The Moon doesn't have tectonic plates that move around like Earth's, but it does have its own internal activity. After it formed around 4.5 billion years ago, it was a hot, gooey ball of molten material that has been slowly cooling ever since.

See footage Orion Spacecraft, moon and Earth shortly before its "outbound powered flyby burn". Orion was less than 2000 miles away from the moon and over 200,000 miles away from Earth. Credit: Credit: NASA / edited by Space.

Not too far from Earth is a giant space rock that has silently played host to just twelve people in its entire history. What would happen if we put our cosmic satellite to work by covering it with solar panels?

Dining on the moon or Mars might seem like a fantasy reserved for science fiction, but researchers are investigating how it could become a reality. Their efforts to recycle plant and human waste into a fertilizer material—turning the barren surfaces of the moon and Mars into fertile fields that might be suitable for extraterrestrial agriculture—are described in ACS Earth and Space Chemistry.