ProGrade Digital announces it has entered into a Space Act agreement with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to support the agency’s Artemis moon missions with ProGrade Digital CFexpress Type B Iridium cards in 400GB and 1.6TB capacities as well as ProGrade Digital high-speed memory card readers. ProGrade Digital memory cards were selected from among several commercial off the shelf (COTS) suppliers, due to their ability to sustain high performance, and reliable operation, in a high radiation space environment. ProGrade’s Iridium series of cards exceeded the capability of other CFexpress Type B cards when tested in a space-like environment. ProGrade worked with NASA on the Artemis campaign for over a year and a half to finalize the key deliverables in card design and post-mission support.

“The lunar surface presents very challenging environments for cameras and related storage media,” said Jeremy Myers, HULC Handheld Universal Lunar Camera COTS hardware lead. “The partnership developed between NASA and ProGrade will help ensure images and video are captured reliably when humanity returns to the Moon”.

“ProGrade Digital is extremely proud to have established a space act with NASA to implement our industry leading CFexpress Type B Iridium memory cards, featuring a CFexpress 4.0 interface and VPG 400, Video Performance Guarantee capability,” said Wes Brewer, founder, and CEO of ProGrade Digital. “Through diligent teamwork between the ProGrade San Jose engineering team, NASA’s Space Systems Department at the Marshall Space Flight Center, and key memory technology supplier – Phison Electronics - we were able to go from sample submission to hardware delivery in just under 18 months. During qualification, our cards were placed into the extreme environmental conditions uniquely encountered in outer space, over many hours of testing to maximize the reliable capture and playback of still images and video in the specially designed Nikon Z9 camera was possible.

Perhaps the best part of this accomplishment is for our everyday customers, who can now buy memory cards that will be used in the Handheld Universal Lunar Camera during future Artemis missions.” Added Brewer NASA’s Artemis campaign is an ambitious and important undertaking for humanity. Artemis will return humanity to the Moon to establish a foundation for long-term scientific lunar research and exploration, eventually leading as a passageway for travel to Mars. This Space Act agreement is a collaboration between NASA and ProGrade Digital Inc. to help ensure that images captured on the missions can survive in lunar environments.

Customers may purchase ProGrade Digital products on http://www.progradedigital.com and at other online and professional imaging resellers worldwide.