by 2023 was a big year for lunar science. India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft has landed near the moon’s south pole, a huge feat for a country relatively new to the space scene, especially since its Chandrayaan-2 craft crashed in 2019.
At the same time, NASA is preparing for many missions related to the Moon, including its Artemis program. In 2023, the agency gained nine signatories to the Artemis Accords, an international agreement on peaceful space exploration, for a total of 32 countries signed so far.
As Georgia Tech’s Mariel Borowitz explains, the US now has broad bipartisan political support for space – for the first time since the 1970s – and a return mission to the Moon is the first natural goal.
Here are five stories published by The Conversation US over the past year about lunar exploration, including why people want to go back to the Moon, what Chandrayaan-3 discovered during its initial probe on the surface of the moon and the ever-increasing problem of the moon. space junk.
1. Why shoot for the Moon?
Missions to the Moon have potential benefits for various sectors, including commercial, military and geopolitical.
“Since humans last left the Moon in 1972, many have dreamed of the days when humans would return. But for decades, these efforts have hit political roadblocks,” Borowitz wrote. “This time, the United States’ plans to return to the Moon are likely to succeed – it has the cross-sector support and strategic importance to ensure continuity, even during politically challenging times.”
While some of these potential uses are far-fetched – from mining the moon for resources to launching military satellites into lunar orbit – missions to the Moon in the near future will help scientists and stakeholders aware of future possibilities.
Read more: Commercial, military and political sectors can benefit from returning to the Moon – space policy expert explains
2. Searching for sulphur
India’s Chandrayaan-3 lander touched down on the lunar surface, just a few miles from the moon’s south pole, in late August 2023.
His rover, called Pragyan, made measurements on the surface of the moon and discovered that the soil near the south pole has a surprise – sulphur.
As Jeffrey Gillis-Davis, a physicist at Washington University in St. Louis, writes, future Moon missions or a future Moon base could use lunar sulfur as an ingredient in everything from fuel and fertilizer to concrete.
Read more: Chandrayaan-3 sulfur measurements open doors to lunar science and exploration
3. Water in the ice
But sulfur is not the only potential resource at the south lunar pole. For several years, scientists have been predicting that there could be water in the form of ice at the lunar south pole. And Chandrayaan-3’s discovery of sulfur gives scientists more insight into how and recently ice may have formed on the surface.
Comets or volcanic activity could have brought water to the Moon years ago. If volcanic activity is the culprit for the appearance of water, scientists would also expect to see sulfur in higher levels, wrote Paul Hayne, assistant professor of astrophysical and planetary sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Many future missions to the Moon, including NASA’s VIPER mission planned for 2024, will continue to investigate where ice might be hiding on the Moon.
Read more: Scientists suspect ice is hidden on the Moon, and many missions from the US and beyond are searching for it
4. Lunar debris
With all the Moon missions, both current and future, some experts have raised concerns about the increasing amount of space in “cislunar space” – or the space between the Earth and the Moon and around the Moon.
NASA does not currently track the space junk left over from its missions, and this lack of oversight worries many people.
One team at the University of Arizona has begun building a catalog of debris left in this space. The team members began to identify a few large objects, and as their methods improved, they were able to see objects as small as a cereal box. The team hopes that this work will one day contribute to the sustainability of future lunar missions.
“Although there is still a long way to go, these efforts are designed to form the basis of a catalog that will facilitate safer and more sustainable use of cislunar orbital space as humanity begins to expand beyond Earth,” writes Vishnu Reddy, professor of planetary science at the University of Arizona.
Read more: More lunar missions mean more space junk around the moon – two scientists are building a catalog to track the junk
5. Future advertisements
Early this year, NASA announced the crew of its Artemis II mission. Set for late 2024, Artemis II will fly by the Moon and test technology and equipment intended for use in future missions. It will also mark the first time humans have been close to the surface of the moon in over 50 years.
