SET successfully launches ARMAS lunar mission
CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA. Space Environment Technologies (SET) is proud to announce the successful launch of its ARMAS (Automated Radiation Measurement for Aerospace Safety) sensor aboard Intuitive Machines’ Mission 2 to near the lunar South Pole. The ARMAS Flight Module 11 (FM11) instrument is part of Lonestar Data Holding’s (Lonestar) Freedom Payload developed in conjunction with SpaceBilt, Inc. The evening launch at Cape Canaveral on February 26, 2025, at 7:17 pm ET, was spectacular as the SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off and headed to orbit.
This successful launch by the SET team provides a significant milestone for gathering radiation data that will ensure the safety and success of all future missions to the Moon, Mars, and the asteroid belts. The YouTube video shows the successful launch, deployment over Singapore, and data acquisition over the Pacific Ocean.
ARMAS has built a legacy of radiation measurements during the past 12 years, extending from the atmosphere to the International Space Station and now to the Moon. On this flight, the FM11 instrument collects data from the upper atmosphere, through the Van Allen Radiation belts, across deep space and into lunar orbit before landing on the Moon’s surface at Mons Mouton.
“SET is proud to provide this unique instrument for understanding the radiation environment from the Earth to the Moon,” said Dr. W. Kent Tobiska, President of Space Environment Technologies. “These measurements will reveal the dynamics of radiation in the Van Allen Belts as well as from the solar wind as we travel to the Moon. The variability of the radiation environment across all domains that we will travel through in space over the next decades is still not fully known.” He added, “this ARMAS information will mitigate risks and ensure longevity of missions as space agencies and commercial enterprises push the boundaries of human presence beyond Earth.”
These first-ever radiation environment measurements cover six continuous, distinct regions: the Earth’s upper atmosphere, the Van Allen radiation belts, deep space, lunar orbit, lunar landing, and the lunar surface near the South Pole where the likelihood of water ice will be found in the regolith. They will become the baseline data for understanding exposure hazards to human tissue and avionics. The domains include variability in the phenomena of electron precipitation into the upper atmosphere, the inner radiation belt protons and electrons, the outer radiation belt energetic electrons, the Galactic Cosmic Ray ions, the solar wind electron and ions, the magnetotail electrons, the albedo neutrons from the surface of the Moon, and potentially the proton environment created by water ice dissociation from the lunar regolith.
The ARMAS FM11 printed circuit board (PCB) has the inscription “half-way there, livin’ on a prayer” engraved on it, conveying the spirit behind this project. The inscription came from a suggestion by Desmond Child during breakfast with Tobiska in June 2019. In the Aegean morning light at the Anemomilos boutique hotel on the island of Folegandros, their discussion turned to SET’s instrument being built for the International Space Station (ISS) and the dream of going to the Moon. Child suggested “why not put half-way there, livin’ on a prayer on the detectors?” This phrase, combining two lines from the 1986 #1 hit song written by Child along with Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora titled “Livin’ on a Prayer,” captured the yearnings of two working-class kids facing life’s struggles with only their love and ambition. It became the apt analogy for SET’s effort using its meager resources to start with instruments for monitoring the radiation on the International Space Station, the Moon, in orbit around the Sun, at Mars, and eventually in the asteroid belt. Thus, engraving the inscription on the PCB has become a tradition for symbolizing SET’s vision of enabling human evolution into space.
Caption: ARMAS FM11 instrument containing a total ionizing dose detector, microprocessors, associated electronics, and temperature sensors. ‘Half-way there, livin’ on a prayer’ used with permission from songwriter Desmond Childs and singer Jon Bon Jovi.
The ARMAS program was developed over the past decade and a half with NASA support through 11 generations of instruments and is now the recognized real-time radiation monitoring system in the atmosphere, in Earth orbit, and soon at the Moon. NASA’s Flight Opportunities and SBIR programs helped evolve ARMAS technological maturity.