{"id":11630,"date":"2024-03-22T02:23:38","date_gmt":"2024-03-22T02:23:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/power2innovate.com\/its-time-to-study-lunar-lava-tubes-heres-a-mission-that-could-help\/"},"modified":"2024-03-22T02:23:38","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T02:23:38","slug":"its-time-to-study-lunar-lava-tubes-heres-a-mission-that-could-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/power2innovate.com\/its-time-to-study-lunar-lava-tubes-heres-a-mission-that-could-help\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s time to study lunar lava tubes. Here’s a mission that could help"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\n \n Spectacular high sun view of the Mare Tranquillitatis pit crater revealing boulders on an otherwise smooth floor. The 100 meter pit may provide access to a lunar lava tube. Credit: NASA\/GSFC\/Arizona State University\u2014 Public Domain, \n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The moon is practically begging to be explored, and the momentum to do so is building. The Artemis Program’s effort to return astronauts to the moon for the first time since the Apollo missions captures a lot of attention. But there are other efforts underway.<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n<\/section>\n
In 2023, the ESA put out a call for small lunar missions. The call was associated with their Terra Novae exploration program, which will advance the ESA’s exploration of the solar system with robotic scouts and precursor missions. “Humankind will benefit from the new discoveries, ambitions, science, inspiration, and challenges,” the ESA explains on their Terra Novae website.<\/p>\n
Terra Novae has several goals, one of which is to “Land multiple scientific payloads on the surface of the moon, prospecting for the presence of water and other volatile materials that will both reveal its history and help prepare sustainable exploration by locally sourced space resources.”<\/p>\n
In response to the ESA’s call, a team of European researchers have proposed the LunarLeaper. The LunarLeaper is a hopping robot that would visit a lunar skylight, a collapsed part of a lunar lava tube. The robot would give us our first look at the lunar subsurface and the lava tubes.<\/p>\n
There are good reasons to explore these lava tubes. The lunar surface is exposed to solar and cosmic radiation without the benefit of a protective atmosphere or magnetosphere like Earth. Astronauts could shelter in these tubes inside habitat modules. Several meters of rock overhead would provide protection from radiation and from the moon’s temperature swings. There could be laboratory modules and other modules as well. The tubes, if suitable, could shelter an entire base.<\/p>\n
The other reason is scientific. These tubes are a window into the moon’s volcanic past. They’re a record of the magnitude and timing of volcanic activity.<\/p>\n
The LunarLeaper is a ~10 kg (22 lbs) leaping robot with three legs. It’s based on the ETH SpaceHopper design which has been refined over four years of development. SpaceHopper is designed to visit asteroids with much weaker gravity than the moon, but the design can be adapted to work on the lunar surface.<\/p>\n
The LunarLeaper team proposes a mission to the Marius Hills region. It’s a region in Oceanus Procellarum, a vast lunar mare on the near side of the moon. It’s a volcanic region covered in basalt floods from ancient volcanic activity. Marius Hills is named after the 41 km (25 mi) diameter crater Marius and is littered with volcanic features like rilles, domes, and cones.<\/p>\n
The particular feature of interest in Marius Hills is the Marius Hills Pit (MHP), a collapsed skylight granting access into what might be an extensive lunar lava tube system. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured an image of the intriguing opening featured in the lead image. That’s where the LunarLeaper would do its work.<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n \n \n <\/p>\n