PRIME-1 explained

Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1) is a robotic NASA experiment that is designed to search for water ice on the Moon at a permanently shadowed location near Shackleton Crater, close to the lunar south pole. The 36-kilogram (80 lb) PRIME-1 payload is scheduled for launch on a Falcon 9 in late 2024^[1] as part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program on the Nova-C IM-2 mission.^[2]

If successfully deployed, PRIME-1 will be the first attempt to show the feasibility of efforts on the lunar surface "to generate products with local materials," a process formally termed as in situ resource utilization (ISRU). Additionally, this will be NASA's first attempt to robotically sample and analyze lunar ice below the surface. PRIME-1 is composed of two components, both of which will be mounted to a commercial lunar lander:

• The Regolith and Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain (TRIDENT): TRIDENT will drill up to three feet deep, extracting lunar regolith, or soil, up to the surface. The instrument can drill in multiple segments, pausing and retracting to deposit cuttings on the surface after each depth increment.
• Mass Spectrometer observing lunar operations (MSolo): This modified-for-spaceflight, commercial-off-the-shelf mass spectrometer will evaluate the drill cuttings for water and other chemical compounds. Soil samples from multiple depths will be analyzed.^[3]

A version of TRIDENT and MSolo was to be used on NASA's cancelled VIPER rover in the search for water ice.^[4]

Notes and References

1. Web site: NASA - NSSDCA - Spacecraft - Details . 2023-01-19 . nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov.
2. http://www.parabolicarc.com/2021/07/29/apollo-to-artemis-drilling-on-the-moon/ Apollo to Artemis: Drilling on the Moon
3. https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/game_changing_development/projects/PRIME-1 Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1
4. Web site: Malik . Tariq . 2020-10-23 . NASA picks Intuitive Machines to land an ice-mining drill on the moon . 2024-05-17 . Space.com.