NASA wants to reap the rewards of ice on the Moon.
The space agency, which plans to return astronauts to the lunar surface by the end of 2025, revealed 13 landing regions at the moon’s south pole where planetary scientists believe water, ice and other nearby resources are housed in dark and gloomy craters. The sites, shown on the map below, are largely located on the rims of craters or ridges above those craters.
These places are uncharted extraterrestrial terrain.
“This is a new part of the Moon,” said Sarah Noble, lunar science manager for NASA’s Planetary Sciences Division, at an Aug. 19 press conference. “This is a place we have never explored.”
One of the main goals of NASA’s return to the Moon, a program called Artemis, is to establish a permanent presence on Earth’s natural satellite, an effort that could one day lead to a mission to Mars.
SEE ALSO: Why landing a spacecraft on the Moon is still so difficult
The light at the south pole of the moon is disturbing. It is a place where the sun barely rises over the lunar hills. It’s a world often dominated by deeply long, evolving shadows and dark environments. But crucially, each of the landing regions, each containing around 10 specific landing sites, will have close access to continuous sunlight during the six and a half days the astronauts explore the lunar surface . “Access to sunlight is critical to a long-term stay on the Moon because it provides a source of energy and minimizes temperature variations,” NASA said.
The 13 proposed landing sites for NASA’s Artemis III mission. Each area is about 9.3 by 9.3 miles in size. Credit: NASA
While at the South Pole for nearly a week in late 2025, NASA astronauts, including the first woman to walk on the moon, will collect samples to bring back to Earth and study how human bodies adapt in the lower gravity of the Moon (on the surface of the Moon). , the gravity is only one-sixth that of Earth).
Artemis mission planners expect to finalize its landing site 18 months before launch, in early 2024. (NASA’s first Artemis mission, an uncrewed trip around the Moon, is planned which will be launched on August 29.) The space agency published these sites so that the merits can be evaluated by the larger scientific community. Landing astronauts safely on the Moon is challenging and very expensive; NASA wants to make your decision better and more informed.
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And while they’re on the moon, they want to find ancient, frozen water.
“Water is a necessity to further human exploration because it could be used for drinking, cooling equipment, breathing and making rocket fuel for missions further into the solar system,” the space agency said.