The muon Moonshot: Moon subsurface tomography with upward-going muons

Abstract

We propose a novel muon Moonshot concept for lunar subsurface tomography based on upward-going muons originated from the lunar regolith. Unlike the Earth, the Moon lacks an atmosphere, leaving a dense regolith below and a near-vacuum environment above. Consequently, while most downward-going hadrons are absorbed before decaying, upward-going hadrons escaping the regolith can decay in flight, producing a significant source of lunar muons. These muons are detectable by instruments on the lunar surface or in near-lunar orbit. We perform Monte Carlo simulations to investigate their energy spectra, angular distributions, and integrated fluxes under various theoretical and detector configurations. The results indicate that the lunar muon flux is sensitive to detector altitude under a flat-terrain assumption, demonstrating its potential as a novel non-invasive probe of shallow subsurface voids. We also present case studies on the detection of underground cavities and water resources, with cavity-induced flux variations observable in less than two minutes and weaker water signals distinguishable after about 36 minutes of data collection with a $1{\mathrm{m}}^2$ detector, and discuss potential implementations in future lunar missions.

Comments: 8 pages, 7 figures