The Moon’s Dark Secret: Shadowed Cold Traps Could Unlock the Mystery of Lunar Ice

More than half a century after the last crewed landing, a new lunar space race is underway – with last week’s launching of NASA’s Artemis II mission and the United States, Russia and China all aiming to establish permanent bases on the Moon. Unlike the Apollo program, during which American astronauts landed at six different sites on the lunar surface, 21st-century missions are all focused on a single location: the Moon’s South Pole. Spaceflight pioneer Robert H.