Posted on 04/10/2022 4:44:44 PM PDT by MtnClimber
Explanation: Was this image of the Moon's surface taken with a microscope? No -- it's a multi-temporal illumination map made with a wide-angle camera. To create it, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft collected 1,700 images over a period of 6 lunar days (6 Earth months), repeatedly covering an area centered on the Moon's south pole from different angles. The resulting images were stacked to produce the featured map -- representing the percentage of time each spot on the surface was illuminated by the Sun. Remaining convincingly in shadow, the floor of the 19-kilometer diameter Shackleton crater is seen near the map's center. The lunar south pole itself is at about 9 o'clock on the crater's rim. Crater floors near the lunar south and north poles can remain in permanent shadow, while mountain tops can remain in nearly continuous sunlight. Useful for future outposts, the shadowed crater floors could offer reservoirs of water-ice, while the sunlit mountain tops offer good locations to collect solar power.
For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.
That’s either frightening or interesting. I can’t tell which.
It looks like the killer clown in the Moon!
Interesting!
If there’s ice in there, there’s probably a lot.
That ice can be used by humans. Drinking, irrigation, and fuel, by breaking the hydrogen from the oxygen, and, of course, the oxygen gives air to breath. There’s nitrogen mixed into the lunar soil so they should be able to recreate a nice atmosphere.
Woah!
I meant in their habitats, domed cities or underground tunnels, not the entire surface of the Moon.
Still, terraforming the moon is not a new idea, but a little far off. There is ice at the poles in some of the permanently shadowed craters, so a moon base is possible. The real problem is the low gravity, which is not enough to prevent bone deterioration over time. So you wouldn’t want to live there permanently.
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