Moon

To keep the lights on in NASA's Artemis human lunar outpost, Sandia National Laboratories is developing electrical micro-grids to handle the power distribution from the Moon base's mini nuclear reactors to the various living and support facilities.

The field of lunar agriculture has taken a step forward, with scientists reporting the first-ever plants grown in soil from the Moon, marking a significant milestone in the effort to sustain a lunar base and carry out missions into deep space.

The Moon may look like a big dry ball, but there’s more water up there than you might expect. In a new study, scientists have shown that at least some of it could have been showered onto the lunar surface from the Earth’s atmosphere.

NASA and partners are developing backpack-sized technology for future Moon explorers that will allow them to map and navigate the lunar surface in the darkness of the high polar regions to within a centimeter without GPS.

NASA is turning to the spirit of healthy competition to boost its chances of success in establishing a presence on the Moon through its Artemis program, today outlining plans for a commercially-developed sidekick to SpaceX's lander.

A team of European researchers has suggested that the Moon’s orbit could be used as a gigantic detector for gravitational waves. These waves, much smaller than those that existing detectors can pick up, could originate from the early universe.

Research sponsored by ESA aims to develop a method to not only detect dangerous superoxide soils on the Moon and Mars that could imperil astronauts, but also a way to turn these hazards into oxygen farms for future missions.

While most artists aspire to have their work exhibited somewhere like The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a piece by Dubai-based painter Sacha Jafri may soon be soaring to even loftier heights – plans call for it to be permanently displayed on the Moon.

Astronomers have discovered the first known quadruple asteroid system. A team from Thailand and France spotted a third moon orbiting the main-belt asteroid Elektra, moving the object into the record books.

It turns out the rocket that is predicted to impact the Moon on March 4 is not the second stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket after all, but the upper stage of a Chinese Long March 3C used to launch the Chang'e 5-T1 lunar flyby mission in 2014.

With temperatures as cold as to -232 °C, the lunar night is not a friendly place for electronics. Space technology company Masten has developed a more efficient, safer system that uses chemical reactions to keep lander electronics warm until dawn.

Showing that space junk isn't a local problem, observations by amateur astronomers have determined that the upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched in 2015 will impact the Moon on March 4 at 12:25 GMT.