Posted on 09/19/2009 9:27:55 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Shadow icebergs of the lunar antarctic
????
NASA says that its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) probe in orbit around the Moon has detected neutron signatures indicating possible frozen water deposits hidden in craters at the lunar south pole.
Tough country for ice mining.
One of the LRO's main missions is to find water on the Moon, which would make it far less expensive and difficult to establish manned bases there. The deep crater bottoms of the lunar antarctic are considered to be a particularly promising place to look, as they are permanently in shadow - never receiving any sunlight which could evaporate ice deposits. It's also impossible to peer into the craters with Earth-based telescopes as their walls hide the bottoms from view, which is one reason why the LRO has been sent out.
According to a NASA statement released yesterday:
First results from LRO's Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector, or LEND, indicate that permanently shadowed and nearby regions may harbor water and hydrogen. Additional observations will be needed to confirm this. LEND relies on a decrease in neutron radiation from the lunar surface to indicate the presence of water or hydrogen.
"If these deposits are present, an analysis of them will help us understand the interaction of the moon with the rest of the solar system," said Richard Vondrak, LRO boffin at NASA's Goddard spaceflight centre in Maryland.
The space agency goes on to add:
According to the first measurements from the Diviner instrument [on the LRO] large areas in the permanently shadowed craters are about minus 400 degrees Fahrenheit (33 Kelvin), more than cold enough to store water ice or hydrogen for billions of years.
(Excerpt) Read more at theregister.co.uk ...
fyi
I am sure that the Chinese will appreciate this information. They will be getting to the moon much sooner than we will return.
It’s really, really cold in those lunar shadows!
I *had* to check the source link to make sure the title was correct...
That has got to be one of the most unintentionally and unfortunately evocative headlines I’ve seen in years.
If I’m ever mooned by a dark, crusty bottom, I suspect I won’t regard it as a bonanza.
ROFL!!!
Right now, I would rather be living on a nice moonbase with the thought that it could at anytime spring a leak than to live with the liberals and the Communistion of America.
When I saw “probe” and “moon bottoms,” I thought this was a story about gay astronauts.
I’ll believe it when I see it coming out of the tap. Has anyone compared the neutron experiment readings from lunar probes to those from Mars, where we have several years of seasonal variations and ground truth in the form of water dripping off the Phoenix lander? It might be in interesting comparison.
And while we’re at it, is anybody else getting just a teensy bit annoyed at NASA’s practice of assigning some cute(?) name to literally every interment on the spacecraft? I’d rather not have my tax dollars going to fund “LoLa” for a bunch of scientist and is a LAMP really worth several million dollars?
The One has declared the moon off-limits to America.
So any discussion of benefits of going to the moon is racism, pure and simple. Racism.
Where’s the “That’s Racist!” little boy gif?
You are welcome to leave.
And they just had to throw scent in there too. Gack!
Honestly, I thought this would be a thread about Michelle Obama, based on the headline.
Title is correct but misleading - the image shown is: Figure 6: This mosaic shows altitude measurements from the LOLA instrument. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Not temperatures.
This image is as close as it comes - not temps, but hydrogen detections - not necessarily water (H2O).
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/386808main_V3_LEND_tvready.jpg
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