Mountain at Moon South Pole Named in Honor of NASA Apollo-era Mathematician Melba Roy Mouton
The 6,096-m high mountain on the western rim of Nobile Crater (~85.4°S, 37.5°E) is now officially known as Mons Mouton after NASA Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) team nomination to IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature; Situated just a few km east of Leibnitz Beta Plateau, Mons Mouton is to be the site of the 100-day VIPER mission to be delivered via Astrobotic Griffin lander NET Nov 2024; Mons Mouton is also 1 of 13 sites selected by NASA fo Artemis 3 human landings NET 2025
NASA CAPSTONE targeting 13-22 June launch window; KARI Danuri set for 2 Aug, NASA Artemis 1 team working to achieve WDR 19 June then NET Aug launch; Vessels are bound for ~1,609×70,006km NRHO, elliptical 100km polar orbit, and 100×61,155km DRO respectively; NASA PRISM science proposals Lunar-VISE (investigation of Gruithuisen Domes), LEIA (study of yeast exposed to lunar environment) to receive CLPS task orders for launch circa 2026; NASA SSTR awarding US$150K to Air Company Holdings / NYU for development of RP-1 production process using only CO2 / H2; NASA Break the Ice Lunar Challenge phase 2 distributing $3M for water harvesting tech
12-g Moon samples collected during Apollo 11, 12, 17 utilized by 3 researchers at UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences demonstrate viability of lunar regolith as growing medium; Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress) seeds germinated at “rates close to 100%” within 48-60 hours, similar to control group with volcanic ash substrate; Regolith-grown plants were affected by higher differentially expressed gene rate which study authors attribute to solar wind, cosmic radiation effects, abundance of iron oxides; Outcomes varied by sample location with Apollo 17 most robust