Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Image credit: NASA

If NASA’s plan stays on the rails politically and dollar-wise, the United States is slated to “re-boot” the surface of the Moon no earlier than 2025.

That Artemis III mission is intended to be the first of many human missions to the Artemis Polar Exploration Zone – the region poleward of 84° South latitude. Selecting a landing site for Artemis III in that zone is a challenging task.

Great science awaits…and one potential surprise could be detecting life on the Moon.

Shown here is a rendering of 13 candidate landing regions for NASA’s Artemis III mission. Each region is approximately 9.3 by 9.3 miles (15 by 15 kilometers). A landing site is a location within those regions with an approximate 328-foot (100-meter) radius.
Image credit: NASA

Site selection

As now planned, Artemis III will enable the following:

— Roughly six days of surface operations;

— Return of valuable non-conditioned samples similar to Apollo 17 sample collection techniques used in December 1972 – when astronauts last visited the Moon;

— Up to four walking moonwalks by crew members of variable duration focused on sample collection and instrument emplacement, with a maximum distance from the lander of 1.2 miles (2 kilometers).

Now underway is active discussion centered on Artemis site selection process and the scientific value of the 13 Artemis III landing region candidates.

Image credit: NASA/Prabal Saxena

Surface conditions

There is potential resilience of microbial life to lunar south pole surface conditions, suggests Prabal Saxena, a planetary researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Saxena notes that today’s environment of the Moon has long been viewed as extremely hostile to surface life based upon perceived surface properties.

However, that outlook did not take into account the interplay between surface topography, surface roughness and the relatively small maximum elevation angle of the Sun at high latitudes, Saxena points out.

Cosmopolitan mesophiles

“Importantly, recent research on the survivability of microbes exposed to conditions like those on parts of the lunar surface indicate surprising resilience of numerous microorganisms to such conditions,” Saxena states in work to be presented at an upcoming science workshop on the Artemis III landing sites.

In this multi-temporal illumination map of the lunar south pole, Shackleton crater (19 km diameter) is in the center, the south pole is located approximately at 9 o’clock on its rim. The map was created from images from the camera aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Credits: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

“Using survivability data for relevant microbes and new, high resolution data that include previously unconsidered lunar properties from recent missions, we find that the lunar south pole may contain substantial surface niches that may be potentially habitable for a number of microorganisms,” Saxena observes, adding that these organisms can be tagged as “cosmopolitan mesophiles” and just as capable of surviving some lunar niches.

Valuable for Mars

As for the consequences for Artemis III crew exploration of the Moon, the fractional percentage of area that is potentially habitable to relevant microorganisms varies between the different Artemis III candidate sites.

That situation is currently being evaluated by Saxena and colleagues.

Image credit: NASA/MEPAG

“Both the ability to conduct astrobiological investigations and prevent or at least monitor forward contamination may make assessment of this fractional coverage an input in deciding between landing sites,” states Saxena.

Considerations for how to investigate a lunar site, if it is near to regions that may be potentially habitable niches, “should be taken into account for future site assessment and traverse planning,” Saxena concludes. “These means of planning and corresponding strategy, techniques and instrumentation that may be involved might be valuable for exploration of Mars as well.”