Moon’s largest crater harbors secret on south pole where NASA astronauts will land

American astronauts who return to the moon’s surface in the years ahead for the first time in more than half a century will have the difficult and unprecedented task of setting the stage for a permanent human lunar settlement.

That may be the primary objective for spacefarers in NASA’s Artemis lunar program, but it won’t be their only one. Indeed, a team of researchers at the University of Arizona says that astronauts who land on the moon’s south pole have a unique opportunity to also collect some lunar samples that could reveal clues about the origins of Earth’s natural satellite.

New research published Oct. 8 in the journal Nature proposes a theory for how the moon’s crater-riddled far side came to be so different from the near side facing Earth. It just so happens, one of these larger impact craters, known as the South Pole-Aitken basin, is located in the region of the moon’s south pole where NASA could land astronauts as early as two years from now.

2 years? Pipe dream with the most unfriendly government towards science and facts in the history of this country.