A rendering of Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander that will return astronauts to the Moon as part of NASA’s Artemis program.
(Source: Blue Origin website)Future crewed missions to the Moon could unintentionally erase some of the oldest chemical evidence linked to the origins of life on Earth, according to a new study that raises concerns about contamination from spacecraft landings.
As Nasa prepares to expand its Artemis programme with more astronaut missions and a long-term lunar base near the Moon’s south pole, researchers say exhaust gases from lunar landers could pollute ancient ice deposits that have remained largely undisturbed for billions of years.
The study focuses on permanently shadowed craters near the Moon’s poles, where temperatures are cold enough for ice to survive indefinitely.
Scientists believe this ice contains material delivered by asteroids and comets during the early history of the solar system, including prebiotic organic molecules — the building blocks that may have contributed to the emergence of life on Earth.
A rendering of Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander that will return astronauts to the Moon as part of NASA’s Artemis program. (Source: Blue Origin website)
Future crewed missions to the Moon could unintentionally erase some of the oldest chemical evidence linked to the origins of life on Earth, according to a new study that raises concerns about contamination from spacecraft landings.
As Nasa prepares to expand its Artemis programme with more astronaut missions and a long-term lunar base near the Moon’s south pole, researchers say exhaust gases from lunar landers could pollute ancient ice deposits that have remained largely undisturbed for billions of years.
The study focuses on permanently shadowed craters near the Moon’s poles, where temperatures are cold enough for ice to survive indefinitely. Scientists believe this ice contains material delivered by asteroids and comets during the early history of the solar system, including prebiotic organic molecules — the building blocks that may have contributed to the emergence of life on Earth.
