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NASA has selected three investigations — including GIMLI to study the Marius Hills Pit — to fly to the Moon through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services programme; no launch date was given.
On 30 September 2026 NASA announced the selection of three investigations intended to improve understanding of the Moon and to support plans for a future lunar outpost. All three are due to fly to the lunar surface through NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services programme; the announcement does not give a launch date. The most attention-grabbing of the three is GIMLI, which will investigate the Marius Hills Pit — a lunar opening that may connect to an underground lava tube. GIMLI’s instruments are intended to look below the surface and help determine whether a tube exists and how large it is. The site was identified by Japan’s Kaguya lunar orbiter in 2009, and the presence of a subsurface cave remains a hypothesis rather than a confirmed discovery. The other selected payloads have different aims. LEMS-SP is designed to monitor environmental conditions and hazards near the lunar south pole, while DISCO is intended to make direct surface measurements of ice in small, exceptionally cold lunar regions. NASA says these investigations will help researchers study lunar resources, potential natural shelters and risks to future explorers. Together they represent a deliberate step towards better understanding the environments that might matter most to a future surface outpost.
