High energy physics on a lunar base

Abstract

High energy physics on the moon are restricted to cosmic ray related studies. Some important topical questions in cosmic ray research are reviewed and the specific interest of experimentation the moon is assessed. Cosmic rays provide information on particle interactions at extreme energy. At lower energies, they are at the origin of embarrasing background for specific particle physics studies. Whilst they still raise challenging questions about their origins, they give important pieces of information in astrophysics. The Moon and the Earth offer quite different conditions, which have both unique advantages. Nevertheless, the Earth offers still unesploited possibilities, which are likely to attract most of the available resources in that field, for some time to come.