Exploring The Moon in 2023: What We Have Learnt So Far

Friday - December 15 2023, 01:52 UTC - 11 months ago

2023 proved to be a big year in lunar exploration, with many discoveries being made. India's Chandrayaan-3 found sulfur near the lunar south pole, a potential resource. Meanwhile, NASA's Artemis program has gained 32 signatories of the Artemis Accords for peaceful space exploration. AI and space debris around Moon is also being monitored and showing signs of growth.

The year 2023 proved a big one for lunar science. India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft landed near the south pole of the Moon, a huge accomplishment for a country relatively new to the space scene, especially after its Chandrayaan-2 craft crashed in 2019. At the same time, NASA’s been gearing up for a host of Moon-related missions, including its Artemis program. In 2023, the agency gained nine signatories to the Artemis Accords, an international agreement for peaceful space exploration, for a total of 32 countries that have signed so far. As Georgia Tech’s Mariel Borowitz explains, the U.S. now has widespread bipartisan political support for spacefaring – for the first time since the 1970s – and returning missions to the Moon is the first natural target.

Here are five stories that The Conversation U.S. has published over the past year about lunar exploration, including why people want to go back to the Moon, what Chandrayaan-3 found during its initial foray across the lunar surface and the ever-growing problem of lunar space junk.

1. Why shoot for the Moon? .

Missions to the Moon hold potential benefits for a variety of sectors, including commercial, military and geopolitical. "Ever since humans last left the Moon in 1972, many have dreamed about the days when people would return. But for decades, these efforts have hit political roadblocks," wrote Borowitz. "This time, the United States’ plans to return to the Moon are likely to succeed – it has the cross-sector support and the strategic importance to ensure continuity, even during politically challenging times." While some of these potential uses are incredibly far off – from mining the Moon for resources to sending out military satellites to orbit around the Moon – missions to the Moon in the near term will help inform scientists and stakeholders of future possibilities.

2. Searching for sulfur .

India’s Chandrayaan-3 lander touched down on the Moon’s surface, just a few miles away from the lunar south pole, in late August 2023. Its rover, called Pragyan, took measurements of the lunar surface and found the soil near the south pole contains a surprise – sulfur. As Jeffrey Gillis-Davis, a physicist at Washington University in St. Louis, wrote, future Moon missions or a future Moon base could use lunar sulfur as an ingredient in everything from fuel and fertilizer to concrete.

3. Water in ice .

But sulfur’s not the only resource the lunar south pole could have to offer. For several years, scientists have predicted that the lunar south pole might have water in the form of ice. And Chandrayaan-3’s sulfur discovery gives scientists more insight into how and how recently ice might 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 water’s appearance, scientists would also expect to see sulfur in higher levels, wrote Paul Hayne, an assistant professor of astrophysical and planetary sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. A host of future missions to the Moon, including NASA’s VIPER mission planned for 2024, will continue to investigate where ice could be hiding on tne Moon and how it was created. 4. Artificial Intelligence watches the Moon .

Artificial intelligence, or AI, is helping us monitor the Moon and our flights above the Moon like never before. AI has long been harnessed to detect, identify and track space debris – which has been accumulating around Earth since the 1950s; now AI is helping us track space debris around the Moon, too. Scientists at the University of Arizona, developed an AI-based software called ARTEMiS, which stands for Automated Routine and Temporally Enabled Moon Imaging System. ARTEMiS helps find surface features on the Moon, like lava tubes and potential water ice deposits, and alert missions like Chandrayaan-3 of any problems that might arise on their travels.

5. Lunar space junk .

The accumulation of space debris around the Moon is now a growing problem. "More than 22,000 pieces of space junk larger than 3.9 inches, or 10 cm, are now orbiting our planet. And Earth isn’t the only celestial body feeling the impact of this space junk," wrote Brooke T. Stansbury, an engineering professor at the University of Colorado Boulder. "The dangers of Earth-bound space debris are now being echoed 200,000 miles away as larger satellites get abandoned in lunar orbit. It’s a problem with potentially catastrophic consequences for any astronauts attempting to land on the lunar surface." .