Artemis landings could contaminate Moon’s historic ice, research finds

2 min learnJul 15, 2026 06:52 PM IST

Future crewed missions to the Moon might unintentionally erase a number of the oldest chemical proof linked to the origins of life on Earth, based on a brand new research that raises issues about contamination from spacecraft landings.

As Nasa prepares to develop its Artemis programme with extra astronaut missions and a long-term lunar base close to the Moon’s south pole, researchers say exhaust gases from lunar landers might pollute historic ice deposits which have remained largely undisturbed for billions of years.

The research focuses on completely shadowed craters close to the Moon’s poles, the place temperatures are chilly sufficient for ice to outlive indefinitely. Scientists imagine this ice incorporates materials delivered by asteroids and comets throughout the early historical past of the photo voltaic system, together with prebiotic natural molecules — the constructing blocks that will have contributed to the emergence of life on Earth.

In contrast to Earth, the place geological exercise and erosion have erased a lot of the planet’s earliest chemical historical past, the Moon has remained comparatively unchanged. In consequence, these frozen deposits might protect an historic file of molecules from the time when life first emerged.

Methane’s fast unfold after touchdown

Utilizing pc simulations, researchers discovered that methane, a serious part of rocket exhaust from deliberate lunar landers, might unfold quickly throughout the Moon after a touchdown. As a result of the Moon has nearly no ambiance, methane molecules would journey in ballistic “hops” throughout the floor as an alternative of dispersing by the air.

The simulations counsel methane launched throughout landings close to the South Pole might attain the Moon’s north pole in lower than two lunar days. Inside a few lunar week, researchers estimate that greater than half of the methane would develop into trapped in completely shadowed polar areas, together with the identical icy craters scientists hope to check.