Due to the location of Malapert Mountain, it has been proposed as the site of a transmitter for an expedition to the south lunar pole. The back side of this ridge also lies within the
radio shadow for transmissions from the
Earth, and it has been suggested as a site for a
radio telescope because the radio noise from Earth would be blocked. In July 2013,
private company
Moon Express released details of a mission they were planning for no earlier than 2018. The mission would land two telescopes on the Moon, with the preferred location of Malapert crater, to take advantage of the benefits previously identified by lunar researchers Burton Sharpe and David Schrunk. The equipment would include both a
radio telescope as well as an
optical telescope. This is the specific mission design of the mission first announced publicly the previous year, in collaboration with the International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA). As of February 2024 no such mission has yet flown. ==Intuitive Machines 1 mission==