NASA’s Artemis 3 mission: potential discovery of life in the Moon’s South Pole

Wednesday, 14 June 2023 – 09:04 WIB

LIVE Techno – If NASA planning stays on track politically, technically and financially, the United States (US) will make a new footprint on the Moon towards the end of 2025.

The landing, on a mission called Artemis 3, will be the first human landing in a month since moonwalker Apollo 17 stirred gray dust in December 1972.

Artemis 3 is intended to be the first of a number of human missions to the Artemis Polar Exploration Zone—the polar region of 84 degrees south latitude.

Choosing a safe, science-rewarding territory protection for Artemis 3 is a challenging task. But it’s likely that there will be major discoveries and one potential surprise that could detect life on the Moon.

New research suggests that future visitors to the Moon’s south polar region should look for evidence of life in supercooled permanently shaded craters – organisms that could travel from Earth.

Microbial life has the potential to survive the harsh conditions near the Moon’s South Pole, said Prabal Saxena, a planetary researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.