Space Exploration

IBM, NASA Open-Source Lunar AI Model Beating Rivals by 23%

Yorktown Heights, N.Y. – September 15, 2026 -- IBM and NASA released the open-source NASA-IBM Lunar Foundation Model, one of the first publicly available foundation models built for scientific exploration of the Moon, outperforming widely used detection methods by up to 23% in identifying craters, ice deposits and volcanic formations.

Model cuts ice-detection error by up to 22% versus baseline

The model reduced root-mean-square error in identifying areas with high potential for lunar ice by up to 22% compared with the SwinV2-B (ImageNet) benchmark, according to a technical paper authored by IBM and NASA researchers. Permanently shadowed lunar regions -- among the hardest environments to observe -- may hold subsurface ice, a resource NASA considers essential for a future Moon base and for producing rocket fuel for Mars missions.

Artemis II Crew Joins STARMUS VIII, 15 Years After Armstrong, Aldrin, Leonov

Tenerife – September 15, 2026 -- Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen will appear at STARMUS VIII in Tenerife and La Palma from October 17-22, 2026, fifteen years after the festival's 2011 founding event brought together Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Alexei Leonov in the Canary Islands.

Artemis II crew follows the same route once taken by Apollo-era legends

Wiseman, Glover and Hansen flew around the Moon and back earlier this year alongside Christina Koch, becoming part of the first crewed lunar mission in more than five decades and traveling farther from Earth than any humans before them. Their October appearance places three of the four Artemis II astronauts on the same festival stage where Armstrong, Aldrin and Leonov once spoke in 2011.