Creating artificial quakes could soon help identify promising mining spots on the Earth – and even the Moon – according to German startup IMENSUS. Such technology could be a vital step towards realising lunar mining ambitions, but getting it to work on the Moon will be challenging.
Inspired by the thunderous footsteps of Tyrannosaurus rex, the IMENSUS engineers have designed a prototype rover that sends vibrations down through the ground beneath it to map out what resources might be there.
“You know in Jurassic Park, how the dinosaurs move and the whole ground shakes? That’s what we are,” head of prototyping David Frey told BBC Science Focus. “We’re shaking the ground.”
The startup is developing the model for use on Earth, showing mining companies where valuable materials, like copper and gold, might be.
Seismic waves allow geologists to scout under the surface, as they slow down when they pass through denser rocks, such as those rich in valuable metals. Using sensors on the surface to measure the speed of the waves, prospectors can then work out where pockets of precious resources might be hiding underground.
Speaking at AI Everything conference in Egypt, Frey discussed the potential broader applications of these technologies beyond Earth. “All of the space industry wants to go to the Moon,” he said. “They want to build things and use local resources – so they’ll have to mine the resources.”
When you start mining operations on Earth, Frey said, you have to investigate the subsoil first. “Why should we do it any differently on the Moon? This is what not a lot of people are thinking.”
Such prospecting measurements have been made on the Moon for scientific purposes, but these are usually done using natural seismic activity created by temperature changes, causing the surface to crack. But the new approach, Frey said, could actively create artificial ‘Moonquakes’ on demand, allowing controlled measurements and timing.
Lunar treasures
The lunar South Pole has been the centre of attention for its mining potential in recent years. While there’s (probably) no copper or gold to mine, there is ice in the polar regions. This could be a vital resource that future missions will want to access, while lunar regolith (the rough, loose dirt that covers the Moon) will be essential for building space infrastructure.
“If humans want to establish a long-term presence on the Moon they are going to need to be able to access the resources that are already there,” lunar seismologist Dr Nicholas Schmerr told BBC Science Focus. “Having technology that can enable that resource utilisation may make the difference in enabling human habitats and maybe even spark a space economy.”
Schmerr, who is Associate Professor of geology at the University of Maryland in the US and participating scientist on the NASA InSight Mission to Mars, is not involved with the IMENSUS project. He said the seismic sounding technology they are using is effective at locating structures within the top 1km (0.6 miles) of the soil’s subsurface.
“They could prospect for changes in the structure of the regolith, locating things like lava tubes, buried ices, or changes in sub-lunarian geology.”
All this would help to test areas to establish their suitability for missions, avoiding expense and time wasted if, say, a crater turns out to be unsuitable.
“In my area of space engineering, no one’s thinking about that,” said Frey. “Everyone’s just thinking, ‘Okay, let’s just go with builders, dig and use the material’. But there might be a huge rock underneath. Or you might be needing 10 tonnes of regolith, but there’s a big cavity or rocks, so you can only use 500kg of it. You want to know this before you go to the Moon, because it’s super expensive.”
Frey also said that scientists could use the measurements from the rover to study subsoil layers, and understand the structure of the Moon.
Future-proofing the Moon
Yet Schmerr warns that the Moon is a “super challenging environment,” with extreme temperatures and radiation from the Sun to deal with, as well as highly abrasive regolith that can destroy machinery.
“I love that people are forward thinking about the problems we will have to solve at the Moon, but I want to emphasise that these things have to work and be engineered to deal with that harsh environment, or they will likely fail,” he said.
Yet, while lunar seismic sounding technology is still in its early phases, Schmerr agrees that “a seismic exploration system will most certainly be needed for future missions.”
IMENSUS’s piloting phase on Earth is due to begin in 2027. Afterwards, whether a lunar concept based on the IMENSUS technology could be part of a mission to the Moon will depend on how planned space programmes like NASA’s Artemis unfold.
But Frey said he could imagine such a technology being used on Mars, if ambitions in space are redirected that way – and potentially even one day to mine asteroids.
Either way, one thing is clear: if humans return to the Moon – or even Mars – they’ll need to know what’s under the surface.
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