Representatives of nine national space agencies signed an agreement on 24 July to create an International Lunar Network, which aims to plant a system of six or more seismic stations on the Moon.
NASA scientists joined with space scientists from the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, South Korea, India and Canada, and agreed to work towards setting up a core set of instruments that could measure ‘moonquakes’, and the thickness and composition of the Moon's crust, mantle and core.
The programme would begin with a US$200-million ‘anchor nodes’ mission in 2014, involving sending a pair of US landers to the poles, followed perhaps by a second mission in 2016. The European Space Agency, Russia, Ukraine and Australia are also being included in the discussions.
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Nations pool resources to study lunar seismic activity. Nature 454, 564 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/454564b
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/454564b
