NASA Will Fly LEXI Instruments To Observe Earth From The Moon

LEXI illustration above Blue Ghost (photo: dock. Firefly Aerospace)

JAKARTA An X-ray imaging tool will be sent to the Moon as part of NASA's initiated Artemis campaign. After landing on the Moon, this tool will capture global images of Earth's magnetic field.

This tool is named LEXI, abbreviation of the Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-ray Imager Instrument. LEXI is one of 10 instruments that will be launched to the Moon through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.

The mission is targeted to launch at the latest in mid-January with Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander. While on the Moon, LEXI will monitor Earth's magnetic field to find out how the planet responds to space weather.

"We're trying to get a big picture of Earth's space environment," said Brian Walsh, an Space Physicist who is LEXI's Main Researcher, quoted from NASA's official website on Saturday, January 4.

Brian added that knowledge about Earth is still very limited, especially in terms of physics. Through the launch of LEXI, Brian hopes that this payload can provide unprecedented interesting knowledge.

"A lot of physics may be esoteric or difficult to understand without years of specialized training, but this will be the science you can see," Brian said.

LEXI will not operate immediately after landing on the Moon. This instrument will wait for the lunar dust to disappear, then the system will turn on and heat up. After that, LEXI will focus its focus on Earth.

This instrument will collect X-ray images originating from the edge of the magnetosphere for six days. In addition, LEXI will capture magnetic reconnection, namely when the magnetosphere's field lines integrate with the solar wind field and release energetic particles.