BATON ROUGE - One LSU professor is researching methods that could potentially assist NASA in their goal of building a fully inhabited base on the surface of the moon. 

Matthew Loocke, Lab Director and Assistant Professor of Research with LSU's Department of Geology and Geophysics, studies samples from deep space meteorites.

Loocke earned his PhD from Cardiff University in Wales and started at LSU in August 2020. Ever since then, he's been collecting and examining meteorite samples both from NASA and his own collection.

He hopes to answer several questions about NASA's ultimate plan: a fully operational base on the moon. 

“When I realised that I could study meteorites and things like that, or even rocks that were brought back from the moon that could tell us not just about how the moon formed, but where our planet came from, where our solar system came from, it got me just absolutely excited." 

On April 1, the world watched in awe as the Artemis II space mission took off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida to embark on a mission to take humans deeper into space than ever before.

“For me, I always loved the idea of being able to contribute to a bigger picture,” Loocke said. 

Through examination of these samples, Loocke can determine the mineral makeup of meteorite rain on the surface of the moon.

Through that research, he is exploring potential ways to combat meteorite rain when humans eventually inhabit a base on the lunar surface.

“If you want to build a little lunar base, you need to have an idea of the average sort of rate that those things are impacting.”

But it's not just geologists working on solutions. Loocke says it takes scientists of every mold from around the world to solve complex interspace problems.

“The one thing NASA is really, really good at is trying to cast a wide net and encourage people from around the world, not just in the US, to get involved in working on these samples.”

As for what the future of space travel holds? Loocke remains hopeful to expand our current limitations and to literally go where no human has gone before.