Highlights
- NASA awarded Arizona State University $3.2 million under contract 80MSFC26C0002 for a lunar spectrometer payload.
- The instrument, called AIRES, will support the NASA Lunar Terrain Vehicle Instruments program under the Artemis mission.
- ASU's legal entity is the Arizona Board of Regents, headquartered in Scottsdale, with an active SAM registration through January 2027.
- No action date was disclosed in the USAspending record; the award detail page is the only public source for contract terms.
NASA awarded Arizona State University $3.2 million to design and deliver the Artemis Infrared Reflectance and Emission Spectrometer, known as AIRES, according to federal procurement records posted to USAspending.gov under contract 80MSFC26C0002.
The AIRES payload will support NASA's Lunar Terrain Vehicle Instruments program, a component of the agency's Artemis effort to return astronauts to the moon's surface. The spectrometer is designed to analyze the lunar terrain's infrared reflectance and emission properties from the rover platform.
The contract lists the place of performance as Arizona, and the recipient is recorded as Arizona State University. The Federal Demonstration Partnership Clearinghouse identifies ASU's legal entity as the Arizona Board of Regents, with an EIN of 86-0196696 and a Scottsdale, Arizona address. The university's SAM registration, required for all federal contractors, is active through January 15, 2027, and its most recent single audit for fiscal year 2024 contained no findings.
ASU maintains active conflict of interest policies compliant with NASA requirements, according to the same clearinghouse record, a baseline condition for research and development contracts of this type.
No action date was included in the USAspending record. The award page does not disclose whether the contract was competitively bid or the period of performance.
Sources
Every factual claim in this article traces to one of the sources below. See how we work for the editorial process.
- USAspending.gov retrieved 11/08/2026 09:45
- fdpclearinghouse.org retrieved 11/08/2026 09:45
Authored by The Scottsdale Signal. Drafted by AI from primary-source material under our beat-specific editorial guides; reviewed by humans before publish under our five-gate process. Sources retrieved at 11/08/2026 09:45. Every claim traces to a source.
