Patches of the Moon to Become Spacecraft Graveyards as Lunar Activity Increases
With over 400 lunar missions planned in the next two decades, parts of the Moon are expected to serve as spacecraft graveyards. Dead hardware will be deliberately crash-landed to avoid disrupting culturally or scientifically important sites, such as the first astronaut footprints.
NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer mission, intended to map the Moon’s water, failed at the start of its two-year mission. Future missions include NASA’s Lunar Gateway, the Artemis base camp, a second lunar base by China and Russia, and ESA’s Lunar Pathfinder set for 2026, with Moonlight planned by 2030. Disposal strategies for end-of-life lunar satellites, such as Pathfinder, are actively being studied.
Options for disposing of dead satellites vary from placing them into sun orbit, distant lunar orbit, or controlled crash-landing on the Moon. Solar disposal is costly and complex due to the Moon’s lack of atmosphere.
The UK Space Agency and Artemis Accord signatories, through organizations like Atlac and the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC), are working to establish best practices for lunar satellite disposal. They aim to designate specific graveyard or impact zones to confine debris and reduce risks.
Crashes at approximately 1.2 miles per second would create surface scars tens of metres wide and generate dust clouds that could damage instruments and obscure telescopes, posing threats to sensitive lunar sites.
Interestingly, some researchers consider controlled impacts valuable for lunar seismology. By using crashes with known mass, geometry, and speed, scientists can study the Moon’s interior structure.
