NASA Wants Nikon to Supply Astronauts With Bespoke Camera for Moonwalks

NASA Wants Nikon To Supply Astronauts With Bespoke Camera For Moonwalks
(Photo: Pexels/Nikolaos Dimou)

NASA will be partnering with Nikon for its moon mission. The U.S. space agency reportedly wanted the Japanese camera maker to supply them with the necessary equipment to take photos during moonwalks.

Nikon To Supply NASA With Cameras For Moonwalks

The Apollo astronauts used extremely outdated camera equipment to take 18,000 photos of the Moon in the 1960s. The astronauts had to strap their cameras to their chests since their spacesuits lacked viewfinders. Because they were using photographic film, the astronauts needed different equipment to record video.

NASA plans to address the issue in its next lunar mission. The agency intends to equip the astronauts who will land on the Moon with advanced equipment to make their job easier and more convenient, and they will be tapping Nikon's help to accomplish this.

NASA wants to have a good setup to take nice pictures on the Moon in low light. However, while spacesuit-clad astronauts are handling a camera in Artemis' target zone, the lunar south pole-a region of intense

It is not ideal to push a conventional Earth camera through temperatures rife with radiation and scattered with broken pieces of moondust.

Nikon recently developed a lunar camera prototype known as the Handheld Universal Lunar Camera (HULC) with NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The crew started with NIKKOR lenses and a mirrorless Nikon Z9, which retails for roughly $5,000 on the Earth market and shields the camera from particles. HULC has a thermal blanket built into the grip, and its buttons are made to be pressed down while wearing spacesuit gloves. The circuitry of the Nikon Z9 has also been altered to increase its radiation resistance.

NASA has started subjecting the camera to rigorous testing in collaboration with ESA and JAXA. Astronauts have utilized the HULC for geology training on the Canary Island of Lanzarote, and it has also been used by astronauts in suits for simulated moonwalks in Arizona.

In the end, NASA wants the HULC to launch alongside Artemis III, currently slated for 2026. This mission will place humans on the Moon for the first time since Apollo 17's final camera shots in 1972.

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NASA's Moon Mission Update

NASA pushed back Artemis 2, which was supposed to take three astronauts on a round-the-moon trip. The mission was pushed back at least nine months. It's now slated to launch in September 2025.

The agency did not issue a reason as to why they had to make the pushback. However, Artemis 2 astronaut Jeremy Hansen supported the decision. According to him, they found several risks, and it made sense to delay the mission.

According to reports, several issues occurred. These included glitches in the abort system, which protects occupants if the Space Launch System rocket fails during a lunar landing, and problems with the heat shield of the Orion spacecraft, intended to protect them during re-entry.

Due to the delay of Artemis 2 and Artemis 3, the first moon landing mission is also set to a year later -- in 2026.