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<ul class="summary-list"><li>The second moon that Earth has captured in its orbit this month is an asteroid called 2024 PT5.</li><li>Mini-moons like this could be ideal targets for asteroid mining to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-havent-we-been-to-mars-yet-2024-5">send humans deeper into space</a>.</li></ul>The <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/second-moon-orbiting-earth-when-why-what-to-know-2024-9 ">second moon that Earth now has for two months</a> may seem like just a fun curiosity, but it's also a sneak peek at a future space industry that could change our global economy.An asteroid called 2024 PT5, which normally orbits the sun as part of the Arjuna asteroid belt, was <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astronomers-photograph-mini-moon-small-object-in-orbit-2020-2">captured in Earth's orbit</a> on Sunday, according to astronomers' projections. Astronomers expect it to spend about 57 days traveling along a horseshoe-shaped path around Earth before rejoining its asteroid belt.For those 57 days, the school-bus-sized <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asteroid-impact-simulation-experts-fear-congress-would-delay-action-2024-6">asteroid</a> will be a "natural satellite" of Earth — basically another, temporary moon.<div type="image" title="screenshot of asteroid profile page showing illustration of a bumpy candy-corn-shaped grey asteroid in space with a text box labeling it 2024 PT5 and saying its average estimated diameter is 10.76 m" height="1537" width="2864" msid="113817839" hostid="261" sizebytes="68552"></div>That makes it economically intriguing. "<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fake-moon-asteroid-orbiting-sun-alongside-earth-astronomers-discover-2023-6">Mini-moons</a>" like this are ideal targets for mining, according to Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, one of the scientists who charted 2024 PT5's path around our planet.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-mining-company-earth-startups-raw-materials-cobalt-gold-platinum-2021-3">Asteroid mining</a> could someday help humans travel further out into the cosmos and extend our presence through the solar system. That's because some asteroids contain valuable metals like iron or platinum, as well as water.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-plan-colonize-mars-plan-unrealistic-scientists-explain-2023-10">Elon Musk's vision of a city on Mars</a>, for example, depends on asteroid mining. Temporary moons like 2024 PT5 could be a key stepping stone."Mini-moons are very important for the nascent global <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-helping-private-companies-build-business-moon-make-lunar-billions-2023-6">space economy</a>," Marcos told Business Insider in an email. Because they come so close to Earth and take a sojourn in our orbit, he added, "they are among the objects easier to reach using low-cost missions."<h2 id="462c4c69-18b1-4a3f-8e7d-7cb0491d6b39">Asteroids can be worth quintillions</h2>Asteroid 2024 PT5 may not be worth much, since scientists think it's made of basalt.It's basically "a giant boulder," Teddy Kareta, a planetary scientist at the Lowell Observatory, told Business Insider.But some asteroids contain so much metal that they're <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-visit-psyche-asteroid-worth-more-than-entire-world-economy-2023-10">worth more than our entire global economy</a>.Take Psyche, for example, an asteroid that NASA is sending a spacecraft to for scientific study, since the agency believes it to be the core of a long-dead planet.Psyche's metal-rich makeup — mostly iron and nickel — makes it worth an estimated $100 quintillion if it were here on Earth.<div type="image" title="graphic of what the asteroid is thought to look like" height="900" width="1600" msid="113817842" hostid="261" sizebytes="175866"></div>Some asteroids even have precious metals like platinum, gold, and cobalt.Nobody has mined an asteroid yet, though <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-video-osiris-rex-probe-landing-on-asteroid-kicking-dust-2020-10">NASA punched one</a> in 2020 to grab scientific samples from it.Some startups are trying to figure out how to start mining space rocks, and do it in a cost-effective way. Flying to an asteroid isn't cheap.One of them, called <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-mining-startup-has-booked-its-first-test-mission-spacex-2022-6">AstroForge, has launched a small probe with SpaceX</a>, though the spacecraft wasn't able to conduct the testing they'd planned, according to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.space.com/asteroid-mining-astroforge-docking-mission-2025">Space.com</a>. The company is now planning two more missions, which it hopes will culminate in its first landing on a metallic asteroid in 2025.<h2 id="e5b0dd4a-bb61-4c4d-a49c-2d9e9a2960a9">Pit stops on the way to Mars</h2>Long-distance <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-invest-mars-pulsed-plasma-rocket-shorten-space-time-travel-2024-7">deep-space missions</a>, especially if they're carrying humans and cargo, will have a fuel problem.Fuel is heavy, so the less of it you have to load onto a spacecraft the better. On the long flight to Mars or other planets, asteroids could become gas stations.That's because <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://academic.oup.com/mnrasl/article/506/1/L6/6298231?login=false">research</a> <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2018JE005584">suggests</a> that many asteroids in Earth's neighborhood are rich in water, which can be mined and split into its elementary components — hydrogen and oxygen, both of which are critical for making rocket fuel.Mini-moons are perfect places to start, some scientists think, because of their proximity to Earth but also because of how small they are.It takes an immense amount of rocket fuel to escape Earth's powerful gravitational pull. But little asteroids don't have much gravity, making it easy to leapfrog off of them."It only takes a puff of fuel to leave the mini-moon and head back towards Earth," Richard Binzel, a planetary scientist at MIT, previously told <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.livescience.com/space/space-exploration/undiscovered-minimoons-may-orbit-earth-could-they-help-us-become-an-interplanetary-species">Live Science</a>.<h2 id="bf8bc193-7a0a-4a09-9d9c-2c6ac7e8d411">Mini-moon missions at the ready</h2>One problem with mini-moons is that scientists sometimes don't see them coming until a few weeks before they're captured in our planet's orbit.Asteroid 2024 PT5, for example, was first identified as a mini-moon in early September and will only be in Earth's orbit for about 57 days.That's a tight timeline for preparing and launching a mining mission. For any asteroid, "you need to learn enough about it to know whether it's worth sending a rocket up," Kareta said.Asteroid-mining companies can work around that by having mining spacecraft ready in Earth's orbit, waiting for the right space rock to zoom by, Marcos said."Either if you are thinking about collecting mineral samples for research or starting a space mining venture, mini-moons are your best bet to get your business off the ground," he said.

Mini-moons like the one Earth just captured could be huge business opportunities

<ul class="summary-list"><li>NASA launched Europa Clipper to see if <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oxygen-europa-life-surface-ocean-subsurface-earth-juno-mission-jupiter-2024-3">Jupiter's moon Europa</a> could host alien life.</li><li>Scientists think Europa contains a vast saltwater ocean deep beneath its surface.</li></ul><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-nasa-could-tell-us-aliens-are-real-2023-2">NASA is serious about searching for alien life</a>, even within our own solar system.On Monday, aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, the agency launched a spacecraft toward Europa, a moon of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jupiter-images-webb-sees-rings-moons-hubble-cant-2022-8">Jupiter</a>.Scientists believe Europa contains a vast saltwater ocean deep beneath its icy crust, with twice as much water as Earth. It's perhaps the most promising place in our solar system for active <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asks-help-retrieving-perseverance-mars-samples-alien-life-2024-4">extraterrestrial life</a>.<div type="image" title="Europa" height="1700" width="2300" msid="114225773" hostid="261" sizebytes="181080"></div>The NASA mission, called Europa Clipper, aims to figure out whether <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/space-lava-from-moon-volcanoes-creates-jupiters-powerful-aurora-lights-2022-2">the Jupiter moon</a> and its ocean could support life. It's the largest interplanetary spacecraft NASA has ever built. The probe is about 16 feet tall and, when its vast wings of solar arrays are deployed, 100 feet wide. It weighs three-and-a-half tons.Clipper is undertaking the first targeted exploration of an <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-underwater-rover-hunt-alien-life-on-ocean-worlds-2019-11">ocean world</a> beyond our planet.Even if there is no life on Europa, this mission is crucial in the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-no-contact-with-aliens-2019-9">search for alien life</a>, since ocean worlds across the galaxy are prime candidates for life.Missions like Europa Clipper are "modern cathedrals" and "generational quests," said Laurie Leshin, the director of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-mars-helicopter-pilot-what-job-is-like-advice-2023-1">NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory</a>, which built the spacecraft.<div type="image" title="giant spacecraft folded up between red Airbus panels with a large round foil-covered piece on the front with technicians in blue clean suits standing nearby in a giant white clearnroom" height="1280" width="1920" msid="114225774" hostid="261" sizebytes="132976"></div>"We scientists have been dreaming about a mission like Europa Clipper for more than 20 years. We've been working to build it for 10 years," she added in a briefing about the mission in September. "It's going to be another 10 years, because <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/video-animation-planetary-scientist-huge-solar-system-2019-11">Jupiter's so far away</a>, until we have all the science in the bag."The spacecraft must travel 1.8 billion miles to get to Jupiter, getting a boost from Mars's gravity along the way. It's scheduled to arrive in April 2030.<h2 id="ccd765aa-2885-424c-ab06-309d5a9fdb77">A 7-body problem and unfathomable radiation</h2>Life exists without sunlight at the bottom of the ocean here on Earth. All it needs is an energy source, like hydrothermal vents which release heat from deep within the planet, and organic molecules containing essential elements like carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen.Europa Clipper is carrying nine scientific instruments to look for the fingerprints of those molecules, measure the salinity and depth of the underground ocean, and take photos of Europa down to one meter of resolution, among other things.<div type="image" title="illustration of a spacecraft with long wings of solar panels above a white moon covered in crisis crossed brown lines with jupiter in the distant background in space" height="1121" width="1995" msid="114225771" hostid="261" sizebytes="107104"></div>"Clipper is not actually going to look for life itself, but it's going to characterize the habitability of Europa," Gina DiBraccio, the acting director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, said in the briefing.The mission is designed to orbit Jupiter and fly past Europa 49 times, each time soaring over a different area to eventually cover almost the entire moon, pole to pole. The spacecraft will skim as close as 16 miles above Europa's surface.The mission plan is a marvel of engineering. Rather than a three-body problem, falling into orbit around Jupiter is a "seven-body problem" because of the planet's large moons, Jordan Evans, the mission's project manager, said in the briefing.During each flyby, Clipper will bathe in radiation from Jupiter that's equivalent to "a few million chest X-rays," Evans added.It might even find out if Europa's ice really <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-jupiter-oceanic-moon-europa-radioactive-glow-2020-11">glows in the dark from that radiation</a>, as NASA research has previously indicated.

NASA launches a probe to find out if there really could be alien life on Jupiter's moon Europa

<ul class="summary-list"><li>NASA has canceled its VIPER moon rover project.</li><li>NASA will still send a spacecraft to the moon and pay a company $323 million for the trip.</li></ul>NASA is scrapping a moon rover it spent $450 million to construct, and axing the machine's mission to find water on the moon. The agency discontinued the development of VIPER — or Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover — because it proved exceedingly expensive.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-ends-viper-project-continues-moon-exploration/#:~:text=Following%20a%20comprehensive%20internal%20review,stand%20down%20on%20the%20mission.">NASA's statement on Wednesday</a> said that the rover was to be scrapped because of "cost increases, delays to the launch date, and the risks of future cost growth."It also said that continuing the rover project would result in an "increased cost that threatens cancellation or disruption" to other lunar research missions.The rover, a car-sized robot that was supposed to explore the south side of the moon in search of "ice and other potential resources," has already been built, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/17/science/nasa-viper-moon-rover-canceled.html">The New York Times reported</a>.However, tests to ensure that it could survive the shaking of the spacecraft and the environment of space have not yet been conducted.According to the Times, the agency would save at least $84 million by not conducting the testing and not having to operate the rover on the moon.VIPER's launch, which was scheduled for fall 2025, had already been delayed multiple times.It was initially set to launch in late 2023. However, that launch was delayed to 2024 to allow more time to test the privately commissioned spacecraft Griffin, which was supposed to carry the rover to the moon.Although the rover itself has been scrapped, the Griffin Lander will continue with its journey. And NASA will still pay the company that built the spacecraft — the Astrobotic Technology Inc. of Pittsburgh — $323 million for the task, per the Times.Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration in the science directorate, told The Times that Griffin's landing would still be valuable even without the rover on board. NASA maintains that it is "committed to studying and exploring the Moon for the benefit of humanity.""The agency has an array of missions planned to look for ice and other resources on the Moon over the next five years," Nicola Fox, an associate administrator in the agency's science mission directorate, said in a statement.The statement also added that any US industry and international companies that wish to use VIPER before it is disassembled could contact the agency after July 18.News of the rover's scrapping comes as two NASA astronauts <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-astronaut-boeing-starliner-good-feeling-be-back-safe-2024-7">remain stuck in space</a> after issues were detected with the spacecraft they went up in — the Boeing Starliner.The duo — Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore — arrived at the International Space Station via the Boeing Starliner on June 6 after a series of delays that postponed the craft's launch by a month.While they were supposed to stay for only eight to 10 days, they have been stuck on the space station for over a month now, with no return date scheduled.Representatives for NASA did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.

NASA is scrapping a moon rover that it spent $450 million to build

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Earth may have helped give rise to water on the moon while shielding it from solar winds.</li><li>This defies a leading theory suggesting the moon needs solar radiation to make water. </li></ul>The Earth may have helped give rise to water on the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-scientist-microbial-life-hiding-on-moon-south-pole-2023-6">moon</a>, scientists have found.A cosmic tail of invisible electrons trailing our planet could have generated water on the lunar surface, according to a <a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=bf4ad4f46b0fc54c40d14537169f48fd35835333be058dfacc8d357651aa718a&amp;postID=65082c4977744faa55ce652e&amp;postSlug=invisible-force-earth-creating-water-on-the-moon-study-electrons-2023-9&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fs41550-023-02081-y" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study published</a> on Thursday.The finding may help scientists crack the mystery of how water made it to our satellite, and how much water will be available during deep space missions to<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-helping-private-companies-build-business-moon-make-lunar-billions-2023-6"> planets such as Mars</a>.<h2>How does water make it to the moon? </h2>This is the billion-dollar question.Space agencies and private firms are hatching big plans to take <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moon-missions-why-astronauts-have-not-returned-2018-7">humans away from Earth</a> into our solar system. Having water-rich pit stops along the way is crucially important to these missions so future astronauts can fill up on air, water, and propellants along the way, <a href="https://www.planetary.org/articles/water-on-the-moon-guide">The Planetary Society</a> said on their website. This is why the moon has been getting a lot of attention lately: our satellite is about 100 times drier than the Sahara desert, <a href="https://moon.nasa.gov/inside-and-out/composition/water-and-ices/">per NASA</a>, but recent research has confirmed that there is water peppered around its surface.The bulk of the water is mostly seen on the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-scientists-discover-moons-hidden-water-stores-2020-10">moon's poles</a> in the form of water ice.There, the water is thought to have come from other planetary bodies — for instance, comets and asteroids that crashed into the surface over billions of years. Another theory is the water was stripped from the Earth as the moon split away.Most of that water is thought to have since evaporated into space under the sun's intense rays. What's left, then, persists in craters that are permanently in the shadows. Other research has found that a little water is also <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/glass-beads-moon-store-297-billion-tons-water-study-china-2023-3">created on the moon</a>.In that case, the leading theory is that water is linked with protons that come from the sun. As solar winds blast the moon's surface, these combine with oxygen in the lunar soil to make water, per The Planetary Society.But this new finding suggests there could be more to this story. <div type="image" title="Pictures taken by a satellite show the moon crossing the Earth." height="553" width="738" msid="103764267" hostid="261" sizebytes="22254"></div><h2>The Earth could be helping the moon make water</h2>The puzzling new observation, published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Astronomy, suggests the moon could be making water even when the Earth is shielding it from solar winds. The Earth is always protecting us from the worst of solar weather. Our planet's strong magnetic field deflects most of the solar particles that come our way. <div type="image" title="Solar Wind" height="271" width="542" msid="103764268" hostid="261" sizebytes="27330"></div>By re-analyzing data collected between 2008 and 2009 by India's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-india-moon-landing-cost-cheap-compared-to-nasa-russia-2023-8">Chandrayaan-1</a> mission, scientists spotted that some water was being created on the moon when it was crossing the Earth's magnetotail, a sheet of plasma trapped between magnetic fields stretched outwards by the solar winds skimming our planet.Notably, solar winds in the magnetotail are reduced by as much as 99%, per the study.<div type="image" title="A diagram shows solar radiation stretching earth's magnetic fields into long lines on the night side of the Earth, creating a sheet of electron plasma called the magnetotail. A circle highlights the magnetotail in the diagram." height="525" width="711" msid="103764269" hostid="261" sizebytes="56302"></div>The findings raise an interesting proposition: If even a little water can be generated when solar winds are virtually gone, do you need the solar winds to make water on the moon? Per the scientists, it's possible the high energy electrons in the magnetotail could have "similar effects as the solar wind protons" when it comes to creating water, Li said in the statement. "We suggest that although we have confirmed the importance of the solar wind as a major source of fast water production on the moon, hitherto unobserved properties of the plasma sheet" could play an important role, the scientists said in the study. The findings add to the many theories that are seeking to explain water on the lunar surface.Li and colleagues aim to work with NASA to monitor plasma and water content on the lunar surface to see if their theory checks out.If confirmed, this could have wider-reaching implications, particularly with regard to water found in the moon's shadowy craters, <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1001523" target="_blank" rel="noopener">scientists said in an accompanying press release.</a>If you don't need the sun to create water on the moon, it's possible the water seen in these craters doesn't have to have come from comets. It could have been generated in situ. "This provides a natural laboratory for studying the formation processes of lunar surface water," said Li.

An invisible force surrounding Earth may be creating water on the moon

<ul class="summary-list"><li>China's lunar probe returned to Earth with the first-ever samples from the moon's far side. </li><li>The samples could answer crucial questions about how planets form.</li></ul>China just took a huge leap forward in its plans to dominate space.On Tuesday, its Chang'e-6 lunar probe successfully returned to Earth carrying the first-ever samples from the moon's far side. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrFGMaB9kjo">A video showed </a>an official triumphantly planting a Chinese flag near the capsule in Mongolia after it glided back to our planet by parachute.The samples, which include 2.5 million-year-old volcanic rock, could answer crucial questions about how planets form, as well as the moon's history.But they are significant for another reason too.They signify China's growing prowess in orbit, as well as its potential to someday leapfrog the US in the race to dominate space.<h2 id="e5565559-09e3-4a5e-aba9-a6a2fdad33fa">The moon's far side</h2>The moon's far side is considered particularly challenging to explore because of its craters and the difficulty of maintaining communications with vehicles landing there.China is the only country to have landed in this tricky terrain and returned with samples. The latest mission, which launched on May 3, is China's second successful landing on the moon's far side, with the first launched in 2019.Overall, it has soft-landed on the moon four times.The US, meanwhile, has had less luck. In <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astobotic-faulty-valve-doomed-peregrine-moon-lander-lunar-mission-leak-2024-1">January</a>, Astrobiotic <a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vulcan-peregrine-us-mission-first-land-moon-astrobotic-human-remains-2024-1">launched a lander</a> into space, with the aim of it being the first American spacecraft to soft land on the moon since the Apollo era.But its hopes were quickly dashed after a <a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astrobotic-moon-lander-leaking-fuel-after-launch-threatening-mission-2024-1">fuel leak</a> caused a failure in the spacecraft's propellant system.In February, Intuitive Machines, in collaboration with NASA, achieved a first: landing a US commercial spacecraft <a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-moon-landings-on-lunar-south-pole-crashed-2023-8">on the moon without crashing</a>.But that had complications. As previously reported by <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/intuitive-machines-im-1-odysseus-moon-lunar-landing-mission-nasa-2024-2">Business Insider,</a> when the spacecraft touched down on the moon, it stopped communicating with mission control.The recent moon-landing scoreboard is "4 to 0.5" in favor of China, Simone Dell'Agnello, a researcher who collaborated with Chang'e 6, told <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/historic-moon-mission-gets-china-one-small-step-ahead-in-space-race-41894d41">The Wall Street Journal. </a>"The first difference is that China has missions landing on the fucking moon."<h2 id="31daf330-3f01-460b-9b3b-5b7588f74167">The space race heats up</h2>China is now rivaling the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-beat-us-race-moon-lunar-lander-peregrine-fuel-leak-2024-1">US and Russia as a leading space power. </a>It has its own manned space station, Tiangong, and in 2022 became the second country after the US to land a robotic vehicle on the surface of Mars.Analysts believe that China's leader, Xi Jinping, sees huge economic and military opportunities in space. China is planning to send a crewed flight to the moon by <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-beat-us-race-moon-lunar-lander-peregrine-fuel-leak-2024-1">2030 and build a base at the lunar south pole.</a>The US is gearing up for its own space exploration missions and has rival plans to land a crewed flight on the moon and build a base.The head of NASA, Bill Nelson, has said that the US and China are involved in a new "space race" and that China's research missions are being used for covert military activity.He said that China seems to be accelerating its plans to send a crewed flight to the moon."It is incumbent on us to get there first," <a target="_blank" href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5115651/nasa-administrator-race-chine-south-pole-moon">told Congress in April.</a>At stake are <a target="_blank" href="https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4783/1">water supplies scientists believe may be on the moon's far side</a>, which China could claim. These supplies would be vital for establishing a moon base or for further space exploration.Pentagon officials have warned that China is seeking to potentially disable US satellites if a war breaks out between them.China has insisted its space program is for the benefit of humanity.But it's also a race for control of economic resources and military power in the intensifying rivalry between the US and China.

China's historic moon mission is just the start of its plans to dominate space

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Scientists have the most convincing evidence yet of an underground cave <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moon-missions-why-astronauts-have-not-returned-2018-7">on the moon</a>. </li><li>The large cave could be a safe, warm place for astronauts to work and live.</li></ul>In the ongoing effort to establish a permanent base on the moon where humans can live and work, scientists have discovered a possible game changer: a large <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/france-group-spends-40-days-in-cave-with-no-clocks-or-sunlight-2021-4">underground cave</a>.For decades, scientists have suspected <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-plans-three-moon-missions-after-discovering-new-lunar-mineral-2022-9">the moon</a> may harbor caves below its surface. Now, a new paper from a team of researchers offers the most convincing evidence yet."Lunar caves have <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vanishing-radio-signals-mystery-objects-in-milky-way-galaxy-center-2022-1">remained a mystery</a> for over 50 years. So it was exciting to be able to finally prove the existence," the authors Leonardo Carrer and Lorenzo Bruzzone of the University of Trento told the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://apnews.com/article/moon-caves-nasa-astronauts-2dc57751f41a6e24f377c2259e8668ba#">Associated Press</a>.The team speculates that, given how they think this cave formed, there could be hundreds more hidden under the lunar surface. Instead of building homes on the moon, we could inhabit the existing <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mars-hole-whats-inside-possible-alien-life-home-for-astronauts-2024-6">caverns beneath it</a>."Caves like this provide natural shelters against harmful radiation, extremes in temperature, and meteorite bombardment," Wes Patterson, a planetary geologist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory and a co-author on the study, told Business Insider via email."While making caves habitable for astronauts would still require bringing materials from Earth, the task would be far easier and more cost-effective than having to build habitats on the surface," he added.<h2 id="b239c3e0-e708-4387-89f3-2e42feb7d927">How such a large cave formed on the moon</h2><div type="image" title="The surface of the moon covered in holes, with a line of pits running down the right of the photo." height="1100" width="1100" msid="111794197" hostid="261"></div>Judging from the data, the researchers estimate the cave is about 150 feet wide and up to 260 feet long, which is slightly smaller than an American football field with the end zones cut off.The cave sits deep within <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/watch-teenager-digs-underground-man-cave-after-fight-with-mom-2021-5">a pit</a> called the Mare Tranquillitatis pit, which most likely formed when a lava tube collapsed. The moon has no active volcanoes today, but billions of years ago, its surface was covered with lava that flowed down and through valleys, carving tubes across the lunar surface.Over millennia, some of those tubes became unstable and collapsed, creating pits such as the one the research team studied from radar images taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. We don't have a clear picture of what the caves look like inside, but <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hawaii-man-fell-into-lava-tube-died-2019-11">lava tubes</a> such as those in Hawaii can offer some idea.NASA's LRO has identified more than 200 of these pits on the moon, suggesting there could be hundreds of underground caves, too. The researchers reported in the paper, which was published Monday in the peer-reviewed journal <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=bb6d000940fa14eb3f866c8bd4b27e186b935a9a9e3791c4417a6d2313e44a7b&amp;postID=66968022c87a0f570985895c&amp;postSlug=scientists-discover-underground-moon-cave-astronauts-could-live-2024-7&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fs41550-024-02302-y%3Futm_medium%3Daffiliate%26utm_source%3Dcommission_junction%26utm_campaign%3DCONR_PF018_ECOM_GL_PBOK_ALWYS_DEEPLINK%26utm_content%3Dtextlink%26utm_term%3DPID100024933%26CJEVENT%3De70f4b97443911ef80a303610a82b839">Nature Astronomy</a>, that these caves could offer future astronauts protection against the extreme conditions on the moon's surface.<h2 id="eb3ecc6a-7871-4cb5-9860-0b7c7de2ed4d">The pros and cons of living in moon caves</h2><div type="image" title="A pit on the moon with a shadow cast over the bottom of it." height="415" width="415" msid="111794198" hostid="261"></div>Because the moon has no atmosphere to help regulate climate, its surface has drastic temperature swings. During the day, the sun's heat bakes the lunar surface to about 250 degrees Fahrenheit, and at night, it can dip below -200 F.But in underground caves, the temperature would be both consistent and, as indicated by past research, very comfortable.In a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2022GL099710">2022 study</a> of the same region — Mare Tranquillitatis — a separate team of researchers used computer simulations to suggest that permanently shadowed regions within these lunar pits, and any adjacent caves, would remain at about 63 F."These caves would provide an environment where temperature is much easier to control," Patterson said.Reaching these pits and caves is another matter. The cave inside Mare Tranquillitatis is more than 400 feet from the surface near the bottom of a steep slope lined with loose debris.Getting up and down that slope would require some technological ingenuity, whether it's jet packs that can fly us in and out, some type of lunar elevator that can shuttle people up and down, or something else.<h2 id="0f5166c7-ccb7-47f3-90eb-eaab140eb646">To the moon cave and beyond</h2><div type="image" title="A person in a white spacesuit watering a plant on a mock-up of the moon's surface, with an image of Earth in the background." height="1414" width="2121" msid="111794195" hostid="261"></div>Radar technology could help scientists identify even more caves and tubes extending from open pits on the moon's surface. In the future, a spacecraft with a higher-resolution radar could even map the interior of all the pits LRO has identified, the Nature paper says.Such a "complete survey" would allow them to assess the best locations for further exploration and future moon bases, the researchers wrote.There's also a chance that moon caves harbor water, a crucial resource for any future moon bases.Scientists have long known there's frozen water on the moon — just under its surface, in its permanently shadowed craters, and even in lonely H2O molecules sprinkled across the sunlit lunar dirt, less moist than the Sahara Desert.Since underground caves are shielded from the merciless vacuum of space and the radiation of the sun, they could have water or ice, Bruzzone told the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-16/cave-discovered-on-the-moon/104102032">Australian Broadcasting Corporation</a>.Access to lunar water is key to NASA's plans to establish a permanent base on the moon and, eventually, use it to hopscotch astronauts to Mars. Water wouldn't just be for drinking; it could also be broken down into its elementary components — hydrogen for rocket fuel and oxygen for breathing.Bruzzone and his coauthors also noted that caves and lava tubes of different ages might act like fossilized records of the moon's history. Eventually, exploring them up close could help scientists better understand volcanic activity.

Scientists found an underground cave on the moon where astronauts could live and think there may be hundreds more

<ul class="summary-list"><li>NASA and Intuitive Machines' <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-intuitive-machines-moon-landing-attempt-after-astrobotic-fail-2024-2">IM-1 mission</a> landed on the moon on Thursday.</li><li>This is NASA's first return to the lunar surface since the last Apollo mission in 1972.</li></ul>An American moon lander touched down on the lunar surface for the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moon-missions-why-astronauts-have-not-returned-2018-7">first time in more than 50 years</a> on Thursday.The uncrewed Odysseus lander, made by the Houston company Intuitive Machines in collaboration with NASA, claimed a major victory not just for the US but for the space industry at large: It's the first commercial spacecraft to ever <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-moon-landings-on-lunar-south-pole-crashed-2023-8">land on the moon without crashing</a>. The past five years have racked up a series of failed moon landings — by Russia, India, Japan, an Israeli nonprofit, a Japanese company, and, just last month, the NASA collaborator <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astrobotic-moon-lander-leaking-fuel-after-launch-threatening-mission-2024-1">Astrobotic</a>. Everyone is scrambling to get their feet on the moon in a new race to claim lunar territory and resources.The success of Odysseus brings NASA and its commercial partners, finally, to the front of the 21st century's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-helping-private-companies-build-business-moon-make-lunar-billions-2023-6">mad moon dash</a>.There were some initial complications in the landing. When the spacecraft touched down on the moon, it stopped communication with mission control.<div type="image" title="Illustration of Intuitive Machines' Odysseus spacecraft attempting moon landing" height="604" width="1094" msid="107926875" hostid="261"></div>"We're not dead yet," the mission director, Tim Crain, said on NASA's livestream of the landing. "It's faint, but it's there."A couple of hours later, however, <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/Int_Machines/status/1760838333851148442">Intuitive Machines</a> announced on X it had established communications and learned the spacecraft had landed upright on the moon."After troubleshooting communications, flight controllers have confirmed Odysseus is upright and starting to send data. Right now, we are working to downlink the first images from the lunar surface," the private company wrote on X.<h2>The Odysseus lander's odyssey so far</h2>Odysseus launched atop a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-elon-musk">SpaceX</a> rocket on February 14, carrying 12 payloads — six of them belonging to private companies and six of them science experiments for NASA.The spacecraft traveled 620,000 miles to aim for its destination: a crater in the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-scientist-microbial-life-hiding-on-moon-south-pole-2023-6">moon's south pole</a>.On Thursday, however, the landing was delayed about 45 minutes after the lander's navigation system failed.Intuitive Machines mission controllers scrambled to upload software patches that instructed the lander to instead use a system of navigation lasers that NASA had loaded on board. The NASA laser system was meant to be a demo to see whether the technology even worked — not to guide the landing on its own.As Odysseus plummeted to the lunar surface and tilted itself to point the lasers toward the lunar surface to map it out, everything seemed to be going well. But the lander fell out of communication in the final moments of its descent to the lunar surface.Intuitive Machines mission control reported that it was receiving pings from the lander, which meant it touched down at about 6:24 p.m. ET, intact and alive.It's unclear whether the touchdown issues were related to the navigation-system failure.<h2>A race to the moon's south pole</h2>The IM-1 mission was designed to get NASA and Intuitive Machines closer to the moon's south pole than anyone had ever been before.The US — along with its commercial and international allies — is <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-china-race-to-the-moon-photos-launches-2022-11">racing against China and Russia</a> to establish a permanent base in this lunar region. The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-scientists-discover-moons-hidden-water-stores-2020-10">moon's south pole</a> is so coveted because it contains water frozen in its permanently shadowed craters. In theory, NASA (and anyone else who claims a crater) could use that water to produce fresh rocket fuel from their lunar base.With that fuel, astronauts could <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-made-oxygen-out-of-thin-air-on-mars-2023-9">launch toward Mars</a> from the surface of the moon.Adding a lunar pitstop to a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-seeking-applicants-mars-simulation-habitat-live-year-2024-2">mission to Mars</a> would mean the spacecraft doesn't have to leave Earth with all the fuel required to make it to the red planet.Until now, only <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/india-moon-rover-to-collect-first-samples-lunar-south-pole-2023-8">India</a> had solidly landed in the moon's south-pole region.<h2>Landing on the moon is tricky and expensive</h2>Landing on the moon is no easy feat. The US isn't the only nation to have <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-moon-lander-peregrine-burn-up-earth-atmosphere-satellite-astrobotic-2024-1">tried and failed</a> in previous attempts.India found success several years after crashing during its first attempt. Russia's lunar lander was destroyed in a crash in August, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/japan-moon-probe-landed-upside-down-still-works-2024-1">Japan's landed upside down</a> in January.<div type="image" title="The IM-1 mission spacecraft floating in space with Earth in the background." height="945" width="1260" msid="107926876" hostid="261"></div>"Spaceflight is hard. A million things have to go right, and if one thing goes wrong, you can still have a failure," Trent Martin, the vice president of Intuitive Machines' space systems, said during a NASA press briefing last month.In fact, only about 50% of lunar landing missions succeed. While technology has advanced a lot since Apollo, the moon's treacherous terrain and distance from Earth make failure pretty likely.<h2>Space exploration goes commercial</h2>The IM-1 mission is part of NASA's new deep-space strategy.Through its Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, the government space agency can <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-helping-private-companies-build-business-moon-make-lunar-billions-2023-6">outsource spacecraft design to private companies</a>, such as Intuitive Machines.The idea is that companies build the hardware, and NASA hitches a ride, saving taxpayer money and giving the agency more options.IM-1 wasn't the first time NASA has done this. For its last lunar-landing attempt in January, NASA partnered with the Pittsburgh company Astrobotic Technology to send its <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-moon-lander-peregrine-burn-up-earth-atmosphere-satellite-astrobotic-2024-1">Peregrine spacecraft</a> to the moon. But the mission didn't succeed.<div type="image" title="Earth photographed by the Intuitive Machines' Odysseus moon lander." height="945" width="1260" msid="107926877" hostid="261"></div>NASA has several CLPS missions scheduled over the next two years, including two more with Intuitive Machines.In Intuitive Machines' next mission, its spacecraft is scheduled to launch toward the moon's south pole again in 2024, this time to deliver a drill designed to dig down into a ridge near the Shackleton crater to look for ice.Even later this year, a different Intuitive Machines spacecraft is scheduled to head to the western edge of the moon's near side. In that mission, it's targeting a specific geographic feature named a "lunar swirl" that has a localized magnetic field.So NASA and Intuitive Machines have officially put the new commercial lunar era in swing, and they're just getting started.

NASA is back on the moon &mdash; with the first commercial lunar landing ever

Half a century has passed since the last <keyword id="961511" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="moon-landing" source="Orion">Moon landing</keyword>, which is disappointing for humanity and we should now aim to have a living base in space, Tesla and SpaceX CEO <keyword id="6355315" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="elon-musk" source="Orion">Elon Musk</keyword> said on Monday. The Apollo 11 mission in 1969 first landed humans on the Moon. Commander <keyword id="6452894" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="neil-armstrong" source="Orion">Neil Armstrong</keyword> and Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on July 20, 1969 and Armstrong became the first person to step onto the Moon's surface six hours and 39 minutes later, on July 21. Aldrin joined him 19 minutes later, and they spent about two and a quarter hours together exploring the site they had named Tranquility Base upon landing. "Only 66 years from first flight to landing on the moon, but now half a century has passed since the last moon landing," Musk posted on X. He said that this cannot be "our high water mark as a civilisation". "Humanity should have a <keyword id="1544790" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="moon-base" source="Orion">moon base</keyword>, cities on <keyword id="47638" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="mars" source="Orion">Mars</keyword> and be out there among the stars," the X owner added. Musk has bigger plans for traveling beyond Earth's orbit. "We should have a base on the moon, like a permanently occupied human base on the moon, and then send people to Mars. Maybe there's something beyond the space station, but we'll see," he had said in the past. The tech billionaire has predicted that SpaceX's Starship mega rocket can make an uncrewed mission to Mars in three or four years.

Humanity should have a moon base, cities on Mars: Musk

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Japan landed a probe on the moon just days after a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astrobotic-moon-lander-leaking-fuel-after-launch-threatening-mission-2024-1">US moon lander failed</a>.</li><li>Japan's SLIM probe <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moon-missions-why-astronauts-have-not-returned-2018-7">landed on the moon</a> upside-down, but it's still communicating and taking photos.</li></ul>Japan's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/watch-india-attempt-first-ever-moon-landing-2023-8">first moon landing</a> is full of surprises, now including coming back to life.The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jaxas-slim-spacecraft-japan-first-moon-landing-attempt-2023-12">Smart Lander for Investigating Moon — aka the SLIM probe</a> — landed on the moon with astonishing accuracy on January 19.Even though one of its two main thrusters failed, causing the spacecraft to tumble as it descended, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/japan-successful-first-moon-landing-slim-spacecraft-mission-2024-1">SLIM still landed</a> within 180 feet of its target spot on the edge of the moon's Shioli crater.The touchdown was so precise that officials at the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astronomer-animations-reveal-solar-system-physics-2021-10">Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)</a> have nicknamed the probe their "moon sniper."There was one big problem, though: The robot landed upside-down. That angled its solar panels away from the sun, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-mars-lander-hibernating-so-batteries-dont-die-2021-4">preventing it from generating energy</a>. Within a few hours after its historic landing, the spacecraft dropped out of communications with Earth.But before that, it was able to deploy two tiny rovers, one of which snapped a photo of SLIM belly-up on <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-helping-private-companies-build-business-moon-make-lunar-billions-2023-6">the moon</a>.Miraculously, though, SLIM came back to life this weekend.<h2>JAXA's resurrection on the moon</h2><div type="image" title="a gold rover rests on the moon surface" height="244" width="430" msid="107244179" hostid="261" sizebytes="21536"></div>"Communication with SLIM was successfully established last night, and operations resumed!" the JAXA SLIM team posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, on Sunday.<a target="_blank" href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/space/japans-slim-probe-regains-power-more-than-week-after-moon-landing-2024-01-29/">Reuters</a> reported that this was likely because the sunlight had changed direction.JAXA said it had "immediately" started science operations with SLIM, imaging rocks in the area.Perhaps JAXA's biggest goal for this mission was to test its precision-landing technologies, which will be needed as nations flock to the cratered south pole and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/former-nasa-scientist-video-shows-moon-has-no-dark-side-2019-11">far side of the moon</a>, where critical resources such as water could be mined."We demonstrated that we can land where we want," JAXA project manager Shinichiro Sakai told the <a target="_blank" href="https://apnews.com/article/japan-moon-lander-slim-probe-pinpoint-2908c74d9e3c4c8a5eabfb6b1625c617">Associated Press</a>. "We opened a door to a new era."So far this century, China, India, and now Japan have all landed on the moon. Both the US and Russia have <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-moon-crater-could-be-russia-luna-25-crash-site-2023-9">tried and failed</a>.The US and the Soviet Union each <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-moon-landings-on-lunar-south-pole-crashed-2023-8">landed on the moon</a> several times in the 20th century.Sakai added that he would give SLIM's pinpoint landing a "perfect score."

Japan's moon probe landed upside-down but somehow it still works

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Astronauts could one day hop a train on the moon.</li><li>DARPA, the famed US research agency, has asked a firm to come up with a lunar railroad concept. </li></ul>Astronauts may one day be able to hop on a train to travel the moon's surface.DARPA, the US Defense Department's secretive research agency, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.space.com/darpa-moon-tech-study-future-lunar-economy">has been tasked</a> with figuring out how to support astronauts who could soon be living on the moon for extended periods.The plans are highly hypothetical — there are currently no permanent structures on the moon at all, and no people have been there since 1972.But the US and other nations want to get people on the moon once again, and that would require futuristic infrastructure to provide reliable power, comms, and transport.As part of this mission, DARPA tasked US aerospace and defense tech firm Northrop Grumman to develop a concept for a lunar railway.If realized, this railroad could transport people, supplies, and commercial cargo on the moon, <a target="_blank" href="https://news.northropgrumman.com/news/releases/northrop-grumman-to-develop-concept-for-lunar-railroad">Northrop Grumman</a> said in a statement Tuesday.The firm will not be building the railway but figuring out if it is physically and financially possible.They will have to find clever ideas to sidestep the moon's brutal landscape. Abrasive lunar dust, for one, can ruin tracks and transporters, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nasa.gov/general/float-flexible-levitation-on-a-track/">NASA previously said</a>.NASA previously investigated a concept for a magnetic levitating train called FLOAT to avoid that problem. In that concept, electromagnetic tracks shuttled levitating robots carrying cargo back and forth.<div type="image" title="An artist's illustration shows solar panels laid out in tracks on the moon. On top of these are robotic trays carrying lunar dust to a lunar base seen in the distance." height="2070" width="2693" msid="108651514" hostid="261" sizebytes="350880"></div>The study found the concept was doable, but required more investigation, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2023/08/16/darpa-to-explore-technology-needed-for-moon-based-economy/">per Breaking Defense.</a> It's not clear whether Northrop Grumman intends to pursue that idea or come up with something else.Though this may all sound like science fiction, it's not as far-fetched as you might think.NASA has a longterm plan underway to get people on the moon. The Artemis program kicked off with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-artemis-orion-spaceship-enters-moon-orbit-progress-toward-astronauts-2022-11">a flight around the moon in 2022.</a>Its ultimate aim is to establish astronauts on the moon and Mars, setting the groundwork for <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-helping-private-companies-build-business-moon-make-lunar-billions-2023-6">commercial exploitation</a> of the solar system.For the next Artemis mission, the agency aims to send astronauts back to the moon for the first time in over 50 years <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-shares-progress-toward-early-artemis-moon-missions-with-crew/#:~:text=NASA%20will%20now%20target%20September,remains%20on%20track%20for%202028.">by the end of 2025</a>.Commercial partners, meanwhile, are already thinking of ways to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/marshall/nasa-geologist-paves-the-way-for-building-on-the-moon/">mine the moon.</a>This could provide building materials, water that could be used to power rockets toward Mars, and Helium-3 — a precious isotope that could be used in fusion reactors.NASA and other space agencies have also been looking at putting <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rolls-royce-concept-nuclear-reactor-could-power-colony-on-moon-2023-12">miniature nuclear reactors</a> on the moon to power the bases. Plans also include putting <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/no-gps-on-moon-nasa-esa-artemis-plans-to-fix-2023-1">comms and GPS satellites</a> in the moon's orbit to allow astronauts to navigate, talk — and even stream — from the lunar surface.Before this can happen, however, NASA needs to sort out the problem of getting astronauts to the moon from Earth. At this juncture, this depends on SpaceX and Blue Origins finessing their experimental mega-rockets.Elon Musk's Starship last week <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/starship-launch-success-elon-musk-vision-cheap-space-travel-closer-2024-3">passed a milestone</a> when the almost 400-foot-tall rocket flew in space for the first time. Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin, for its part, aims to launch its behemoth <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-new-glenn-move-faster-2023-12">New Glenn</a> by the end of this year.

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