5 Mysteries That the Artemis Missions to the Moon Could Finally Solve
For half an hour century, humans thought they understood the moon: a static landscape, without air and water, without many mysteries to solve. But orbiting instruments and robotic missions have proven otherwise. The most studied satellite in the solar system is more complex than it seems and many fundamental questions remain open.
NASA is preparing to return to the Moon with the Artemis program. While Artemis II and III will be missions aimed at orbiting the satellite, Artemis IV will put astronauts on the surface for the first time since the Apollo era. The ambitious plan is to lay the foundations for a sustained presence that will generate a constant flow of data and samples.
Some lunar mysteries will be solved thanks to the abundant samples and technology provided. Not all the answers will come at once, and the results will likely be slow in arriving, but they have never been closer to being solved. Here is a list of puzzles that could be solved, with realistic scenarios, in the next 10 to 20 years.
What is the origin of the Moon?
The prevailing theory of the Moon’s origin proposes that it emerged after a Mars-sized planet collided with a proto-Earth about 4.5 billion years ago. Some of the material ejected by this impact clumped together and solidified to form the satellite that orbits the Earth today.
However, this hypothesis depends on complex simulations and a limited set of samples reported by Apollo 50 years ago. Direct access to new, intact rocks, combined with modern analytical techniques, could provide much stronger evidence. Of course, it will be necessary to access deep materials, such as fragments of mantle exposed in craters or impact zones, and reconstruct the chronology of the ancient lunar magma ocean. The hardest part will be getting there; the rest is science.
How much water is there on the Moon and what does it look like?
Half a century ago, it was believed that the Moon was completely dry. Scientists have since established that there was ice in the permanently shadowed south pole craters, and that some of the water was trapped in crystalline form in the minerals on the surface. The big question is how much there is and whether it is usable for future lunar bases.
One of the first tasks of future Artemis missions will be to explore these craters. If they find ice, they will need to determine if it is mixed with regolith, if it forms compact sheets, or if there are purer deposits. In the best case, the resource is abundant and transformable into oxygen or fuel. In the worst case, it is so dispersed that it would be impossible to extract it.
What is the internal structure of the Moon?
The internal structure of the Moon remains one of the big blind spots. Apollo seismometers have detected both deep and shallow moonquakes, but the data is sparse and comes from only one region. Current gravitational and thermal models offer a sketch of the interior, but are far from a detailed map.
A sustained human presence would allow researchers to install seismometers in areas never studied before and expand global coverage. With a modern network, the resolution of the Moon’s interior would increase dramatically and scientists could better define the size of the core, the structure of the mantle and the distribution of residual heat. It won’t be a perfect image, but it will be the most complete yet.
Why is the dark side so different?
If the Moon is a single body, why is its far side so rugged and irregular while its near side is smoother and covered in basalt seas? This asymmetry is one of the great contemporary lunar enigmas. Several models attempt to explain it, ranging from differences in initial heat to variations in crystallization of the magma ocean or gravitational effects of the Earth, but none really fit.
The return to the Moon opens the possibility of the first human expeditions to the surface of the dark side. If samples are obtained, researchers will be able to determine its age, composition and thermal evolution, key data to solve a mystery that has remained unanswered for half a century.
What happened to the lunar magnetic field?
The Apollo samples revealed something unexpected: Many are magnetized, as if the Moon had a powerful internal dynamo. But from what we know about its size and interior, the satellite seems too small and too cold to have withstood a strong global field for very long.
The new lunar era could shed light on this enigma thanks to new samples from various regions and more precise magnetic measurements. With well-dated rocks and better data about the interior, researchers will be able to piece together when the dynamo existed and how intense it was.
The Moon: midpoint or space laboratory
Unlike the Apollo era, the Moon is today no longer the final destination, but the starting point for a new stage of exploration. What happens over the next decade will not only resolve unsolved mysteries; it will also redefine how we understand rocky worlds, how planets form, and how far human exploration can go when it returns to a familiar place with new questions.
Humanity may not get all the answers, but for the first time in half a century, we will ask the right questions, in the right places, and with hands full of moon rocks.
This story was originally published on WIRED en Español and was translated from Spanish.
