The United States is racing to return astronauts to the moon before Communist China plants its flag there first. But as NASA pushes toward a new era of lunar exploration, agency scientists have been forced to confront a surprising problem: no one truly knows how fire behaves on the moon.
That may sound like a minor technical issue. It is anything but.
As Washington focuses on launch schedules, lunar landers, and international partnerships, NASA engineers are preparing for a challenge that could determine whether future American moon bases survive—or become deadly traps for the astronauts living inside them.
