---
title: "This Madlad Wants to Build a Particle Collider on the Moon"
description: "In order to give high-energy researchers better working conditions, one physicist proposes building a particle collider on the Moon."
date: "2020-06-09"
modified: "2020-06-09"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/madlad-build-particle-collider-moon"
categories:
  - "Astronomy"
  - "Moon"
  - "Physics"
  - "Science & Energy"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "particle collider"
  - "particle physics"
  - "space"
  - "the digest"
---

# This Madlad Wants to Build a Particle Collider on the Moon

![In order to give high-energy researchers better working conditions, one physicist proposes building a particle collider on the Moon.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Madman-Build-Particle-Collider-Moon.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: CERN/NASA/Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Outsourcing

Building particle accelerators and setting up the conditions for high-energy experiments is notoriously tricky, but one physicist has an unusual solution: outsource the whole process to the Moon.

Nikolai Zaitsev, a high energy physics Ph.D. who now owns the [financial consulting firm](<https://sites.google.com/a/innovaest.org/company/white-papers?authuser=0>) Innovaest, argues that the Moon has many of the ideal conditions for particle physics research, *[Live Science ](<https://www.livescience.com/build-particle-collider-on-moon.html>)*[reports](<https://www.livescience.com/build-particle-collider-on-moon.html>). It's a fascinating proposal, but a logistically challenging one — humans have never [constructed any buildings](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/self-repairing-lunar-habitats-help-settle-moon>) on the Moon, let alone a functional particle collider.

## Perfect Conditions

But if building a collider on the Moon someday becomes feasible, doing so might vastly improve high-energy physics research.

That's because the Moon already has many of the right conditions for collision experiments, Zaitsev [wrote in a white paper](<https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.12190>). Those include extremely low temperatures — necessary for superconducting materials that speed up particles — and a better vacuum, free of stray atoms that [pose a challenge](<https://futurism.com/particle-accelerator-future-circular-collider>) here on Earth.

## Death Ray

Zaitsev also envisioned experiments that involve turning the Moon into a giant ray gun aimed at Earth, *Live Science* reports. Because the Moon is tidally locked, it would be theoretically possible to build a facility on the Moon that constantly beams cosmic radiation or even neutrinos — elusive particles likely linked to dark matter — down to receivers on Earth.

It's speculative, but if it works, it would give scientists a much better means of studying neutrinos and cosmic rays than merely waiting for them to reach Earth.

**READ MORE:** [Why a physicist wants to build a particle collider on the moon](<https://www.livescience.com/build-particle-collider-on-moon.html>) \[*Live Science*\]

**More on particle colliders:** *[Vast New Particle Accelerator Would Dwarf Large Hadron Collider](<https://futurism.com/particle-accelerator-future-circular-collider>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)