A National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report, published October 20, 2026, identifies Bhabha Crater, Mons Hadley, the Orientale Basin, and the Aristarchus Plateau as high-value destinations for short-duration crewed missions beyond the lunar poles.[1][2] Mons Hadley includes the Apollo 15 exploration region; Orientale Basin is a large, well-preserved multiring impact structure; Aristarchus Plateau preserves diverse volcanic terrain; and Bhabha Crater offers opportunities to study ancient lunar geology and astronomy.[1][3]
The sites collectively extend lunar habitation planning beyond the South Pole’s water-ice priority. Mons Hadley can test how equipment and biological materials survive prolonged exposure; Orientale Basin offers diverse geological materials in a comparatively seismically quiet setting; Aristarchus Plateau could host a space-weather observatory; and Bhabha Crater supports studies relevant to lunar evolution and future astronomy.[1][3] These capabilities address Ark risks involving radiation, vacuum, dust, seismic disturbance, material degradation, communications, and dependence on a single settlement zone.
The Ark team should incorporate all four sites into its site-selection and redundancy architecture, beginning with remote sensing, environmental baselining, and robotic precursor missions. Priorities should include long-duration materials and biological archive exposure at Mons Hadley, seismic and subsurface characterization at Orientale Basin, space-weather instrumentation at Aristarchus Plateau, and resource, terrain, and astronomical surveys at Bhabha Crater; Apollo 15 samples and operational lessons should be explicitly integrated into Artemis and Moon-to-Mars planning.[1][2]