Moon's Shrinking Leads to Unprecedented Quakes Near Artemis Landing Sites

A recent study by NASA has revealed that the moon has been shrinking over the past few hundred million years, leading to the formation of faults and moonquakes. This could pose challenges for human exploration, particularly in the Lunar South Pole region where NASA plans to land during the Artemis III mission. The shrinking is attributed to the cooling of the moon's interior and tidal forces from Earth, causing the surface to wrinkle and form faults. Scientists used data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to detect thousands of relatively small, young thrust faults widely distributed in the lunar crust, and suggest that the potential for moonquakes should be considered when planning future lunar outposts.