INDIANAPOLIS — A Purdue University professor is part of a NASA-sponsored study identifying four priority locations for future crewed missions to the Earth’s moon.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine released the report Wednesday. Dan Dumbacher, a professor of engineering practice at Purdue, served on the research team that identified the four sites for future lunar exploration.
Four priority sites
The study identifies four locations with significant scientific potential:
“At all four sites, we will be learning about lunar geology,” Dumbacher said. “The Moon is like a witness plate for the solar system because there’s no atmosphere to erode things away.”
The study prioritizes the four locations for their scientific value, offering opportunities to better understand the history of the moon and the solar system.
Unlike Earth, its moon has no atmosphere or active plate tectonics to significantly reshape its surface. As a result, impact craters and volcanic features can remain preserved for billions of years.
“It’s a good record keeper,” Dumbacher said.
Exploring the moon’s far side presents unique challenges because astronauts would lose direct communication with Earth while traveling beyond the moon’s line of sight.
However, Dumbacher said the experience could help prepare astronauts for future missions to Mars, where communication delays could make real-time contact with Earth difficult.
“One of the reasons we want to do that is we need to learn on the moon before we send humans all the way to Mars,” Dumbacher said.
Communications infrastructure would need to be established before astronauts could safely explore the far side.
Dumbacher said the technology needed to reach all four sites is already available, although future advances could improve mission capabilities.
“We can do all of the four sites with the technology we have today,” Dumbacher said. “We just have to get there.”
Advances in robotics, machine learning and rover technology could enhance future missions but are not necessary to begin exploring the identified locations.
NASA aims to establish a sustained human presence on the moon, potentially opening opportunities for scientific research, resource extraction and manufacturing in space.
The moon may contain valuable materials, including rare earth elements, thorium and uranium, that could support future space operations.
“This would be a major opportunity,” Dumbacher said. “We could find them on the moon and use them for our purposes.”
Establishing manufacturing capabilities beyond Earth could also create new opportunities for space exploration and development.
Dumbacher grew up in Indianapolis and graduated from Chatard High School before attending Purdue University. He spent more than 33 years working at NASA before joining Purdue’s faculty.
“When the National Academies called, I thought they were kind of kidding at first,” Dumbacher said. “All I wanted to do is just be an engineer and work on rocket engines.”
Crews are unlikely to visit the four priority sites until the next decade as NASA continues developing the rockets, launch vehicles and lunar landers needed for future missions.
“It’ll come sooner than we think,” Dumbacher said. “There’s a global competition going on with China and other places.”
The United States aims to maintain its position in space exploration while establishing international protocols for lunar operations.
The full study is available through the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. More information about Purdue’s space exploration research is available through the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
