MoonFall drones

Mission objectives

MoonFall's drones are tasked with surveying the lunar south polar region in detail beyond what current orbital imagery provides. Their primary objectives are to map potential Artemis crewed landing sites and Moon Base infrastructure locations; to explore permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) that may host water ice and other volatiles; and to identify and characterise subsurface water abundance using onboard neutron spectrometry.

The drones will also characterise the radiation environment at the south pole to support future human surface operations and habitat shielding design, and will generate high-resolution terrain models and hazard charts for boulder-strewn, steep, and otherwise difficult terrain that affects landing safety. A secondary objective is to demonstrate autonomous propulsive hopping drones as a new class of lunar surface mobility system.

Drone design and capabilities

Each of the four JPL-built drones has a mass of approximately 550 lb (~250 kg) including propellant, a diameter of about 7 ft (~2.1 m), and a height of about 4 ft (~1.2 m). Mobility is achieved through propulsive hops — short vertical-takeoff-and-landing jumps powered by onboard rocket propulsion — rather than wheels or tracks. This approach allows the vehicles to traverse rough, steep, and crater-interior terrain inaccessible to wheeled rovers.

Over the course of a single lunar day (up to 14 Earth days), each drone is designed to perform multiple flights, covering a total range of up to ~50 km. The vehicles operate largely autonomously, assessing potential landing spots in real time and selecting the safest available site during each hop — a capability derived from the autonomy heritage of NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, adapted for the Moon's airless, lower-gravity environment.

Launch and delivery architecture

NASA will procure the launch vehicle for MoonFall separately; JPL manages the overall mission. The four drones are transported to the Moon by Firefly Aerospace's Elytra Dark spacecraft — a high-delta-V, long-duration variant of the Elytra orbital vehicle built using systems from Blue Ghost Mission 1, including core avionics, carbon composite structures, and Spectre engines. Elytra Dark is configured to carry approximately 1,000 kg of drone hardware.

After launch and Earth-orbit insertion, Elytra conducts an approximately 45-day cislunar transit to the Moon. It then enters lunar orbit before performing a targeted deorbit and braking maneuver toward the south pole. At roughly 50 km altitude above the lunar surface, the four drones are deployed simultaneously. This mid-descent release avoids the cost, mass, and risk of a separate dedicated propulsive lander while still delivering the vehicles to near-surface altitude.

End-of-mission and survive-the-night operations

The primary hopping and imaging phase takes place during a single lunar daylight period of up to 14 Earth days. When lunar night arrives, the remaining propellant freezes, ending further flights. After each drone's final landing, it activates a dedicated long-duration survive-the-night payload designed to continue operating for several months. During successive lunar days, the drones wake and communicate with Earth, providing ongoing environmental and geophysical data from the south-pole region.

These surviving payloads are intended to mark a sustained U.S. presence at the lunar south pole and within the future Moon Base operating region, bridging the gap between MoonFall's primary survey phase and the arrival of subsequent crewed and robotic assets.

Role in Artemis and Moon Base architecture

MoonFall is part of the initial phase of NASA's Moon Base initiative, which envisions a rapid series of robotic missions to scout, experiment, and prepare the lunar south pole for long-term human presence. Data from the four drones will inform where to land Artemis crews and cargo safely, where to place habitats, power systems, and mobility assets, and where accessible water ice and other resources can support sustained operations.

Parallel assets planned in the Moon Base concept include Blue Origin cargo landers, lunar terrain vehicles from Astrolab and Lunar Outpost, and Firefly's Elytra-delivered drones as the first wave of mobile reconnaissance systems. MoonFall is scheduled to arrive at the south pole ahead of the first Artemis astronaut south-pole landing, which Moon Base planning materials provisionally target for 2028.

The Firefly Elytra Dark spacecraft that delivers MoonFall is part of the same architecture supporting Firefly's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) task orders for Blue Ghost missions to the far side and south pole. However, MoonFall itself is contracted as a separate JPL subcontract rather than as a CLPS task order.