Rumblings on the moon could be problematic for lunar base

Neal and other scientists aren't exactly sure what causes the shallow moonquakes, although they suspect that the rims of large and relatively young moon craters may slump and cause them.

They also aren't sure precisely where the quakes are occurring.

"The Apollo seismometers were all in one relatively small region on the front side of the moon, so we can't pinpoint the exact location of these shallow quakes," Neal said.

This would be an excellent way for NASA to encourage the development of a private space industry, through a prize system for seismic data from the lunar surface.

Imagine entrepreneurs, developing and mass-producing small seismic stations that could be packaged in large numbers for launch and transit and withstand a semi-soft landing, and then scattering them at sites of interest across the lunar surface -- akin to the Mars Netlander project, only with potentially dozens of mini-landers rather than four.

Posted by T.L. James on April 8, 2006 04:20 PM