth.

Something fishy going on

The squid will be used to explore the effects of spaceflight on the interactions between microbes and animals. "Animals, including humans, rely on our microbes to maintain a healthy digestive and immune system. We do not fully understand how spaceflight alters these beneficial interactions," principal investigator Jamie Foster, a professor in the department of microbiology and cell science at the University of Florida, told the "BBC."

Prof. Foster added that the squid will "address these important issues in animal health." What makes the squid interesting is that they glow in the dark thanks to an organ in their sac.