Dünya'nın Manyetosferi Ay'a Hava Tohumu Gönderiyor Olabilir

Understanding The Moon & Earth

Since the Apollo missions more than half a century ago, the composition of the Moon and its usable resources have been a topic of interest to scientists, science-fiction writers, and policy makers.

This is also becoming a geopolitical topic, as a new space race is building between the USA and China. The scope of this space race is very different from the one between the USA and the Soviet Union, as the goal this time is to create a permanent presence on the Moon, and eventually Mars, with the first steps being the Artemis missions. In contrast, the previous visits to the Moon lasted mere hours or days.

A permanent settlement on the Moon will make the exploitation of local resources a possibility. But having astronauts survive on our planet’s satellite will also likely require us to use the local resources to keep them alive, as hauling thousands of tons of water and air to the Moon will be very difficult and extraordinarily expensive.

Researchers are, however, discovering that some of Earth’s air is already on the Moon, having been deposited on our satellite’s surface slowly over time, instead of just when our Moon initially formed.

This discovery was made by researchers at the University of Rochester (USA) and could radically change our expectations on how to produce breathable air from lunar resources. They published their results in the scientific journal Nature Communications Earth & Environment¹, Başlığın altında "Terrestrial atmospheric ion implantation occurred in the nearside lunar regolith during the history of Earth’s dynamo".

How The Moon Formed And Why It Matters For Atmospheric Transfer

The most likely scenario is that our Moon formed when our planet was hit by a massive planetoid (“Theia”), breaking the Earth’s crust and sending a lot of material into orbit to coalesce into our current satellite.

For a long time, light elements present on the Moon’s surface were thought to mostly come from that period, including from leakage of the Earth’s atmosphere, with an addition from solar winds in the following 4 billion years. This was the explanation for the traces of elements like nitrogen, carbon dioxide, helium, argon, and water that the Apollo missions found in lunar regolith samples.

This transfer was also believed to have stopped early in the history of our planet.

But this might be wrong, as it now appears that the Earth’s magnetosphere, the powerful magnetic field surrounding the planet, could have contributed to continuously transporting some of the Earth’s air onto the Moon.

Kaynak: NASA

Earth’s Magnetosphere & The Moon

The researchers developed a computer model to calculate how the Earth’s atmosphere, its magnetosphere, and the Moon interact.

While Earth today has a powerful protective magnetic field, it did not have one in its early days. Consequently, the research looked at which element would be moved to the Moon in both cases.

Kaynak: Doğa İletişimi Dünya ve Çevre

Kaynak: Doğa İletişimi Dünya ve Çevre

This analysis indicates that in modern days, the Earth’s atmosphere is a major contributor to the deposition of light elements on the Moon’s surface, much more than previously thought and more than in early geological eras. In that period, the much more intense solar winds of that time were the main contributor of light elements.

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This also indicates that this is mostly happening when the Moon is located in the “magnetotail”, the end of Earth’s magnetic field that is pushed and deformed by the solar winds.

The charged (ionized) atoms from the highest level of the atmosphere travel along the magnetic line and end up trapped on the Moon’s surface.

Kaynak: Doğa İletişimi Dünya ve Çevre

Scientific And Industrial Implications

The first application of this discovery is purely scientific. If the Earth has slowly deposited some of its atmosphere on the Moon since the time it had a magnetic field, this means that the untouched deposit of lunar regolith is like a carefully deposited sediment of Earth’s air, ready to be analyzed to reveal the Earth’s oldest atmospheric composition as a sort of time capsule.

In itself, this is something that could be a major task for the first lunar occupants, as part of a larger scientific program.

This also means that the lunar surface contains, at least in theory, all the building blocks to replicate an Earth-like atmosphere. This could make the creation of breathable air from local resources a lot easier, radically changing the economics of maintaining a permanent population on the Moon, or developing space-based industry with the local metals (like power satellites).

It could also change the expected profile of air-generating resources between the Moon’s nearside (the side visible from Earth) and the dark side (the one away from Earth), with the nearside much richer in useful light elements.

Investing in the Moon Economy

Sezgisel Makineler

Sending probes to celestial objects is going to require a strong expertise in building large space probes and making them arrive in the right place intact. For now, this has been mostly the domain of public institutions like NASA, the ESA, and associated universities.

This is changing as we are getting closer to the point where private companies could start sending automated or manned missions to mine asteroids, especially near-Earth objects.

Bu tür bir projenin, önümüzdeki yıllarda planlanan Ay'a insanlı görevlerin dönüşüne paralel olarak yapılacak bir sonraki adım olması muhtemel.

Founded in 2013 in Houston, Texas, Intuitive Machines is, for now, a very “Moon-focused” company, as indicated by its stock ticker LUNR, and has already 4 NASA ay görevi için seçildive 400'den fazla kişiyi istihdam ediyor.

Kaynak: Sezgisel Makineler

Ay'a başarıyla iniş yapıp bilimsel verileri ileten ilk ticari şirket oldu. Ayrıca uzayda LOx/LCH4 (sıvı oksijen, sıvı metan) motorunun ilk ateşlemesini gerçekleştirdi.

Şirket, Ay'ın keşif ve yerleşim altyapısının temelini oluşturacak çok sayıda proje üzerinde çalışıyor.

Birincisi “veri iletim hizmeti”, teknolojinin test edilmesiyle ve nihayetinde Ay'ın yörüngesi etrafındaki bir ay veri iletim takımyıldızıyla sonuçlanması hedefleniyor.

Kaynak: Sezgisel Makineler

İkinci kısım ise "Hizmet Olarak Altyapı"dır. Bu kısım, otonom operasyonlar gerçekleştirebilen bir LTV, telekomünikasyon hizmeti ve GPS konum belirleme hizmetlerini içermelidir.

Kaynak: Sezgisel Makineler

Son bölüm, Ay yüzeyine malzeme teslimatıdır. Şirket şimdiye kadar bilimsel yükleri şu şekilde teslim etti: Nova-C iniş aracıAy'a 4.3 kg yük taşıyabilen 14 metre yüksekliğinde (130 fit) bir iniş aracı.

The next step will be with the Nova-D lander, able to deliver 1,500-2,500 kg of material to the Moon. This payload capacity and size will be the one required for delivery of the Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV), as well as the 40kW Fission Surface Power nuclear reactor expected to power the Moon base.

Kaynak: Sezgisel Makineler

Şirket, NASA ile pek çok değerli sözleşme imzaladı; örneğin, maksimum potansiyel değeri 4.82 milyar dolar olan Yakın Uzay Ağı sözleşmesi.

The LTV contract final decision by NASA between the 3 potential suppliers was expected in late 2025, with an outcome likely imminent; this deal would be worth up to $4.6B as well.

Şirket, NASA'nın yanı sıra, Nisan 2025'te Teksas Uzay Komisyonu tarafından 10 milyon dolara kadar hibe almaya hak kazanarak müşteri tabanını çeşitlendirmeye çalışıyor. Bu hibe, mikro yerçekiminde biyoüretimi mümkün kılmak üzere tasarlanmış bir Dünya'ya dönüş aracı ve yörünge üretim laboratuvarının geliştirilmesini destekleyecek.

Bu yeniden giriş aracı aynı zamanda yedek bir seçenek sunacak ve Şirketin gelecekteki Ay'dan örnek getirme görevleri için riskleri azaltacak.

Bir diğer proje ise Hava Kuvvetleri araştırma laboratuvarı JETSON sözleşmesi kapsamında düşük güçlü nükleer gizli uyduların geliştirilmesidir.

Having targeted a positive free cash flow point in 2025, and with the lunar telecommunication contract secured, the company is now becoming a lot safer for investors, moving away from a cash-burning startup to an established services provider to the growing space economy.

Ve özellikle SpaceX ile aynı seviyede NASA'nın güvenilir bir ortağı haline geldikçe, daha fazla derin uzay keşfi ve uzay kaynaklarının kullanımı için yapı taşı oluşturabilir. Roket Laboratuvarı (RKLB -1.5%)

(You can also read a more detailed report on Intuitive Machines in our investment report dedicated to the company.)

En Son Sezgisel Makineler (LUNR) Hisse Senedi Haberleri ve Gelişmeleri

Referans Verilen Çalışma

^{1. Paramanick, S., Blackman, E.G., Tarduno, J.A. ve ark. Terrestrial atmospheric ion implantation occurred in the nearside lunar regolith during the history of Earth’s dynamo. Komün Dünya Çevresi 6, 1001 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02960-4}