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RACE FOR LUNAR RESOURCES
The main resource scientists know about on the moon is frozen water lurking in the South Pole-Aitken Basin and other craters nearby – which is why Chang’e-6 landed there. That basin is also the focus of two future missions, Chang’e-7 and Chang’e-8.
Those missions will explore the ice in the region and the possibility of extracting water and other resources, with the ultimate goal of building a research outpost.
And not coincidentally, the same region is also the target of the next crewed US mission to the moon – called Artemis – which is supposed to happen sometime this decade.
The water in this region has potential beyond supplying a moon base. Water can also be used as a source of hydrogen to fuel missions aimed further out. The moon, being smaller than Earth, exerts much less gravitational pull on spacecraft, making it a nice launch spot, including for laser-propelled probes that could potentially travel to planets orbiting distant stars.
Simon Peter “Pete” Worden, a former director of NASA’s Ames Research Centre, said the far side of the moon has a couple of other resources as well. One is relative radio silence, allowing an unprecedented chance for radio astronomers to look for remnants of the early universe or even search for alien civilisations.
But it’s too early to start fighting over the moon. We still don’t know how much water is hidden near the lunar south pole, said James W Head, a planetary geologist who chose the sites for the Apollo missions and helped train the astronauts. He said he’s eager to see what analysis of the chemistry and ages of the Chang’e-6 material will tell us.
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