NASA Lunar Science Institute
The NASA Lunar Science Institute was an organization, established by NASA in 2008, that supplemented and extended existing NASA lunar science programs. Supported by the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) and the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD), the NLSI was managed by the NASA Ames Research Center and was modeled on the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) with dispersed teams across the nation working together to help lead the agency's research activities related to NASA's lunar exploration goals. Competitively selected team investigations focused on one or more aspects of lunar science—investigations of the Moon (including lunar samples), from the Moon, and/or on the Moon.