Swiss scientists help find Moon landing spot for Artemis

The Artemis 1 rocket stands ready for launch at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved

Research at the federal technology institute ETH Zurich is helping to identify potential landing sites on the south polar region of the Moon for NASA’s Artemis programme.

The first Artemis spaceflight is primed to launch this month on a test mission before future rockets put astronauts on the Moon for the first time since 1972.

NASA wants to explore an area of the Moon that is in permanent shadow and may contain ice.

ETH Zurich scientists are taking part in a Lunar and Planetary Institute research project to pinpoint the best location for astronauts to land and perform their explorations.

The team analysed images taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera that has been documenting the surface of the Moon for over ten years. Artificial intelligence tools have helped shed light on the darkened craters that sit in permanent shadow.

“We discovered a number of previously unknown shadowed craters and other surface features that could be critical to where that robot lands,” said Valentin BickelExternal link, a postdoctoral researcher at the Chair of Glaciology at ETH Zurich.

Researchers have provided NASA with data on more than six potential landing spots that will help reduce risks to astronauts on their missions.  The information could also be useful for future Intuitive Machines Mission 2 commercial flights.

Scientists have speculated that the south polar region of the moon could have surface ice. But analysis of the images has found no hard evidence to support this theory.

“There is no visual evidence of pure surface ice within the shadowed areas, implying that any ice present must be mixed with lunar soil or underneath the surface,” said Bickel.