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NASA scientists are set to launch a rocket that will study patterns of dust on the moon's surface.

NASA hopes to unravel more of the moon's mysteries by launching an unmanned mission to study its atmosphere, the US space agency's third such probe in five years.

The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) is to launch at 1.27pm on Saturday (AEST) aboard a Minotaur V rocket a converted peacekeeping missile from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

Since US astronauts last walked on the moon four decades ago, rocket scientists have learned that there is more to the moon than just a dusty, desolate terrain.

Recent NASA robotic missions such as the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter have returned troves of images detailing the moon's cratered surface, while NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) revealed how being pummelled by asteroids resulted in the moon's uneven patches of gravity.

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A previous NASA satellite, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) discovered water ice when it impacted in 2009, the space agency said.

"When we left the moon we thought of it as an atmosphere-less ancient surface," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's science mission directorate.

"We have discovered that the moon scientifically is very much alive, it is still evolving and in fact has a kind of atmosphere."

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NASA to return to moon's surface