Job
EMILIA-3D, Emission Imager for Lunar Infrared Analysis in 3D
Mixed build · University of Arizona for NASA
EMILIA-3D is the Emission Imager for Lunar Infrared Analysis in 3D from the University of Arizona, selected by NASA on 20 January 2026 under PRISM-SALSA for a CLPS delivery in 2028 or later.
NASA release 26-009 named Andrew Ryan at the University of Arizona as principal investigator. The university account of 19 August 2026 names Sarah Sutton in that role. That account gives the team 24 months to prepare the instrument for delivery to NASA. The Technology and Research Initiative Fund is paying for a thermally controlled vacuum chamber with mirrors, led by Michael Phillips, as the ground test setup.
Mission brief
The gimbal scans from the lander foot to the horizon every eight hours through one lunar day, about two weeks, from sunrise to sunset. The science is regolith physical and thermal properties, how surface roughness changes brightness temperature and the lunar emission phase function, thermal conditions like the lunar poles in shadows and at grazing sun angles, and how exploration changes surface temperatures and regolith.
Schematic
The sensor package is a thermal infrared camera and two optical stereo cameras from Northern Arizona University, derived from the VISIONS cameras now on NASA’s ESCAPADE mission to Mars. Arizona builds the gimbal interface and the instrument mounting plate and leads integration, environmental testing, geometric calibration, and operations. Stereo and thermal data at centimeter to meter scale feed 3D thermal models of horizontal and vertical heat, including small shadows, volatiles such as water ice, and plume scour in the landing blast zone.