URGENT: Artemis II Last Footage Is Shocking the Scientific World!

[00:00:00]You might think high-tech telescopes let us see every inch of the moon, but that's not true.

[00:00:06]At our satellite's South Pole, lie giant craters untouched by sunlight for eons, stuck in pitch black, colder than Pluto, and almost impossible to explore.

[00:00:18]However, maybe we have to if we want to explore space.

[00:00:22]Because the darkness hides some must-have resources that will make life and long-distance travel in space possible.

[00:00:29]Yes, we're talking about water locked up as tiny crystals in the lunar soil.

[00:00:35]Now, water in space is always good news.

[00:00:38]You've probably heard that scientists are also obsessed with finding it on Mars.

[00:00:43]If the red planet has any type of water below its surface, it raises the exciting possibility that life might have existed there.

[00:00:51]Even microbes would be the biggest discovery in human history. That's why rovers are poking around Martian craters and drilling into the soil like some very dedicated space gardeners. [music] But, as incredible as water on Mars would be, water on the moon might be even more valuable to us in the [music] short term. The reasons are simple, the distance and the gravity of the moon.

[00:01:15]We can reach our satellite in 3 [music] days. That's almost nothing. It takes at least 7 days to reach New York from London via a cruise [music] ship.

[00:01:23]But, more important than the length of the trip is the possibility of using the moon as a pit stop.

[00:01:29]Stop, [music] refuel, and relaunch so we can resume exploration.

[00:01:35]The gravity on the moon is only [music] 1/6 as strong as Earth's.

[00:01:40]That's not just useful for endlessly entertaining yourself by jumping around.

[00:01:45]This difference means that launching rockets from our satellite is much easier compared to launching them from Earth, which requires a tremendous amount of fuel just to break free from the atmosphere.

[00:01:56]For example, the Saturn V rocket, which took astronauts to the moon during the Apollo missions, was made up of more than 90% fuel just to get off the ground.

[00:02:06]On the moon, however, it's much easier to launch a rocket. That means that we could carry heavier loads with less fuel.

[00:02:14]It's like being able to take a bigger suitcase on your trip.

[00:02:17]If we can find and use ice on the moon to create rocket fuel, it would turn our satellite into a practical and affordable stop for exploring the solar system.

[00:02:27]Not to mention that [music] by applying some basic chemistry, we could extract oxygen from water and use it for breathing or rocket engines.

[00:02:36]Also, astronauts would need water to drink and grow crops on the lunar base.

[00:02:41]So, what do we know about the latest discoveries?

[00:02:45]For a long time, scientists thought the moon was completely dry.

[00:02:49]But in 2009, NASA [music] basically crashed a rocket into a crater. It caused an explosion of ice and vapor, like [music] fireworks, and finally confirmed that the moon had some kind of water.

[00:03:03]But how much?

[00:03:04]Well, enough to matter.

[00:03:06]The data suggests there could be hundreds of millions of tons of water ice [music] locked up in the moon's polar regions. Some estimates roughly say 1.3 trillion pounds.

[00:03:17]>> [music] >> That's about the same weight as 460 million cars. Not exactly lakes, [music] but still a lot.

[00:03:25]And there still could be more.

[00:03:27]This water could also contribute to uncovering cool scientific secrets.

[00:03:32]The ice is ancient, which makes [music] it like a time capsule from the early days of the solar system.

[00:03:38]Studying those frozen molecules might tell us not only how water got to the moon, but also how it appeared on Earth.

[00:03:47]Anyway, what's all that water doing on the moon? How did it get there?

[00:03:52]Scientists assume that of it probably hitched a ride on comets and asteroids billions of years ago.

[00:03:58]Many of those space rocks carried ice and some of that water ended up in the polar regions.

[00:04:04]Another source could be the way solar wind interacts with the lunar surface.

[00:04:08]In any case, however this ice appeared on the moon, the real trick is where it ended up, inside its polar craters.

[00:04:16]And while we can find the ice not only in the craters at the South Pole, that's where the largest, most stable reserves are believed to be.

[00:04:24]Some of those craters are enormous. One of the most famous is called the Shackleton crater and [music] it's over 13 miles wide and more than 2 miles deep.

[00:04:35]That's almost twice as deep as the Grand Canyon.

[00:04:38]The moon barely tilts on its axis, only about 1 [music] degree. So the sun never peaks over the rims of those deep polar pits.

[00:04:47]The temperatures dip to around -400° Fahrenheit there.

[00:04:51]Any water or chemicals trapped in that frozen dirt just stay there, [music] locked away like in a freezer.

[00:04:58]Something really cool is that at the South Pole, you have parts that are stuck in the perpetual darkness.

[00:05:04]But some nearby mountain ridges get almost non-stop sunlight.

[00:05:09]Scientists call them the peaks of eternal light.

[00:05:12]They are perfect [music] for setting up solar panels while still being close enough to access the icy treasures hidden below.

[00:05:20]The poles of the moon are the only places [music] in our solar system we know of where perpetual day and night exist side by side.

[00:05:29]But the eternal night isn't just fascinating, it's dangerous.

[00:05:33]The terrain out there is absolutely unforgiving. We can't even simulate something like that on Earth. We don't even know what it looks like from the inside.

[00:05:43]It's worse than exploring the northernmost part of Antarctica while wearing a blindfold.

[00:05:48]So, now that we know this, is that potential water even obtainable? [music] That question is probably worth several trillions of dollars.

[00:05:57]Yes, there's water over there, but getting to it won't be like scooping ice cream from a bowl.

[00:06:02]What we're really talking about are microscopic ice crystals mixed into lunar dust.

[00:06:08]To make use of it, machines would need to dig and heat up the soil, then capture the vapor before it escapes back into space.

[00:06:16]And then, there's freezing.

[00:06:19]Even assuming a human or rover could safely reach the bottom of a crater, it'd be almost impossible to navigate.

[00:06:26]Batteries and equipment probably wouldn't last, and it's impossible to use solar panels or electronics down there.

[00:06:32]>> [music] >> They'd freeze in minutes.

[00:06:34]However, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter uses all kinds of radars and sensors to sniff out what the crater looks like inside.

[00:06:43]And now, there's an even sharper tool, ShadowCam. A camera so sensitive, it can capture details in [music] light 100 times dimmer than what our eyes can see.

[00:06:54]Basically, [music] the ultimate night vision device.

[00:06:57]With it, we can finally map those pits without even setting foot there.

[00:07:02]That's why engineers are thinking up all sorts of [music] clever solutions. Some concepts involve nuclear-powered rovers with headlights strong enough to carve [music] through the dark. Others want robots that rappel down crater walls or hop across the floor like pogo sticks.

[00:07:19]There are even ideas for drills that could [music] melt frozen soil and trap water vapor like condensation on a cold soda can.

[00:07:27]The silver lining is [music] that this water isn't going anywhere.

[00:07:30]Until we improve our technology, [music] the supply will wait for us.

[00:07:34]That being said, space agencies are already making advancements.

[00:07:39]In fact, more than half a dozen new missions are lined up over the next few years.

[00:07:45]NASA's Artemis program is getting ready to send astronauts back around the moon and then down to the South [music] Pole.

[00:07:53]China's Chang'e 7 is planning to check out those dark craters.

[00:07:58]And private companies like Firefly and Blue Origin are gearing [music] up to deliver equipment and experiments.

[00:08:05]Now, here's a bonus [music] lesser-known fun fact. The moon smells.

[00:08:10]When Apollo astronauts brought lunar dust into their landers, it mixed with the oxygen inside and ended up smelling pretty strong. They said [music] it was like burnt gunpowder or fireworks.

[00:08:22]Lunar dust has nothing to do with gunpowder, but its [music] particles are highly reactive. After sitting in space for billions of years, they reacted instantly with oxygen [music] in the cabin, creating that smoky odor.

[00:08:35]Future explorers [music] are definitely going to notice that smell, too, since lunar dust tends to stick to everything.

[00:08:42]Let's hope that, aside from everything else, scientists will work out air fresheners for the moon base.

[00:08:51]>> August 23rd, 2023, a day when India's Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft made history by becoming the first to touch down on the lunar South Pole, a place we can't normally see from Earth.

[00:09:04]What makes this lunar hideaway so fascinating to scientists? Well, it turns out it's hiding something precious.

[00:09:11]Lunar ice.

[00:09:14]This place is believed to be more abundant with this ice than what we found up north.

[00:09:18]>> [music] >> And it's not hard to see why scientists are so buzzed up about it. It's a frozen water source, and it could become our key to building a permanent lunar home, or even fueling missions all the way to Mars.

[00:09:32]Scientists knew about this ice for over two decades since the NASA spacecraft accidentally stumbled upon it during one of the missions. Then in 2018, NASA triumphantly declared that they're 100% sure about it. They said that the South Pole of the Moon is abundant with water.

[00:09:51]Now, picture this.

[00:09:53]Future lunar settlers could tap into this water supply. They could help us sustain life in the barren lunar landscape.

[00:10:01]Plus, by cleverly splitting the water into oxygen and hydrogen, >> [music] >> we could receive both air and rocket fuel. All this will make moon missions more feasible and self-sustaining.

[00:10:13]It's also a great glimpse into the past.

[00:10:15]This ice may be as old as the moon itself, could unlock the moon's and Earth's [music] deep mysteries.

[00:10:24]But it turns out that water isn't rare in space at all. There might be lots of planets out there where life could thrive. We know this because we started finding water vapor around stars. And this water is remarkably similar to the water in our own solar system.

[00:10:41]This discovery suggests that the water on Earth originally came from space.

[00:10:46]Water forms around stars in the cloud of extremely hot vapor. Then it turns into ice and sticks to tiny dust particles.

[00:10:54]These particles stick together over time and become bigger objects like comets, planets, and other things.

[00:11:01]Some of these become comets and planets in our own solar system.

[00:11:05]And this is how water is being spread across the universe. And it may be how it got to our planet and the moon, too.

[00:11:12]Scientists think that the lunar ice might have journeyed here eons ago.

[00:11:16]Maybe it hitched a ride on water-rich asteroids that smacked into the moon's surface.

[00:11:23]All this has big implications for us.

[00:11:25]The southern pole is an ideal canvas for humanity to establish a real moon base.

[00:11:31]Imagine brick domes connected by secret underground tunnels.

[00:11:36]They'll be bustling with people busily operating computers.

[00:11:41]Some others will be cruising the lunar landscape in their jeeps or on their way to mine precious resources.

[00:11:47]We have some pretty cool ideas on how to build this. First, you probably imagine hauling hefty and water-draining shelters all the way from Earth. But maybe there's a more effective way.

[00:11:59]Think about our history as a civilization. Every time we venture to a new place, we surveyed the surroundings for available resources and use them to survive and thrive. This is how we spread across our own planet. So, why shouldn't we spread across the moon the same way?

[00:12:15]Now, you might wonder what resources the moon might offer.

[00:12:19]We know about the ice and it can be turned into water. But we can clearly see that our planet lacks lush greenery and edible food.

[00:12:30]Well, it might not be obvious, but the moon does have something to offer.

[00:12:34]Mineral resources and sunlight.

[00:12:37]Unlike Earth where the sun rises and sets, the lunar poles offer quite a beautiful sight. The sun gracefully orbits the horizon the entire day, which means it can provide an almost uninterrupted [music] source of power.

[00:12:52]Imagine living in a world bathed in perpetual sunlight. I'm sure the solar panels [music] will love it. Me? Hmm, not so much. Still, we could use not only the sun's light, but also its heat.

[00:13:04]Honestly, we should just use everything.

[00:13:07]If we're left with spare metal while producing oxygen, find a purpose [music] for that metal, too. We need to treat the environment responsibly, not only on Earth, but on the moon as well. Which is why scientists are learning how to turn the moon's most abundant [music] resources, regolith, into sturdy bricks.

[00:13:26]They've been quite inventive in figuring out how to create moon bricks.

[00:13:30]Scientists want to use the [music] sun's heat to melt lunar dust layer by layer, essentially creating a 3D printer for moon dust.

[00:13:39]Engineers have also cooked up bricks [music] using solar ovens and zap lunar soil with microwaves. They become quite adept at it.

[00:13:48]So, yeah.

[00:13:49]Perhaps we're going to establish a little brick factory on the moon and build regolith [music] houses.

[00:13:57]It's like Minecraft in real life. As soon as you find some cool new material, you got to build a tiny house with it.

[00:14:04]If successful, these bricks could be used to construct entire buildings, potentially covering inflatable modules, or giving new life to abandoned landers.

[00:14:14]So, will astronauts need to become skilled bricklayers? Well, they won't do everything themselves. We'd have to create a small automated system involving robots working collaboratively. Humans will, of course, oversee the construction site.

[00:14:30]Despite all this automation, scientists believe that living on the moon is going to be, well, call it cozy.

[00:14:37]The designs may involve stacked living quarters or multi-purpose areas.

[00:14:43]However, there would be some challenges, too. On the moon, things get extreme.

[00:14:49]Imagine scorching temperatures that can go up to 212° Fahrenheit during the day, and at night, they plunge down to a chilly -290°.

[00:14:59]And it's not just the weather. The moon gets relentlessly exposed to solar radiation, cosmic rays, and micrometeorite impacts. All these things gradually wear down anything on its surface.

[00:15:13]Another big challenge is the lunar dust.

[00:15:15]On the moon, there's no air to breathe, and the dust there can cause problems.

[00:15:19]And this one isn't only regular dust.

[00:15:22]It's super clingy and can even make astronauts sneeze and have watery eyes as if they're having a lunar hay fever.

[00:15:30]It can also damage equipment and space suits.

[00:15:33]It's not something you want to mess with.

[00:15:38]Scientists have found that the dust is made when meteors hit the moon, creating tiny particles and sharp glass shards.

[00:15:45]It's toxic and its tiny particles can float around in low lunar gravity, making it hard to breathe.

[00:15:52]Unlike on Earth, the moon doesn't have wind or rain to clean it away. So, now they're studying it to find out how to prevent this annoying problem from ruining their entire mission.

[00:16:05]There's more to this lunar haven than meets the eye. Scientists also want to delve into the mysteries of low-frequency electromagnetic waves there.

[00:16:13]These waves are whispers from the far reaches of the universe.

[00:16:18]These elusive signals have remained hidden from us for ages. We only caught some cacophony of radio and other background noise, but that's it.

[00:16:28]On the moon's dark side, however, we can finally record and study them.

[00:16:33]Studying these waves will help scientists to unlock the secrets of the universe's origins. It's not just about the Earth or the moon.

[00:16:41]We're talking about peering back to the very beginnings of our world.

[00:16:46]Our new lunar lab might help us to forever reshape our understanding of the cosmos.

[00:16:53]So, NASA has some big plans on the moon now. Their Artemis mission completed a successful return to Earth in December 2022 after nearly a month in space.

[00:17:05]It ventured far beyond the moon.

[00:17:07]This mission proved the capabilities of some of our recent technological developments that will help us explore Mars.

[00:17:15]The goal of Artemis is to establish a lasting presence on the moon.

[00:17:19]They want to create a gateway, like a space station in orbit around the satellite to help with the landings.

[00:17:25]Artemis 2 is set to carry astronauts to lunar orbit in 2024. And during Artemis 3, which should take place in the mid-2020s, two astronauts will touch down near the moon's South Pole.

[00:17:40]It's quite possible [music] that the lunar base will be built within the next couple of decades.

[00:17:45]So, stay tuned.

[00:17:49]>> China's Yutu-2 is a robotic mission to the dark side of the moon, launched on December 7th, 2018. On January 3rd, 2019, it completes the first-ever soft landing on the lunar far side. It lands in the Von Karman crater, not far from the moon's South Pole. Scientists are interested in this area. Cold, permanently shadowed craters at the poles contain water ice. These ice patches are uneven and are likely to be ancient. In the South, most of the water ice is concentrated in craters. And at the North Pole, it's spread more sparsely. In any case, this ice can be used once a long-term manned mission lands on the moon.

[00:18:32]Anyway, several days after Yutu-2 lands, it closes down its operating systems and hibernates [music] through its first lunar night.

[00:18:41]It wakes up on January 29th, 2019. All its tools operate normally. The rover travels 390 ft during its first full lunar day. One lunar day lasts for about 14 days, and a lunar night has the same duration.

[00:18:58]Moving and exploring during the day and switching off during the night becomes the rover's routine.

[00:19:04]It's the eighth lunar day when Yutu-2 stumbles across something incredible.

[00:19:10]This discovery makes the scientists [music] put off all other plans for the mission.

[00:19:15]They focus on figuring out what the strange material found by the rover is.

[00:19:20]In the beginning, this lunar day is no different from any other. It begins on July 25th when the rover starts making its way through an area pockmarked with tiny impact craters.

[00:19:31]Yutu-2 is helped and monitored by the driver [music] team from the Beijing Aerospace Control Center.

[00:19:38]On July 28th, the team is preparing to shut the rover down for a midday nap.

[00:19:43]The sun is high in the sky. It means there are high levels of radiation and scorching [music] temperatures that can damage the machine. Before powering Yutu-2 down, the scientists are [music] looking through the pictures taken by the rover's main camera.

[00:19:58]That's when they spot [music] it, a small crater filled with something that looks shockingly different from the surrounding landscape. Unable to identify the gel-like substance, the team orders [music] the rover to check this bizarre finding. Yutu-2 cautiously nears the crater to examine the weirdly [music] colored stuff. The machine uses special equipment that detects the light reflected off the substance.

[00:20:21]It's supposed to help the researchers [music] to understand the structure of the material.

[00:20:26]Unfortunately, the nature of the unusually colored finding has [music] remained a mystery for over a year.

[00:20:33]No wonder that both the finding >> [music] >> and the fact that initially there were no images of the enigmatic stuff sparked curiosity all over the world.

[00:20:43]>> [music] >> The only available description of the substance was that it looked like a randomly colored [music] shiny gel.

[00:20:49]Something that's rather odd for the dusty arid surface of the moon.

[00:20:54]But finally, the mystery seems to have been solved. The researchers have analyzed the information received from the rover's equipment. As expected, the substance turned out to be [music] made up of rock, greenish and glistening breccia in a sample no larger than 20 by [music] 6 in. It's It's kind of like a geologic version of Jell-O salad with fruit inside.

[00:21:15]>> [music] >> If you melt it down, it'll look glassy.

[00:21:20]Breccia consists of sharp stones joined together by a chalky substance.

[00:21:25]The sample found on the far side of the moon is made up of a mix of different minerals.

[00:21:29]>> [music] >> The main is a type of silicate that's one of the most common components in both the moon and Earth's crust.

[00:21:37]The piece also contains some glass, [music] which means it could have formed during a volcanic eruption.

[00:21:43]But volcanic activity on the moon stopped more than 3 billion years ago.

[00:21:47]That's why the researchers are almost sure it's unlikely to be the source of the unusual finding.

[00:21:54]The material could have been created by a massive asteroid, comet, or meteorite that once hit the moon.

[00:22:01]During the collision, the pressure and temperature were so high that a huge amounts of rock instantly melted. Some pieces cooled down rapidly enough to form glass.

[00:22:11]The rest gathered at the center of the impact crater and grew colder more slowly, forming a new rock.

[00:22:18]The substance was likely not [music] formed in the Von Karman crater, but in the nearby Finsen and Alder craters.

[00:22:25]The hollow where the rover made its finding was just 7 ft across.

[00:22:29]>> [music] >> Whatever left it had to be no wider than an inch. But then, it would be too small to create such a large piece of breccia.

[00:22:39]It's [music] interesting that the material is similar to the samples collected by the astronauts from NASA's Apollo missions.

[00:22:46]One of those samples [music] was made of dark broken shards of minerals glued together.

[00:22:51]It also contains some black shiny glass.

[00:22:54]It's not [music] clear though whether it's the same as the stuff discovered by Yutu 2.

[00:22:59]When When rover took photos and made its measurements, it was rather dark in the area. The quality [music] of the images isn't that great.

[00:23:08]The experts also explained that the mission is examining a previously [music] unexplored area of the moon.

[00:23:14]That's why they don't have any samples from that region to compare them with the greenish shiny substance Yutu-2 found.

[00:23:21]But, if their guesses turn out to be true, then the far side of the moon might have more in common with the Earth-facing one [music] than we used to think.

[00:23:30]But, what's so special about this dark side [music] of Earth's natural satellite? And why can't we see it?

[00:23:39]It's all because of the phenomenon known as tidal locking.

[00:23:43]Earth's only natural satellite rotates around its axis once in 27 days. It's the same amount of time it needs to go around our planet.

[00:23:52]That's why you always see the same face.

[00:23:55]To be precise, 59% of the moon's surface is visible to people.

[00:24:00]It means that you can catch glimpses of the satellite's far side at sometimes of the year.

[00:24:06]The moon's side we can't see is quite different from the one facing Earth.

[00:24:10]It doesn't have dark spots that are visible at night. Those are lunar basaltic plains [music] called lunar maria. They were created by ancient volcanic eruptions. Those happened about 3 to 4 billion years ago.

[00:24:24]Instead of plains, the far surface of the moon has countless craters [music] and tall mountains.

[00:24:30]One of the ideas about such a striking difference between the two sides is based on the collision theory.

[00:24:36]It claims that billions of years ago, Earth collided with another planet or some other massive space body. After that, the debris from this collision crashed with something that would later form our moon. That's why the satellite's landscapes differ so greatly.

[00:24:54]A more recent theory suggests that the Earth-facing part of the moon is warmer because of the heat radiated by our planet. During the period of volcanic eruptions, it was cooler on the farther side.

[00:25:06]That's why the minerals there became solid faster.

[00:25:10]They formed a protective layer shielding the moon's insides against the meteorites.

[00:25:15]But each impact left an impressive crater.

[00:25:18]At the same time, a much softer crust on the front-facing side of the moon spewed lava every time a meteorite hit it.

[00:25:25]After this lava cooled down, it covered the impact craters.

[00:25:30]Even though the far side is often called dark, both sides get almost the same amount of sunlight.

[00:25:35]>> [music] >> The side we see looks a bit brighter because of the glow coming from Earth.

[00:25:41]There are two reasons why people are interested in exploring the far side of the moon.

[00:25:46]After leaving our planet, many radio waves get blocked by Earth's natural satellite. If astronomers could build their radio and optical telescopes on the dark side, [music] they would get much more data.

[00:25:58]There would be no problems with any kind of interference. The telescopes would also be shielded from the glare of daylight coming from our planet.

[00:26:06]If telescopes were set up inside craters, they would also be protected from solar radiation.

[00:26:12]Astronomers would be able to get an incredibly clear view of the far regions of the universe.

[00:26:17]Plus, scientists believe there are great amounts of helium-3 [music] on the opposite side of the moon.

[00:26:23]Earth is protected from solar winds that carry [music] this gas by its magnetic field. But our natural satellite doesn't have such a shield. That's why experts believe the moon can be a perfect place for helium-3 mining. This rare element [music] can be later used as the fuel for fusion reactors.

[00:26:45]>> Recently, Chinese scientists discovered something interesting on the moon, an unusual [music] a Moreover, they found out that this crystal contains an element that can literally replace [music] nuclear fuel.

[00:26:57]Let's find out more.

[00:27:00]The composition of the moon has long remained a mystery to us. Half a century has already passed since the Apollo mission. Unfortunately, we haven't traveled to the moon much since then.

[00:27:11]So, it's not surprising that it's not so easy for us to study it.

[00:27:15]But, [music] recently, we've made a breakthrough in this area. In December 2020, Chinese scientists sent the Chang'e-5 probe to the moon. The mission was named after the ancient [music] Chinese deity of the moon, Chang'e.

[00:27:28]Quite poetic, isn't it?

[00:27:30]Anyway, after the probe went to the nearest side of the moon, it spent several days digging through the surface and rocks, [music] and then returned to Earth.

[00:27:39]In total, it collected about 4 lb of various lunar rocks, like basalt, solidified lava, and so on.

[00:27:47]And yeah, maybe [music] it doesn't sound too impressive, but it's actually a mini breakthrough. After all, we hadn't received any lunar samples since [music] 1976.

[00:27:58]And these samples are very important for learning the history of our world. We've been struggling for many years to find out, for example, how the moon was born at all.

[00:28:08]Yes, there were a lot of theories, but we still couldn't find any proper evidence for any of them.

[00:28:14]But, thanks to the latest missions and some computer simulations, scientists finally found out the truth.

[00:28:21]The moon was born when some random dwarf planet crashed into our Earth many millions of years ago. This dwarf planet was slightly smaller than Mars. The fragments of the Earth went into [music] space, but some of them stayed in our orbit. Then, they stuck together and formed the moon.

[00:28:39]It sounds horrifying, but in reality, [music] the birth of the moon was the best thing to ever happen to our planet. If it weren't for this [music] beautiful satellite, all our oceans would be small puddles. Life wouldn't have appeared on Earth at all.

[00:28:53]So, this is already an amazing discovery, but that's still not all.

[00:28:58]Studying the collected [music] rocks, scientists from the Beijing Research Institute discovered something unusual, a rare lunar crystal.

[00:29:07]Looks pretty boring, doesn't it? Just some tiny transparent monocrystal about the thickness of a human hair. We've already found such things on the moon before. These crystals were formed as a result of volcanic activity, just like some garnets on the Earth.

[00:29:22]And yep, the place where they discovered these crystals also suffered from volcanoes 1.2 billion years ago. That means that this tiny baby is over a billion years old.

[00:29:33]>> [music] >> But, that's not the most important thing. It's the fact that this crystal is made of a unique material, the one that we've never seen before.

[00:29:43]>> [music] >> Researchers from the International Mineralogical Association have confirmed that such a composition can't be found [music] anywhere on Earth. The crystal was named Changesite, again [music] after the same moon deity.

[00:29:58]And this is another achievement. This is the sixth previously unknown mineral that we found on the moon and the first one found by China.

[00:30:07]Now, it has become the third country in the world to make such a lunar discovery.

[00:30:12]However, this tiny crystal still wasn't the only remarkable thing they found.

[00:30:16][music] After studying this gem and about 140,000 other lunar particles, scientists have discovered something else. They found helium-3.

[00:30:28]Why is it so important? Because this is one of the elements that feed the sun and other stars in our universe.

[00:30:37]We tend to say stuff like put out the sun, the sun is burning, and so on. And this is one of the reasons why many people actually think that the sun is a huge fireball.

[00:30:48]But, it's not. Its burning is actually a completely different process, which is called nuclear fusion.

[00:30:56]The process itself is quite simple.

[00:30:59]During this reaction, hydrogen in the star turns into helium. But, this simple process is actually one of the most violent and insane reactions in the universe.

[00:31:09]There's a real boiling broth of particles inside the sun.

[00:31:14]The hydrogen nuclei that jump and rush there are constantly repelling each other, since all of them are positively charged.

[00:31:21]And so, they could continue to boil and chill around without bothering anyone, if it weren't for the stars. The stars turned out to be cheaters.

[00:31:30]They have such strong gravity that they basically grab billions of these little atoms and squeeze them together.

[00:31:37]Combining with each other, these atoms create new heavy elements, like the mentioned helium. And when this happens, they throw a lot of energy into space.

[00:31:48]And that's how the sun burns.

[00:31:50]At the same time, it spreads so much energy that we can't even imagine.

[00:31:55]Okay, so what is helium-3? Well, this is an element to which [music] even the sun can say, "Whoa, dude, you should calm down."

[00:32:03]The fusion of helium-3 atoms releases [music] even more energy than in typical nuclear fusion.

[00:32:10]And most importantly, it doesn't [music] pollute the atmosphere with harmful things like radiation.

[00:32:16]We have very, very little helium-3 on Earth. Its prevalence [music] in our atmosphere is about one in a million.

[00:32:23]And besides, it's constantly trying to escape from us back into space.

[00:32:28]Probably feels some bad vibes from us.

[00:32:32]However, scientists [music] have recently found out that there's a place that contains a lot of this element.

[00:32:38]Yep, you guessed it. [music] It's the moon.

[00:32:42]We think that there's more helium-3 on the moon [music] than on Earth because of the solar winds. The sun has been hammering on the moon with its helium-3 for billions of years. So now, [music] it's all over the place.

[00:32:54]It's still not too much if you compare it, for example, with Jupiter or Saturn.

[00:32:59]But don't forget [music] how much energy it can release.

[00:33:04]For your information, with only 25 tons of helium-3, it's possible to [music] provide America with energy for an entire year. Now, there are 35,000 [music] tons of it here on Earth and more than a million tons on the moon.

[00:33:19]Only these sources could feed the entire US for thousands of years. So basically, in the [music] future, helium-3 may become a new source of fuel.

[00:33:29]And it's better than nuclear fuel in basically everything.

[00:33:33]Helium-3 won't leave any harmful waste and radiation. [music] It's more powerful and not that dangerous. In other words, this environmentally friendly and efficient energy could be a [music] revolution for our planet. Sounds cool, huh?

[00:33:48]So, what are we waiting for? Grab the shovels, you might [music] say. But there's a little problem here.

[00:33:54]Unfortunately, we haven't yet come up with anything as wildly [music] strong and hot as the stars.

[00:34:00]To use helium-3, we need crazy temperatures and pressure. We need a thermonuclear reactor and we have no idea how to build it, [music] yet.

[00:34:11]And even if we could heat it up to such temperatures and get the needed pressure, >> [music] >> we still don't really know how to handle helium-3 correctly.

[00:34:19]Therefore, >> [music] >> even if we have an infinite amount of helium-3, we still won't be able to use it. But still, there's a great power behind helium-3. So it's not surprising that different countries have already started a race for nuclear resources.

[00:34:35]Now that Chang'e 5 has discovered a new helium-3 deposit on the nearest side of the moon, this race can become downright global. For example, China already plans a new lunar mission in 2024, Chang'e 6.

[00:34:50]During this mission, they want to collect the first samples from the far side of the moon.

[00:34:56]As you can see, finding this lunar crystal was very important for us. These crystals can help us find new ways to create helium-3.

[00:35:04]And if we manage to do that, humankind will enter a new era. But to do this, we still have to solve a number of problems.

[00:35:13]How to deliver a bunch of these lunar crystals to Earth? How to make them produce energy? And so on.

[00:35:20]Let's hope that in the future these issues will be resolved and we'll find a way to produce [music] clean, safe, unlimited energy.

[00:35:30]So, Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos.

[00:35:34]And apart [music] from the bizarre shape, there's nothing remarkable about them, except for one thing.

[00:35:41]Not so long ago, scientists discovered a strange phenomenon on the surface of Phobos, >> [music] >> and they still can't find any explanation for it.

[00:35:50]What is this phenomenon? And what does it tell us [music] about the history of our solar system? Let's find out.

[00:35:57]American astronomer Asaph Hall discovered Phobos and Deimos back in 1877.

[00:36:04]Did you know that all the planets in our solar system are named after [music] Greek and Roman deities? For example, Mars or Ares is the famous deity of [music] war.

[00:36:15]That's why the satellites of this red planet were named after the sons of Ares, Phobos and [music] Deimos. These beautiful names actually have creepy meanings, fear and horror.

[00:36:28]In 1971, NASA's Mariner 9 telescope took [music] the first pictures.

[00:36:34]That's how we found out that these guys weren't at all like our moon. They had this [music] weird shape, a strange and unstable orbit.

[00:36:43]Moreover, there are [music] no other moons in the solar system that move as close to their parent planet as these two. Well, they are its sons after all.

[00:36:53]But even though they are very close to Mars, [music] if you were standing on the surface of the red planet, you would hardly be able to see them.

[00:37:01]That's because [music] the curvature of Mars hides Phobos and Deimos from view.

[00:37:06]Even if you were somewhere on the equator, Phobos would look like an ordinary asteroid to you, and Deimos [music] would look like a star.

[00:37:15]All because these satellites are basically crumbs compared to our moon.

[00:37:19]They're the smallest and least [music] bright moons in the entire solar system, which is ironic considering their mighty names. Anyway, it seems that everything should be pretty clear with these two satellites. But nope, there's a problem.

[00:37:34]You see, scientists reconstruct the history of space [music] based on the traces found on different space objects.

[00:37:41]Dents, scratches, >> [music] >> cracks, all these things can tell us what happened billions of years ago.

[00:37:47]For a long time, scientists [music] were sure that just like their Greek prototypes, Phobos and Deimos were twins. But then, NASA's Viking orbiter took new photos of the satellites, and that's when they discovered a significant difference between the two.

[00:38:05]The entire surface of Phobos was covered with huge grooves.

[00:38:09]Those were a series of long, deep pits stretching from [music] one end of Phobos to the other.

[00:38:15]You may say, "What's the big deal? All space objects have this kind of stuff on them." And yeah, there are other satellites with similar grooves and scratches, [music] but none of them has as many as Phobos.

[00:38:27]It's completely [music] covered in grooves and they're huge, up to 12 miles long and 660 ft wide.

[00:38:35]And that's not all. Some of these grooves intersect with others. This means that Phobos has experienced not one, but many traumatic events.

[00:38:45]But what exactly happened to it?

[00:38:47]Actually, scientists are still not completely sure. However, they have a few ideas and these theories can tell us not only about the past of Phobos, but also predict its future.

[00:39:00]Theory one, asteroid impact. Well, the first suspect is quite obvious. There's a large, almost 6-mile-wide crater on Phobos. It's called Angeline Stickney.

[00:39:11]It was named after the wife of Asaph Hall, the scientist who discovered the satellite. Adorable.

[00:39:17]So, that's what the first theory sounds like.

[00:39:19]>> [music] >> Once upon a time, an astronomical body crashed into Phobos. The impact was so strong that it left a large crater.

[00:39:28]And the effect of the collision left a bunch [music] of grooves everywhere on Phobos.

[00:39:33]It sounds logical at first. However, scientists have noticed a flaw in this [music] theory. They learned that these grooves actually forms not inside the crater, but next to it.

[00:39:45]So, it wasn't a collision that created them. Besides, what about those grooves that intersect with the others? Or is it just a big cosmic coincidence? [music] Well, the search for truth continued.

[00:39:58]Theory two, it's all because of space debris.

[00:40:01]Yes, there's a difference [music] between these two theories. In this case, the grooves aren't a direct consequence of the collision.

[00:40:09]Rather, it [music] goes something like this.

[00:40:12]Something crashed into Phobos. This impact caused a bunch of rocks to be thrown into space. Some of them were lost [music] in the universe forever, but others were small enough to be pulled back to Phobos. Passing next to the moon at a steep angle, they would crash into it, jumping away, and so on.

[00:40:30]And since the gravity [music] of Phobos is very weak, perhaps they couldn't stick to it.

[00:40:35]In other words, these rocks were continuously pulled toward [music] and pushed off of the satellite for many, many years.

[00:40:44]This theory explains [music] the intersecting grooves. It's because the rocks were constantly falling into those places.

[00:40:50]It sounds quite logical, but there's another problem. We don't see any boulders on Mars or on the surface of its moons. But all this debris was supposed to get trapped by gravity and remain somewhere in the planet's orbit.

[00:41:04]This or simply become part of Phobos.

[00:41:08]In other words, [music] if this were true, we'd find evidence of this theory under layers of dust. But that didn't [music] happen. So, this explanation didn't satisfy astronomers, either.

[00:41:19]Therefore, they continued to look for the culprit.

[00:41:22]Maybe the grooves have nothing to do [music] with Stickney crater at all.

[00:41:26]Maybe the real culprit is something else, something even more powerful.

[00:41:32]Could it be Mars itself?

[00:41:36]Theory three, Mars is a twist villain.

[00:41:40]The previous theories imply that Phobos and Deimos were originally pieces of Mars. Like once upon a time, they broke away from it and became satellites, just like our moon.

[00:41:51]But what if that wasn't the case?

[00:41:53]Observations made by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor show that Phobos and Deimos are made up of elements which are mainly found in meteorites and asteroids. So, what if Phobos and Deimos are asteroids?

[00:42:09]There's an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Given the size, shape, and composition of Phobos and Deimos, scientists have suggested that once upon a time, they belonged to this belt.

[00:42:22]However, one day they flew out of it, and then gravity pulled them to Mars.

[00:42:28]This phenomenon is called asteroid capture.

[00:42:31]It's very strange, though. Yeah, the asteroid capture isn't uncommon, but these two have been flying next to Mars for what? Billions of years?

[00:42:40]It's weird that their orbits have remained the same. In addition, the atmosphere of Mars is very rarefied, and because of this, it could hardly capture any asteroids.

[00:42:51]In theory, they should have separated from Mars at the first opportunity.

[00:42:55]However, this didn't happen. It means that somehow they got stuck, and Mars immediately began to destroy them.

[00:43:05]Yep, an unexpected twist. In this version, Mars turns out to be a villain.

[00:43:11]By studying the past, we found some evidence of future crimes. The mysterious grooves of Phobos could be caused by tidal forces between Mars and Phobos. The moon and Earth also exchange these, slightly distorting each other.

[00:43:26]But, since Phobos is much closer to Mars, the [music] impact of gravitational forces is much stronger.

[00:43:34]In other words, [music] the gravity of Mars is gradually destroying Phobos.

[00:43:39]Every 100 years, the satellite gets 0.7 inches [music] closer to Mars.

[00:43:43]It also shrinks as much as 6.5 ft, becoming even more fragile and weaker.

[00:43:49]The smaller it gets, the more the tidal forces impact it, creating strange grooves and scratches on Phobos.

[00:43:58]Yep, somewhere in 30 to 50 million years, Phobos will either collide with Mars or disintegrate and turn into [music] a bunch of small rocks.

[00:44:07]And then Mars will also have rings like Saturn and Neptune.

[00:44:12]That's why Phobos is called [music] the doomed Martian moon.

[00:44:16]Anyway, these are all only theories, but the dramatic backstory of Phobos gives us an idea of how dynamic extraterrestrial objects can be.

[00:44:26]The more we learn about them, the more we discover about the secrets of the origin of not only Mars, but also other objects in our solar system.

[00:44:35]If one day we really colonize Mars, studying its moons can help us a lot.

[00:44:41]Let's hope that the upcoming MMX mission will reveal some of the most exciting secrets Mars's moons are hiding.

[00:44:52]Soon we might start constructing loads of stuff on the moon.

[00:44:57]All because India's moon mission has recently detected sulfur [music] near the moon's south pole.

[00:45:05]This chemical element can come in extremely handy for creating infrastructure on our satellite.

[00:45:12]It's the first time this chemical element has been discovered on Earth's natural satellite.

[00:45:17]This sought-after element is mostly found near Earth's volcanoes.

[00:45:22]Its appearance on the moon speaks volumes about the satellite's volcanic history and its past atmospheric conditions.

[00:45:31]The mission's rover detected this chemical element less than a week after touching down around 70° from the moon's south pole on the 23rd of August, 2023.

[00:45:42]This historic landing on the lunar surface made India the fourth country to safely land a mission on the moon.

[00:45:50]>> [applause and music] >> It's also the first spacecraft to touch down so close to the south pole of our satellite. It's an area of strategic importance because it's believed to be home to deposits of water ice.

[00:46:03]If it turns out to be true, future missions might be able to harvest it and turn this water ice into drinking water or even rocket fuel.

[00:46:13]For 2 weeks, the lander carried out the data collection, mainly focused on the analysis [music] of the moon's soil and its extremely thin atmosphere.

[00:46:23]Meanwhile, the solar-powered Pragyan rover started its quest to find frozen water on the moon.

[00:46:30]As for the lander, it demonstrated another amazing feat on the 3rd of September. The spacecraft fired up its engines and lifted itself for about 16 in into the air. Then it made a tiny hop to land 12 to 16 in away from its original position.

[00:46:47]It's kind of a big deal.

[00:46:50]Being able to get a lander back off the surface of the moon is essential for future missions, showing that they can safely return soil samples or even astronauts back home after a lunar mission.

[00:47:03]In September, the Indian spacecraft was put into sleeping mode.

[00:47:08]The 14-day long lunar night was approaching and the spacecraft wasn't designed to collect scientific data during this period of time.

[00:47:17]So far, we've learned about a few major findings of the mission.

[00:47:21]One is related to measuring the temperature of the moon's topsoil at different depths.

[00:47:26]Intriguingly, the surface of the satellite in that region turned out to be hotter than expected.

[00:47:33]It was believed that the temperature could be between 68 and 86° F on the surface, but it was around 158° F, way hotter than it should be.

[00:47:46]The other discovery indicates the presence of several chemical elements, including oxygen.

[00:47:52]Besides, the data received from the spacecraft confirms [music] the presence of alumina, calcium, iron, titanium, silicon, and other chemical elements on the lunar surface close to the South Pole.

[00:48:06]The rover also used special instruments designed [music] to measure quakes and rumbles beneath the lunar surface to detect some seismic activity.

[00:48:16]It brings us back to the sulfur detected thanks to the rover's spectroscope.

[00:48:22]Scientists are currently working on figuring out whether this element formed on the surface in a natural way or whether it's the result of volcanic activity or a meteor strike.

[00:48:34]Another astonishing thing found on the moon is a rock and it may be the oldest known Earth rock.

[00:48:41]A 0.7 inch wide chip included in a large rock collection brought to our planet by Apollo astronauts might actually be a 4 billion-year-old fragment of Earth.

[00:48:55]This finding [music] could help us paint a better picture of the intense pounding early Earth got at the dawn of its life.

[00:49:03]It could go like this.

[00:49:05]Soon after the rock formed, an asteroid impact [music] might have blasted it from Earth. At that time, our planet's satellite was three times closer to Earth than it is today.

[00:49:16]The collision was so powerful that this chunk of terrestrial rock found its way to the moon. Later, [music] this fragment got engulfed in a lunar breccia, a motley kind of rock.

[00:49:27]Eventually, the rock was brought back home to Earth by Apollo 14 [music] astronauts.

[00:49:33]Even though scientists had found meteorites coming from Mars and the moon before, [music] it was the first time a rock from the moon turned out to be a terrestrial meteorite.

[00:49:43]They also found out [music] that the rock had formed in a water-rich environment at temperatures and pressures corresponding to those at around 12 miles beneath the surface [music] of our planet.

[00:49:56]In 2019, China's Chang'e 4 mission made history by [music] landing on the far side of the moon.

[00:50:03]The mission's rover helped researchers visualize structures hidden deep below the surface of the satellite, revealing [music] billions of years of lunar history.

[00:50:13]The Yutu-2 rover made this discovery with the help of its lunar penetrating radar.

[00:50:18]It imaged deep into the moon's surface and listened to echoes of sound bouncing back off structures hidden from view under the surface of the moon.

[00:50:29]It turned out those structures were resting at depths of almost 1,000 ft.

[00:50:35]The research suggests that the first 130 ft under the surface are made up of layers of dust, soil, [music] and rocks.

[00:50:42]The instruments also discovered a concealed crater that must have formed after a large object slammed into the moon's surface.

[00:50:50]Long, long ago, ancient lava was likely to be flowing deep underground.

[00:50:57]Researchers believe [music] that the broken rocks around the formation might be debris produced by the impact. They also found that the volcanic rock layers were thinner the closer they were to the surface.

[00:51:09]Such a thickness variation of lava flows might mean a decrease in the number and magnitude of eruptions over time.

[00:51:17]>> [music] >> So, lunar volcanic activity gradually dwindled since the moon's formation around 4 and 1/2 billion years [music] ago.

[00:51:27]On the far side of the moon, there is one of the largest and oldest impact craters in our solar system, the South Pole-Aitken Basin.

[00:51:36]Unfortunately, from Earth, you can only see its outer rim, which looks like a huge chain of mountains.

[00:51:43]It's a ginormous 8-mile [music] deep dent stretching for more than 1,500 miles in diameter and covering [music] 1/4 of the moon's surface.

[00:51:53]Astronomers are sure that this crater [music] appeared when an asteroid collided with the moon around 4 billion years ago.

[00:52:01]And now, look at this gigantic [music] chunk of metal the size of four states of Connecticut. As for its weight in pounds, it's enough to say that the number contains 18 [music] zeros.

[00:52:13]This mysterious mass is hidden about 180 miles under the moon's surface, somewhere in the middle of the South Pole-Aitken [music] Basin.

[00:52:23]It was discovered when GRAIL, which stands for NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory mission, gathered [music] data about our natural satellite.

[00:52:33]When examining this information, scientists noticed that in one place on the moon's surface, >> [music] >> there was a weird change in gravity.

[00:52:41]After researching this phenomenon, they concluded that something mysterious was weighing down the basin floor there.

[00:52:49]So far, researchers haven't figured out the origin of the bizarre lump, but there are several theories.

[00:52:56]One of them claims that the finding is a chunk of dense oxide, which appeared when the moon was just taking its shape.

[00:53:03]At that time, the satellite was still covered with ancient oceans of magma, and the lump could be formed at the final stages of its cooling.

[00:53:11]However, most scientists support another theory, according to which the puzzling mass is part of the giant asteroid that once created the South Pole-Aitken Basin.

[00:53:22]Since the thing is metallic, it's probably the iron-nickel core of the asteroid.

[00:53:29]There might be a labyrinth of lava tubes on the moon. Not so long ago, astronomers received the results of underground topography and discovered a massive cave under the surface of Earth's satellite.

[00:53:41]It could be the result of the lunar volcanic activity that happened more [music] than 3 billion years ago.

[00:53:48]Streams of lava hardened creating a thick hard crust on the outside.

[00:53:54]But inside, it kept flowing, melting the rock and creating tunnels and caves.

[00:54:01]Numerous small pits in the moon surface discovered [music] by NASA seem to be the openings to such lava tubes.

[00:54:08]If this theory is confirmed, the underground tunnels might serve not only as a convenient location for human crewed space missions, but also as much needed water sources [music] for astronauts.