NASA Will Spend $35 Million On A New Mission To Probe The Moon | Forbes

NASA Will Spend $35 Million On A New Mission To Probe The Moon’s Mysterious Volcanoes

NASA has green-lit a mission to explore a region of the Moon never before visited in an effort to understand a geological mystery — and help future lunar colonists.

The Lunar-VISE (Lunar Vulkan Imaging and Spectroscopy Explorer) robotic rover mission will cost $35 million and launch in 2026 to study the chemical composition of the Gruithuisen Domes, two mysterious volcanic features that appear to be made of rock hardened from cooled magma — possibly like Mount St. Helens in Washington State.

However, formations like the Gruithuisen Domes on Earth require oceans and plate tectonics, neither of which the Moon has or had.

Lunar-VISE will have five scientific instruments, two on a stationary lander and three on a mobile rover. It will spend 10 days exploring the summit of one of the domes, analyzing the lunar regolith and also exploring how dust interacts with the spacecraft and rover.