Original subtitles

The moon, our closest celestial companion, our indispensable

dance partner through the cosmos, lighting our night sky and

gently tugging at our shores. Few have walked on her

surface, but her allure remains strong. Once again we are

glancing her way with renewed interest and with a view to returning very

When I was a little girl and people were always asking

me, what do you want to be when you grow up? And I used to

always go, I want to work up there. As an engineer, you

dream of a job like this where you get to follow in the

footsteps of some of your childhood heroes and of course for

me the Apollo missions, seeing these folks on TV step on the

moon and work for NASA, as an engineer it's just a dream to

be able to say, you know I want to do that too and here I

am.

Only a dozen Americans have kicked the dirt on the lunar

surface. It was a bold and dangerous engineering achievement

driven by a political agenda.

The Apollo program was important because it showed that we

could leave our home planet and visit an object like the

moon. However, what we want to do next is learn how to live

and work off of our home planet on another planetary surface

like the moon. By developing this capability, we'll be able

to know how to go throughout the inner solar system which

has many important destinations both for science

understanding and also may have economic importance for not

only our generation but for future generations.

The Soviet Union and the U.S. had peppered the lunar surface

with soft and hard landing spacecraft. The Soviets' Luna 24

was the last of that program, returning soil samples that

contained traces of water. Much of science and technology

has advanced since the 1970s. The mechanism of world

politics has evolved, new partnerships have formed, new

players are looking skyward and, more recently,

private enterprise has taken up the challenge.

With the faintest of inklings that there may be usable water

on the moon, a forensic focus has turned to the southern

polar region. Scientific programs in the 90s refocused on

the moon. Japan was the first to revive lunar research and

only the third nation to achieve lunar orbit

with high ten on a dust-collecting mission.

The U.S. followed with Clementine, a joint NASA military

project. It completed a mapping survey of the lunar surface

along with gravitational data and evidential proof of

possible water ice hidden in a south polar crater in

permanent darkness. Four years later, Lunar Prospector

mapped lunar resources, gravity and magnetic fields. It was

also impacted into the southern region of the surface to

elicit more evidence of water ice hidden in the craters.

Europe's contribution to this resurgence in lunar

exploration began with the launch of SMART-1. This tiny, ion

-propelled satellite cataloged key chemical elements on the

surface. It also enhanced the theory that the moon was the

result of a collision between Earth and a smaller celestial

body called Theas some four and a half billion years ago.

Japan's second probe was Selene, better known in Japan as

Kaguya. It continued extensive observations of the lunar

crust and also carried the first high-definition cameras

into lunar orbit, giving us a clearer picture of the rugged

surface.

Another proof of capability, this time by India. It also

carried a NASA mineralogy mapper and an impact probe. It

played a key role in the confirmation of water hidden in the

southern lunar pole. Eight months later, NASA launched the

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO. It has spent the

last few years mapping and scanning the lunar world with

sophisticated sensors and continues to return a wealth of

data. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is, as its namesake

says, a reconnaissance mission to the moon. Our job is to

take a suite of very powerful scientific instruments and

make an atlas of the entire moon in some places in very

great detail. Topography, mountain heights, mineralogy,

temperatures, abundances of resources including potentially

the intriguing possibility that there's water at the moon.

We put all this together into a data set by flying low

over the moon for a year. This is the data that the people

designing the human systems, designing the systems, picking

the sites, need to take us back to the moon. This robotic

mission commenced operations in June 2009. It was hoped the

suite of sensors would fulfill several scientific goals, not

only for the moon, but as a framework for understanding

planetary processes throughout the solar system. The LRO

Instrument Suite is comprised of six instruments and

one technology demonstrator. And they are geared towards

providing us a variety of data sets ranging from a thermal

map of the moon, global topography, and most importantly

looking for resources like water ice on the moon. The entire

suite should provide more of an atlas as opposed to a map so

that we know where to go on the moon, where to have the safe

landing sites, and where to put things like lunar outposts

in the hopes of having human exploration in the near future.

The data being returned from LRO and the other probes draws

a clear image of the evolution of the lunar surface and why

it is composed of exactly the same elements as the Earth.

After coalescing from the Earth-theas collision, the proto

-moon cooled, then suffered several major collisions from

orbital debris, which created many of the largest

surface characteristics, including the mares.

Cratering continued relentlessly over the

millennia, drawing the familiar lunar vista.

My name is Lynn Carter, I'm a research space scientist and I

work with the Planetary Geodynamics Group here at Goddard. I

study the geology of planetary surfaces, the Earth, moon,

Mars, Venus. There's a lot of things you can learn about the

Earth by studying other planets. For example, on the Earth

we have a lot of erosive processes, you know, it rains, it

washes parts of the surface away, we have plate tectonics

which recycles the crust. But on other planets, those

processes don't necessarily occur. So for example, when we

look at the moon, we're seeing a surface that's much older.

We can use impact cratering on the moon to sort of

understand how many impacts happen the size of the objects

that were hitting each other in the early solar system. One

of my favorite things is to use radar remote sensing. For

example, on Mars, we can use radars to sound all the way

to the bottom of Mars polar caps and see all this layering

within the polar caps. And on the moon, we're using it to

study impact cratering. Sometimes when an impact crater is

formed, a huge sheet of melt is thrown out. This melted rock

flows across the surface, but then over time it's covered

over by stuff from other impacts. But with the radar, it

just blows right through all of that and you can see this

beautiful image of the melt floor coming out of the crater.

Launched with LRO was LCROSS, or Lunar Crater Observation

and Sensing Satellite. It deployed some time later than LRO

and had a finite mission. LCROSS and the rocket stage that

delivered it were deliberately crashed into the craters of

the south pole, whilst LRO orbited above and observed the

impacts. The debris and gases thrown up from the lunar

surface were closely studied by LCROSS as it too descended

to the surface. The missions found evidence that the

lunar soil within these shadowy craters is rich in useful

materials. The moon is chemically active and has a water

cycle. Scientists also confirmed the water was in the form

of mostly pure ice crystals which had not seen sunlight for billions of years.

LRO has continued to operate in polar orbit, making

observations of the south pole, and with repeated flyovers,

it has drawn up a detailed map of neutron densities in the

region, revealing where hydrogen and thus water can be found

within the lunar soil. The importance of this discovery

cannot be overestimated. Having this resource in situ means

independence from the cost and effort of bringing water from Earth to the moon.

It can be used for creating rocket fuel, oxygen to breathe,

water to consume and to irrigate gases to manufacture

building materials from the lunar soil.

Launched in 2007, NASA's five Themis spacecraft have now

successfully completed their two-year mission to determine

the cause of geomagnetic substorms. Because they are

continuing to work perfectly, NASA redirected the outermost

two spacecraft to the moon. This new mission was called

Artemis, and they studied the magnetospheric environment

near the moon. They also observed the effects of surface

electric fields and ions from the solar winds on the lunar

surface, and determined the internal structure of the moon

from variations in its magnetic field. Well, in a nutshell,

what we're finding is that the polar craters are very

unusual electrical environments. Well, the solar wind is

actually a relatively tenuous gas that's emitted from the

sun. But it's not a neutral gas like the gas in this room.

It's actually a gas that's really, for the most part, free

ions and free electrons. So as you pass by, for example, a

polar crater, the electrons will actually fill into the

crater ahead of the ions. Now, as it turns out, as it does

that, you create an electric field. It's called an ambipolar

electric field, and that electric field then drives in the

ions. These hidden troves of water, ice, and other volatiles

in the polar craters may be protected by a dangerous

electric charge of hundreds of volts. Three, two, one,

zero, and liftoff of the Delta II with GRAIL. Journey to the

center of the moon. GRAIL consisted of two probes called

Ebb and Flow. Linked together in a single flight path, they

studied the gravitational field of the moon, generating maps

like this crustal thickness atlas. It reveals much about the

interior of the moon and even has some surprises. Two years

ago, we reported evidence that the moon is shrinking. Now we

found evidence that the moon is actually being pulled apart,

forming features called graben. So the shrinking moon, it

turns out, is not shrinking everywhere. Some places, the

moon is actually expanding by a little bit. So finding these

young graben was a real surprise because we thought,

well, all these low-bait scarps are telling us the moon is

shrinking. So what are these little small graben that are

telling us the moon is pulling apart doing in this picture?

Or how does this all fit together? All that's related to how

the moon has evolved, how the moon has lost heat over its

four and a half billion year history. Most of the

terrestrial planets, when they formed, were very hot, and

they got so hot that they actually completely melted. When

that happens, they will be in a general state of contraction

because they're still hot on the inside and cooling down,

and as they cool, they want to shrink. Only the outer part

of the moon melted, forming what is called a magma ocean,

and in that model, the balance of stresses or forces that

are acting on the moon would allow us to form both these

small low-bait scarps that show contraction as well as these

small graben that show the moon being pulled apart.

One of the really, really exciting returns of the Lunar

Reconnaissance Orbiter mission is that we've seen this now

growing evidence of very young geologic activity on the

moon. The moon's crust is much thinner on the near side,

68 kilometers thick on average, and varies from less than a

kilometer under Marie Crisium to 107 kilometers thick just

north of the crater Corolef on the lunar far side. The

moon's mantle is only partially molten, and the moon's

center of mass is offset by about two kilometers in the

direction toward the Earth. This and other data quickly

changed our understanding of the moon. To gather more

evidence on the unusual electrical properties on the lunar

surface and how it affects lunar dust, NASA sent Ladi, the

lunar atmosphere and dust environment explorer, to

investigate. At higher altitudes, we saw very few dust

particle impacts, but the lower we went with Ladi, the

more we saw, and it's a very, very steep rise. So if you're

operating with spacecraft very close to the surface of the

moon, as you would with a robotic lander or a human lander,

you might need to consider the fact that you've got more

dust there in the way as you come in. This probe flew

progressively lower and finally impacted on the surface.

This is Morpheus, a robotic, self-guided lander.

You tell it where to land, and it will do the rest,

independently seeking the safest course and avoiding any

rocky dangers.

The ESA were also developing an autonomous lander to perform the same function.

The lunar lander is a small but very challenging mission.

The most important part of it is of course landing on the

south pole of the moon, which requires innovative solutions

concerning landing, hazard avoidance, navigation, and in

fact, this is the mission which will bring about the new

generation of navigation and guidance sensor algorithm and

software. But a fiscal year is a long time in space. NASA

now have little interest in returning men to the moon, they

are firmly focused on a Martian landscape. The Europeans

have had budget cuts, the ESA lander now shelved for the

time being. This leaves the door wide open for Russia and

the younger players, China, India and Japan, plus several

private companies now developing the same technology to put

first robots, then humans on the moon. All this time, the

Chinese National Space Administration, or CNSA, had launched

two orbiter reconnaissance satellites, Chang'e 1 and 2. Then

Chang'e 3 deposited a lunar rover on the surface. Their

latest, Chang'e 5, made a return trip around the moon. They

are firmly set on a permanent manned lunar base. I think the

reason this has resonated with so many people and all over

the world, it's not just our country, it's because everyone

can look up in the sky and see the moon. And I think a lot

of people remember the Apollo landings, the first man on the

moon, and you can also look up at the sky and I believe that

people, it's very tangible to them that way, the moon,

they can relate. So they want to be a part of it. That's my

theory on why people are just so connected.

The moon is indeed a tantalizing prize. The Chinese have

their lander and rover there now. Japan and India will be

next. South Korea has an interest along with Russia, Canada,

France, Italy and the United Kingdom. Private Enterprise has

had a prod with the Google Lunar X Prize. The 30 million

dollar prize pales beside the glory of being the first

private company to land a robot on the moon and to explore

at least 500 meters and transmit high definition images back

to Earth. So far there are four hot contenders. The

Barcelona Moon Team, a consortium of companies headed by

Galactic Suite Design. Their interests lie in space

technology and industry with a strong focus on tourism. Penn

State Lunar Lion Team. Faculty and students are developing

a spacecraft to land on the moon, then lift off again and

relocate to fulfill the prize requirements. Moon Express is

a group of space and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs looking to

mine the moon for its valuable resources like platinum,

titanium and the rare isotope helium-3. Finally, Astrobotic

Technology. A Pennsylvania based company with support from

other companies including Alcoa and Caterpillar. They have

already reserved a launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle.

Getting to the moon is one thing, staying there is another.

It was one thing to go for a handful of days at Apollo and

go when you knew that the sun was quiet or you hoped the sun

stayed quiet and you took the risk, you calculated the risk

of cancer and such and you made a short mission. You're

going to live there longer, you need to understand it well

enough to go, here's what I need to do to protect myself.

One of the things that we're looking for in the LRO mission

is how the high radiation environment affects our ability

to explore. So if we bring cameras or communication devices,

how will they be impacted by the cosmic radiation? We need

to protect our equipment as well as ourselves. We want to be

able to go back to the moon so that we can live there for

long periods and work on the moon. So we need a mission that

can help us find the best places to go and determine how to

go back there safely. Access to solar power continuously,

that may be the first and most important reason over the

near term and then the possibility of resources being there.

Those may take much longer time before we're able to really

exploit those but the solar power is something we can

exploit right away. Whether it's water, ice to have water

or potential minerals that we could use as raw materials to

make into things that we would need. All the major players

have designed and planned many varieties of lunar bases.

NASA, ESA and private contractors have concepts on the

drawing board. As more information comes in from the lunar

satellites on the environment, resources and

dangers of cosmic radiation, these plans evolve.

One of the latest is to use 3D printing technology.

With all the challenges and difficulties, many have made

firm commitments to establishing bases within 10 to 15

years. Some for scientific research, others for commercialization and tourism.

Some would choose not to send test pilots and scientists,

but stewardesses and sommeliers. When we look back at what

we did in LRO and we look at what followed, I think we'll

see a profound impact. We'll see us as really being the

small first step where we have human beings permanently

off this planet, getting to move out into the solar system,

starting with the moon. As that pans out, I think we'll be

a small piece of a profound development that when history

looks back, this time we went back to the moon,

this time we stayed and we moved on from there.

As we continue to study the moon, our understanding of it

improves, giving us new insights not only into how it has

evolved over time, but also how other rocky planets

in our solar system have come to look the way they do.

With new missions, new instruments and new technologies,

we will continue to improve our knowledge of the moon and

better understand the history of our solar system. NASA Jet

Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology