• Illustration of dark craters near the moon’s south poleScience Photo Library / Alamy Illustration of dark craters near the moon’s south pole Science Photo Library / Alamy Scientists want to builda laserinside one of the moon’s coldest craters that could help lunar landers and rovers navigate accurately. • Ultrastable lasers are vital for timing and navigation systems that require extreme precision. • They work by bouncing a beam between two mirrors inside a cavity. • The beam reflects between the mirrors at a highly precise rate, in part because the chamber stays almost exactly the same size rather than expanding or contracting. • To keep this beam length stable, the mirrors are usually kept inside a vacuum at extremely low temperatures, isolated from external vibrations. • Read moreDead NASA satellite unexpectedly emits powerful radio pulse Read more Dead NASA satellite unexpectedly emits powerful radio pulse Advertisement On the moon, there are hundreds of craters around the poles that never receive any direct sunlight because the moon doesn’t tilt much as it spins around.
Article Summaries:
- Scientists led by Jun Ye of JILA propose installing an ultrastable laser inside one of the Moon’s permanently shadowed polar craters. The extreme cold (≈20-50 K) and negligible seismic activity would keep the laser’s optical cavity-silicon chamber with two mirrors-highly dimensionally stable, potentially extending coherence time from seconds on Earth to minutes. Such a laser could serve as a precise time and distance reference for lunar landers, rovers, and satellite formations, and even provide a near‑real‑time reference for Earth‑based systems. While deployment would be technically challenging, the concept could improve navigation reliability for future high‑latitude lunar missions.
Sources: