NASA has approved a project to study a previously unexplored zone of the Moon to unravel a geological puzzle and aid possible lunar residents.
The $35 million Lunar-VISE (Lunar Vulkan Imaging and Spectroscopy Explorer) mechatronics rover mission will activate in 2026 to investigate the chemical components of the Gruithuisen Domes, 2 strange volcanic aspects that seem to be made of the stone hardened from frozen magma—perhaps similar to Mount St. Helens in Washington State.
On Earth, however, phenomena like the Gruithuisen Domes necessitate seas as well as plate tectonics, which is something the Moon lacks. The domes, which seem to be warmer, could represent a heat source for long-term exploration of the Moon, regardless of how they arose and developed. NASA has never seen anything like the surface of the moon around the Gruithuisen Domes.
5 scientific pieces of equipment will be carried by Lunar-VISE, two on a stable lander as well as 3 on a mobile probe. It will spend ten days examining one of the domes’ summits, analyzing lunar regolith, and investigating how particles react with the spaceship and rover.
There’s possibly a great source of information waiting to be explored, according to Donaldson Hanna, the lead researcher of Lunar-VISE at the University of Central Florida, that would not only benefit us and impact future humanoid & human discovery of the Moon, but it may also assist in understanding the past of our planet and other celestial bodies in the solar system.
NASA’s Payloads & Research Investigations on the Surface of the Moon (PRISM) program sent 2 missions to the Moon. It’s part of NASA’s ambition to provide more commercial businesses to transport packages to the Moon ahead of the Artemis program of crewed flights, which is set to launch 2 humans to the Moon in 2024.
According to Forbes, the Lunar Explorer Instrument for Space Biology Applications (LEIA) scientific equipment, a miniature CubeSat-based tool that will send a yeast to the surface of the moon and afterward examine its reaction to radiation as well as lunar gravity, will be the other project that will now go to the Moon. It will aid researchers in calculating how fractional gravitation & deep space radioactivity may affect the DNA of people on the Moon in the long term.
