Artemis science team recruits Stony Brook planetary geologist to help analyze moon's structure

Stony Brook University planetary geologist Timothy Glotch got the call Monday, as NASA’s Artemis moon rocket readied for this week’s launch: program managers for the mission were on the line, and they wanted him on the team.

Glotch, 48, is one of 10 scientists who will shape the research plan for upcoming Artemis moon exploration missions, including Artemis IV, scheduled to launch in early 2028, which will put astronauts on the moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972. The scientists’ work will add to our knowledge of the moon’s 4.5-billion-year origin story and help astronauts find mineral deposits and water ice near the moon’s south pole — a potentially invaluable resource for Artemis V, when NASA plans to start building a moon base.

For Glotch — whose interest in space began when he was a kid peering through a telescope with his dad in the backyard of their home — getting the call was akin to being written into the World Series starting lineup.

"I couldn’t wait to get home and tell my family and some friends," he said in a phone interview. "It was a great moment."

Thursday evening, the current mission — Artemis II — completed the translunar injection burn to send the crew in the Orion, the spacecraft launched by the rocket, around the moon for the first time since Apollo 17, according to NASA. 

Like his colleagues in the terrestrial field who use rocks to tell the story of the earth’s formation and evolution, Glotch studies the physical structure of the moon, Mars and asteroids. Because sample material for these bodies is hard to come by — he still uses material collected from the moon in the Apollo era — he relies in part on remote sensing and spectrographic techniques used to study remote objects by analyzing the light they reflect and absorb.

Since the Apollo era, when the field was in its infancy, scientists have made huge strides in mapping and understanding the moon’s mineralogy, chemistry and physical properties. Among the most intriguing discoveries was water ice in craters near the moon’s south pole, Glotch said.

"These permanently shaded craters probably haven’t seen light in billions of years," with the coldest temperatures measured in the solar system, he said. (One such location, the Hermite Crater, was measured in 2009 at roughly minus 416 degrees Fahrenheit.)

Some of this water may have been brought by comets or asteroids, and some may be a product of the solar wind, Glotch said. It’s thought that stream of particles, mostly hydrogen protons, could create water when it smashes into the moon and bonds with oxygen atoms already present in minerals there.

The craters’ dark shadows present unusual challenges for scientists. To make observations of very low light locations, Glotch said, they will use infrared sensors, which do not rely on visible light, and instruments like the ShadowCam, tens of thousands of times more sensitive than other cameras used in space, which works even in apparent darkness by capturing scattered photons bouncing off the earth or crater walls.

Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., said in a Stony Brook University news release: "The selected scientists will bring a wealth of expertise to this team to ensure we are supporting crews on the Moon to achieve the missions’ science objectives. Exploring the lunar surface and executing the U.S 's science objectives is a major step toward sustained operations at the Moon and preparation for human exploration of Mars."

Glotch said he was looking forward to "systematically working to get to the moon, make it a more sustainable program, so it’s not just planting a flag, making boot prints and going home."

He has zero interest in visiting, though.

"I don’t even like roller coasters," he said. "I’m happy to live vicariously through these amazing individuals, sit in the back and help maximize the science."