Posted on 07/26/2022 11:02:23 AM PDT by Red Badger
This is a spectacular high-Sun view of the Mare Tranquillitatis pit crater revealing boulders on an otherwise smooth floor. This image from LRO's Narrow Angle Camera is 400 meters (1,312 feet) wide, north is up.
Credit: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University
NASA-funded scientists have discovered shaded locations within pits on the Moon that always hover around a comfortable 63 F (about 17 C) using data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft and computer modeling.
The pits, and caves to which they may lead, would make thermally stable sites for lunar exploration compared to areas at the Moon's surface, which heat up to 260 F (about 127 C) during the day and cool to minus 280 F (about minus 173 C) at night. Lunar exploration is part of NASA's goal to explore and understand the unknown in space, to inspire and benefit humanity.
Pits were first discovered on the Moon in 2009, and since then, scientists have wondered if they led to caves that could be explored or used as shelters. The pits or caves would also offer some protection from cosmic rays, solar radiation and micrometeorites.
"About 16 of the more than 200 pits are probably collapsed lava tubes," said Tyler Horvath, a doctoral student in planetary science at the University of California, Los Angeles, who led the new research, recently published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
"Lunar pits are a fascinating feature on the lunar surface," said LRO Project Scientist Noah Petro of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "Knowing that they create a stable thermal environment helps us paint a picture of these unique lunar features and the prospect of one day exploring them."
Lava tubes, also found on Earth, form when molten lava flows beneath a field of cooled lava or a crust forms over a river of lava, leaving a long, hollow tunnel. If the ceiling of a solidified lava tube collapses, it opens a pit that can lead into the rest of the cave-like tube.
Two of the most prominent pits have visible overhangs that clearly lead to caves or voids, and there is strong evidence that another's overhang may also lead to a large cave.
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera has now imaged the Marius Hills pit three times, each time with very different lighting. The center panel, with the Sun high above, gives scientists a great view of the Marius Hills pit floor. The Marius pit is about 34 meters (about 111 feet) deep and 65 by 90 meters (approximately 213 by 295 feet) wide.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
"Humans evolved living in caves, and to caves we might return when we live on the Moon," said David Paige, a co-author of the paper who leads the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment abord LRO that made the temperature measurements used in the study.
Horvath processed data from Diviner—a thermal camera—to find out if the temperature within the pits diverged from those on the surface.
Focusing on a roughly cylindrical 328-foot (100-meter)–deep depression about the length and width of a football field in an area of the Moon known as the Mare Tranquillitatis, Horvath and his colleagues used computer modeling to analyze the thermal properties of the rock and lunar dust and to chart the pit's temperatures over time.
The results revealed that temperatures within the permanently shadowed reaches of the pit fluctuate only slightly throughout the lunar day, remaining at around 63 F or 17 C. If a cave extends from the bottom of the pit, as images taken by LRO's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera suggest, it too would have this relatively comfortable temperature.
The team, which included UCLA professor of planetary science David Paige and Paul Hayne of the University of Colorado Boulder, believes the shadowing overhang is responsible for the steady temperature, limiting how hot things gets during the day and preventing heat from radiating away at night.
A day on the Moon lasts about 15 Earth days, during which the surface is constantly bombarded by sunlight and is frequently hot enough to boil water. Brutally cold nights also last about 15 Earth days.
LRO is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Launched on June 18, 2009, LRO has collected a treasure trove of data with its seven powerful instruments, making an invaluable contribution to our knowledge about the Moon. Diviner was built and developed by the University of California, Los Angeles, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
NASA is returning to the Moon with commercial and international partners to expand human presence in space and bring back new knowledge and opportunities.
Explore further
Spelunking on the moon: New study explores lunar pits and caves
More information: Tyler Horvath et al, Thermal and Illumination Environments of Lunar Pits and Caves: Models and Observations From the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment, Geophysical Research Letters (2022).
DOI: 10.1029/2022GL099710
Journal information: Geophysical Research Letters
Provided by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
The hole is 100 meters deep and 28 meters across.
If you stand in the middle how much of the sky can you see? Probably best expressed in how many zodiac constellations that you could see... (on average)
Dammit Jim, I’m a doctor not an astrophysicist.
I always knew that going to the moon would be the pits.
I was firmly convinced, at 15 when Apollo 11 landed on the moon, that I would be able, around 2020, to retire on a moon colony. That was a little like hearing about Columbus and knowing that there would be English settlements by 1550.
(FWIW, my original American ancestor came in 1636, and no he didn’t have any slaves, he was a bond servant himself, in spite of being of noble ancestry.)
Gamera is really neat, Gamera is turtle meat, we all love you GAAAAAAAA-MEEEEEEEEEH-RAAAAAAAAAAAH!
When I was a kid at 14 and they first landed on the moon, I figured we would have already had functioning lunar colonies by the 1990s. But nobody. The commies had to spend money on Socil/socialist projects that drained our ability to succeed in space exploration. Jerks!
A rat done bit my sister Nell with whitey on the moon
her face and arms began to swell and whitey is on the moon
I can’t pay no doctor bills but whitey is on the moon
ten years from now I’ll be payin’ still with whitey on the moon ya know?
the man just upped my rent last night cause whitey is on the moon
no hot water, no toilets, no lights but whitey is on the moon
I wonder why he’s uppin’ me? cause whitey is on the moon
well I was givin’ him 50 dollars a week and now whitey is on the moon
Taxes takin’ my check
the junkies make me a nervous wreck
the price of food is goin’ up and as if all that crap wasn’t enough
ol’ rat done bit my sister Nell with whitey on the moon
her face and arms began to swell with whitey on the moon
with all that money I made last year put whitey on the moon
how come I aint got no money here? Hmmm whitey on the moon
ya know I just about had my fill of whitey on the moon
I think I’ll send these bills air mail special to whitey on the moon
Don’t call me whitey nigga, Don’t call me nigga whitey
Help can’t even help now and whitey is on the moon
aid for my brothers and sisters how whitey is on the moon
guess well just sit by dyin’ with whitey on the moon
dogs have better luck at there tails tryin’ whitey is on the moon
fed up us people are and whitey is on the moon
the slogan poverty or bust later to whitey on the moon
I just finished reading Dickens’ “A Child’s History of England”.
It covers from Roman times During Julius Caesar’s time up to Queen Victoria.
Every king and queen is covered.
Hardly any of them were very nice people and would have your head chopped off for any infraction they could conceive.
The nobles were always fighting each other for control of the throne. Once there they would dispatch their rivals with abandon.
Bloody Queen Mary, just before Elizabeth I, is one example. She had Lady Jane Grey and her husband executed.......
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Jane_Grey
Your ancestor came here under the reign of Charles I, and he’s lucky to have done so as a bonded servant, else he might have been executed as so many nobles were at that time.....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_I_of_England
Obama’s NASA chief says agency’s goal is Muslim outreach, forgets to mention space
That is very compelling. Perfect locations for bases.
I thought the moon dose not have day and night since there is only one dark side of the moon.
One side of the moon is always facing us.
When it’s FULL MOON it is lit.
When it’s NEW MOON it is dark and the other side is lit.
There is no ‘dark side of the Moon’ except for Pink Floyd fans........................
Matter of fact, it's all dark.
Got to keep the Loonies on the path........................
Temperature does not solve the radiation problems
What stops the hard radiation from solar flares?
Good temps are good but aren’t the goal, we’ve got nice temps here.
Well, for 6 years anyway...
Have you seen our planet it won’t be here long,
they are painting it.
“Humans evolved living in caves, and to caves we might return when we live on the Moon...”
Y’all can go ahead and devolve off on some dead ball of rock in the empty void, I’m fine right here.
“you’ve got a liveable place as long as there’s food”
The moon’s a dead ball of rock with no atmosphere, no fertile soil and only a little bit of water frozen in patches here and there, so good luck with that food part.
Rock and soil.
The earth is always visible or not on the moon. Remember the moon is tidally locked. It’s always in the same position in the sky.
Yes, but the question was addressed to the guy that posted his solution saying : “All you need to do is create a machine that drills down about 5m, detonates an explosive, and then sprays the inside of the resulting hole with an airproof plastic/compound.”
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