NASA plans to prove that its next moon landing is real using blockchain ScrgruppEn

NASA and its partners Lonestar, a computing startup based in Florida, and the Isle of Man will send a payload to the Moon containing “data cubes” in February 2024. The data secured in these cubes will be verified back on Earth using… Blockchain technology.

If all goes as planned, blockchain technology itself will verify once and for all and invariably that humans have landed on the moon when NASA launches its second manned mission, Artemis 3, in 2025.

Suit on!

today is #Artemis The second crew and @NASAGroundSys Successfully conducted a launch day demonstration. The demonstration included spacesuit testing, a ride to Launch Complex 39B, and a climb onto the mobile launch pad into the crew access boom white room.https://t.co/vHl28fVSYR pic.twitter.com/7ed1hGvvy4

– NASA Kennedy Space Center (@NASAKennedy) September 20, 2023

NASA’s Artemis mission is scheduled to enter its second leg with the launch of Artemis 2 in November 2024. While this mission will be crewed, the four astronauts on board will leave Earth, orbit the Moon, and then return to Earth. It’s not all that different from landing on lunar soil, but Artemis 2 is supposed to be the last test before the US government puts humans on the moon again with Artemis 3.

As one of many science missions undertaken during Artemis missions, Lonestar and the Isle of Man are collaborating to pioneer long-term, solar-powered lunar storage systems that do not require additional infrastructure to set up.

Related: Universities use blockchain-based storage to protect and democratize data

According to a report by BBC Science Focus, the test will include: Create of digital stamps – a technology referred to as “digital clearance” – which will be stored in data cubes on the moon. Once installed, the data will be verified via the blockchain back on the ground to ensure it is complete and tamper-evident.

As an interesting side effect of the immutable nature of blockchain, any future astronauts landing on the moon could use the data cubes to essentially verify the moon. The astronauts’ interaction can be verified via blockchain technology, ostensibly potentially immediately putting to rest any conspiracy theories surrounding the next moon landing.

In an interview with Science Focus, Head of Innovation at Digital Isle of Man He said It was “surprisingly difficult” for NASA to reject the idea that it had set up the six manned moon landings between 1969 and 1972.

Although blockchain technology may not be able to free conspiracy theories from notions of the 20th century moon landing, it should serve as an indisputable record of the next humans to touch the moon’s surface.