Moon Diver
A Journey into the Ancient Lavas of the Moon
The Moon Diver mission concept aims to understand the formation and evolution of the Moon's secondary lava crust by exploring the vertical walls of a pit in Mare Tranquillitatis. The proposed pit is called Tranquillitatis Pit, with a ~100 m (330 ft) diameter opening, and about 125 m (410 ft) deep.
Collecting information on the chemistry, mineralogy, and morphology of these intact bedrock layers would provide information about the structure of the interior of the Moon, by what means its magmas ascend to the surface, how its lavas are emplaced, and the process by which they are transformed into a regolith layer. Of additional interest is the potential that the pit may be a collapsed section of a lunar lava tube.
The Moon Diver concept uses the extreme terrain Axel rover to descend the walls of the pit.
Towards the bottom of the pit there is a large overhang that opens up into the cave. Moon Diver would be able to peer into the cave and investigate whether it represents a lunar lava tube.
Part of the original Moon Diver Team
Nesnas, I. A., Kerber, L., Sellar, G., Balint, T., Denevi, B., Parness, A. J., ... & Sherrill, K. V. (2023). Moon Diver: Exploring a pit's exposed strata to understand lunar volcanism. Acta Astronautica, 211, 163-176.
Nesnas, I. A., Kerber, L., Parness, A., Kornfeld, R., Sellar, G., McGarey, P., ... & Boster, E. (2019, March). Moon diver: A discovery mission concept for understanding the history of secondary crusts through the exploration of a lunar mare pit. In 2019 IEEE aerospace conference (pp. 1-23). IEEE.
Kerber, L., & Team, M. D. (2020). Moon Diver: journey into the ancient lavas of the Moon. In 3rd International Planetary Caves Conference (Vol. 2197, p. 1049).