The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has recommended four nonpolar lunar destinations for short crewed missions: Bhabha Crater, Mons Hadley, Orientale Basin, and Aristarchus Plateau. Its NASA-sponsored report, Human Exploration Across the Moon, presents scientific priorities rather than approved NASA landing assignments.
The sites address different parts of lunar history. Impact structures expose material displaced by collisions, and volcanic terrains preserve evidence of magma reaching the surface. This distinction between lunar craters and volcanic geology explains why samples from one destination cannot answer every geological question.
Bhabha, on the far side, offers access to material from the Moon’s oldest preserved impact basin and opportunities for astronomy shielded from Earth’s radio interference. Mons Hadley would enable new geological sampling near Apollo 15 and examination of hardware and biological material exposed to the lunar environment for more than 50 years.
Orientale is a well-preserved multiring impact basin near the Moon’s visible edge. Samples could clarify basin formation and lunar structure; the report also proposes gravitational-wave observations there. Aristarchus Plateau offers volcanic materials for studying eruption processes and potential resources. Mons Hadley and Aristarchus are proposed locations for space-weather monitoring and experiments using lunar surface material as radiation shielding.
The report’s mission concepts use two astronauts and one to four extravehicular activities, meaning work outside the spacecraft. They assume no crewed rover, a maximum distance of 2 kilometers from the lander, and no extensive prepositioned surface infrastructure. The priority ranking does not prescribe flight order: communications, mission experience, and technology readiness would affect sequencing.
The committee recommends a simple unpressurized rover to extend access, reduce fatigue, and carry equipment. A successor to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter would support hazard mapping and sampling plans. Instruments left behind need to operate through repeated lunar day-night cycles, and surface crews need continuous communications.
Nonpolar missions would complement South Pole exploration. Their samples and measurements would require continuing support for terrestrial curation facilities, laboratories, and trained researchers to analyze the returned material.
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