NASA ASSESSES METEOR STRIKES FOR MOON BASE

Nasa is assessing meteor strikes as it plans a base on the Moon, space agency chief Jared Isaacman said at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on Friday. He said the agency must account for potentially hazardous conditions at the planned outpost. His comments followed the disclosure last month of a comet or asteroid impact on the Moon in 2024. The object was estimated to be as tall as a six-storey building. “So, we are giving a lot of thought to that for the Moon base,” Isaacman said.

The impact reportedly left a crater about 728 feet wide and 141 feet deep. Scientists described a collision of that scale as a “once-in-a-lifetime” event that occurs roughly once a century. Isaacman said smaller meteor strikes hit the lunar surface more often. During the Artemis II mission earlier this year, astronauts travelling around the Moon’s far side observed several flashes as meteoroids struck the surface. The Moon has no atmosphere to burn up the incoming rocks.

Nasa plans to return people to the Moon in 2028 and have a base operating by 2032, with regular crew rotations to maintain a continuous presence. The agency says the project aims to develop technology for deep space missions, including journeys to Mars. Nasa has scheduled Artemis III for next year. Its four crew members are set to test docking procedures in low Earth orbit involving the Orion spacecraft and commercial lunar landers. Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX are developing the landers.