Swiss researchers want to image Moon’s interior with fibre optics

ETH researchers want to illuminate the moon with optical fibres Keystone-SDA

Fast internet for the Moon? Not quite. Researchers at the federal technology institute ETH Zurich want to bring fibre-optic cables to the Moon in order to measure moonquakes precisely.

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Previous data on moonquakes comes from the Apollo missions of the 1970s. However, as ETH Zurich explained in a press release on Tuesday, these offer only a fleeting insight into the interior of the Moon.

In the scientific journal Earth Space Science, the researchers present just one approach that could be used to easily measure earthquakes on the Moon: a small rover could roll out kilometre-long and very light fibre-optic cables on the lunar surface. According to the researchers, these cables work like thousands of sensors and register every tremor.

The researchers are using DAS technology (Distributed Acoustic Sensing) for their project. This involves a laser sending light pulses through a fibre-optic cable. Seismic waves that cause the cable to vibrate change the scattering of the light, which is recorded by a measuring device. On Earth, researchers are already using this DAS technology to monitor earthquakes and landslides.

The Moon is ideal for this method as there is no atmosphere or wind that could interfere with the measurements, according to ETH Zurich. Laboratory tests with artificial Moon dust have shown that the cables receive the signals well even when they are only on the surface and not buried.

The cables could also measure how much Moon dust rockets stir up during their landing due to the recoil. According to ETH Zurich, this will help astronauts to better assess and avoid the dangers posed by the extremely fine dust.

Adapted from German by AI/ts

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