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Topics: Astronautics, Astrophysics, Moonbase, NASA

One of the key challenges in building and sustaining a permanent settlement on the moon, as in 2001: A Space Odyssey, is finding a reliable and economical means of transporting essential resources, such as water and energy.

The good news is that while the moon may look like a barren wasteland — and, according to NASA, be a hundred times drier than the Sahara — it is not quite as desolate as it first appears. This is because for billions of years, particles have travelled from our atmosphere to its surface via the Earth’s geomagnetic field, scientists at the University of Rochester reported in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.

"By combining data from particles preserved in lunar soil with computational modeling of how solar wind interacts with Earth's atmosphere, we can trace the history of Earth's atmosphere and its magnetic field," Eric Blackman, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and a distinguished scientist at University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE), said in a statement.

A previous analysis of these soil samples found light volatile elements, such as hydrogen, helium, neon, argon, and nitrogen. Crucially, these substances have been found in lunar soil but not in lunar rock, meaning they must have come from elsewhere. While their presence can, in part, be attributed to the steady stream of particles that emanates from the sun (solar wind), the volume of nitrogen in the soil suggests there is at least one additional source.

A few theories have been put forward, including those that suggest the light volatile elements arrived on interplanetary dust, through asteroid collisions, or from the gas of lunar volcanoes. However, one leading theory is that the particles have a terrestrial origin.

If this is indeed the case, the question is: when and how did they travel from Earth to the moon? In 2005, a separate team of researchers made the case that the particles made the journey before the formation of Earth’s magnetic field. Twenty years later, Blackman and co put that theory to the test.

Terrestrial Particles Travel to the Moon by Hitchhiking Along Earth’s Magnetic Field Lines, Rosie McCall, Discover Magazine

The 18 members of NASA's Artemis Team, from top left to bottom right: Joe Acaba, Kayla Barron, Raja Chari, Matthew Dominick, Victor Glover, Woody Hoburg, Jonny Kim, Christina Koch, Kjell Lindgren, Nicole Mann, Anne McClain, Jessica Meir, Jasmin Moghbeli, Kate Rubins, Frank Rubio, Scott Tingle, Jessica Watkins and Stephanie Wilson.  (Image credit: NASA via collectSPACE.com)

Topics: Diversity in Science, Moonbase, NASA, Space Exploration, Spaceflight

Artemis, in Greek religion, the goddess of wild animals, the hunt, and vegetation, and of chastity and childbirth; she was identified by the Romans with Diana. Artemis was the daughter of Zeus and Leto and the twin sister of Apollo. Source: Britannica

The Biden administration's crucial first 100 days in office now includes a big human spaceflight pledge.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday (Feb. 4) that President Joe Biden will carry on the Artemis program to land humans on the moon in the coming years. Artemis began under Biden's predecessor, then-President Donald Trump. 

"Through the Artemis program, the United States government will work with industry and international partners to send astronauts to the surface of the moon — another man and a woman to the moon," Psaki told reporters in a White House press briefing Thursday.

"Certainly, we support this effort and endeavor," she added.

Psaki's comments, which were in answer to a reporter's question, did not mention NASA's 2024 target for the first crewed Artemis moon landing, a deadline set by the Trump administration. Last year, a bipartisan effort in the U.S. House of Representatives sought to push that landing mission to 2028 instead, in line with NASA's previous goals.

US still committed to landing Artemis astronauts on the moon, White House says, Elizabeth Howell, Space.com

Topics: Moonbase, NASA, Space Exploration, Spaceflight, Star Trek

Cultural references: Neil Armstrong's quote: "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," and the title of a Star Trek Voyager episode, season 6, episode 8.

On August 4, 1972, the sun unleashed an incandescent whip of energy from its surface and flung it toward the planets. It was accompanied by a seething cloud of plasma called a coronal mass ejection, which traversed the nearly 150 million kilometers between sun and Earth in just more than half a day—still the fastest-known arrival time for such outbursts—to briefly bathe our planet in a cosmic fire.

Earth’s shielding magnetosphere crumpled and shrunk by two thirds, sending powerful geomagnetic currents rippling through the planet. Dazzling displays of “northern lights” stretched down to Spain, and overloaded power lines strained as far south as Texas. Off the southern coast of Haiphong, North Vietnam, the seas churned as the celestial disturbance prematurely detonated some two dozen U.S. Navy sea mines. The geomagnetic storm is one of the most violent solar events in recorded history, certainly the most violent of the space age.

The astronauts of Apollo 16 had been home about three months from their lunar foray, and those of Apollo 17 were still preparing for their December launch. The fact that the solar outburst happened between the penultimate and final crewed moon missions was simply a matter of chance. If the members of either crew had been in space during the solar storm, especially if they had been traversing the portion of the “cislunar” region between Earth and the moon that lies outside the magnetosphere, they would have been exposed to a potentially deadly dose of radiation.

We got lucky in 1972. And in terms of space-based hazards, that luck has largely held throughout humanity’s off-world excursions. To date, the only humans to actually die in space were the three cosmonauts of Soyuz 11, who asphyxiated because of faulty hardware as their spacecraft began its descent to Earth. Yet despite what most estimates would seem to consider a near-sterling safety record, today the prospect of venturing back beyond low-Earth orbit somehow seems more daunting—more dangerous—than it did when the Apollo program ended. Equipped with more knowledge than ever about the environs beyond our home, we now seem more reluctant to leave it. Maybe we know too much.

Can a Moon Base be Safe for Astronauts? Rebecca Boyle, Scientific American

Topics: Cellular Service, Moonbase, NASA, Space Exploration, Spaceflight

Telecom equipment supplier Nokia will use a $14.1 million grant to build the moon's first wireless network as part of NASA's plans to establish a human presence there.

NASA is investing the money in Nokia-owned American research company Bell Labs, which will build the 4G-LTE network, it said on Wednesday, October 14.

The improved data transmission will help astronauts control lunar rovers, navigate lunar geography in real-time, and stream videos.

The mission ultimately will help show whether it's possible to have "human habitation on the moon," Bell Labs said.

NASA gave Nokia $14.1 million to build a 4G network on the moon, Grace Dean, Business Insider