Artemis Arena
NASA Science ·
Overview The Artemis Arena at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center offers a premier testbed for external customers seeking to validate systems in a simulated lunar mare environment. The arena is filled with Black Point-1 (BP-1) crushed basalt, a high-fidelity lunar regolith simulant representative of the Moon’s basaltic maria. Enclosed within internal dimensions of approximately 6.8 meters in length by 5.0 […] The post Artemis Arena appeared first on NASA Science .
Overview
The Artemis Arena at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center offers a premier testbed for external customers seeking to validate systems in a simulated lunar mare environment. The arena is filled with Black Point-1 (BP-1) crushed basalt, a high-fidelity lunar regolith simulant representative of the Moon’s basaltic maria. Enclosed within internal dimensions of approximately 6.8 meters in length by 5.0 meters in width, the arena provides a substantial 45 cm depth of BP-1, with the option to include larger rocks and gravel (~2 cm diameter) to emulate natural heterogeneity.
Designed for rigorous testing, the arena features a dedicated Obstacle Zone, where teams can evaluate technologies for obstacle detection, terrain mapping, and autonomous navigation across a complex “slalom” route. The zone includes randomly placed boulder obstacles—each roughly 30 to 40 cm in diameter with variable height—and crater features of varying shape, no deeper or wider than 40 to 50 cm. A central structural column within the arena serves as a fixed infrastructure obstacle, further enhancing realism by simulating a persistent hazard that must be avoided.
This facility provides an ideal, controlled setting for robotics, mobility, excavation, and autonomy testing under Moon-like terrain conditions, and is open for use by industry, academia, and government teams preparing for lunar missions.
Specifications:
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