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The moon's south pole: Very high resolution, radar images find rocks abundant, but no ice sheets
October 19, 2006ITHACA, N.Y. - Using the highest resolution radar-signal images ever made of the moon - images from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Arecibo Telescope in Arecibo, P.R., and the NSF's Robert C. Byrd Telescope in Green Bank, W.Va. - planetary astronomers have found no evidence for ice in craters at the lunar south pole. Cornell University, Smithsonian Institution and Australian scientists report the findings in the latest Nature (Oct. 19, 2006).
"These new results do not preclude ice being present as small grains in the lunar soil based on the Lunar Prospector's discovery of enhanced hydrogen concentrations at the lunar poles," said Donald Campbell, Cornell professor of astronomy and a principal investigator. "There is always the possibility that concentrated deposits exist in a few of the shadowed locations not visible to radars on Earth, but any current planning for landers or bases at the lunar poles should not count on this."
Echoes from radar signals transmitted to the moon from the giant Arecibo telescope were received at the Green Bank telescope. These echoes allowed scientists from Cornell, the Smithsonian Institution and the Defence Science and Technology Organization in Australia to create images, offering the best view ever of the shadowed terrain at the lunar south pole.
Since the 1960s, theories have suggested that ice may exist deep inside impact craters in permanent shadow from the sun, where temperatures on the moon's surface do not exceed minus 280 degrees Fahrenheit (or minus 173 Centigrade), at the poles. The theory was bolstered in 1992 when Earth-based radar telescopes located "ice deposits" inside impact craters at the poles of the planet Mercury.
The Lunar Prospector orbiter discovered concentrations of hydrogen at the moon's poles. If this hydrogen were in the form of water molecules - still a subject of debate-then it would correspond to an average of 1 to 2 percent of water ice in the lunar soil in the shadowed terrain.
However, Earth-based radar measurements since the 1990s have consistently failed to detect ice deposits similar to those on Mercury. Since water ice would be a significant resource for any future lunar base, many of the instruments on NASA's 2008 Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter/Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite mission seek to learn if water ice is present in permanently shadowed craters.
Even in the lunar summer at the south pole, the sun barely edges above the horizon, thus the bottom impact craters never see the sun. Because of the tilt of the moon's orbital plane relative to the Earth's equatorial plane, the Earth can rise much higher above the horizon at the lunar south pole than the sun, so telescopes on the Earth can "see" some of the shadowed area. However, since that area is permanently in shadow, only radar can image that terrain.
Cornell University News Service
Since the 1960s, theories have suggested that ice may exist deep inside impact craters in permanent shadow from the sun, where temperatures on the moon's surface do not exceed minus 280 degrees Fahrenheit (or minus 173 Centigrade), at the poles. The theory was bolstered in 1992 when Earth-based radar telescopes located "ice deposits" inside impact craters at the poles of the planet Mercury.
The Lunar Prospector orbiter discovered concentrations of hydrogen at the moon's poles. If this hydrogen were in the form of water molecules - still a subject of debate-then it would correspond to an average of 1 to 2 percent of water ice in the lunar soil in the shadowed terrain.
However, Earth-based radar measurements since the 1990s have consistently failed to detect ice deposits similar to those on Mercury. Since water ice would be a significant resource for any future lunar base, many of the instruments on NASA's 2008 Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter/Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite mission seek to learn if water ice is present in permanently shadowed craters.
Even in the lunar summer at the south pole, the sun barely edges above the horizon, thus the bottom impact craters never see the sun. Because of the tilt of the moon's orbital plane relative to the Earth's equatorial plane, the Earth can rise much higher above the horizon at the lunar south pole than the sun, so telescopes on the Earth can "see" some of the shadowed area. However, since that area is permanently in shadow, only radar can image that terrain.
Cornell University News Service
Lunar Current Events and Lunar News RSSNASA'S Dirty Secret: Moon Dust
The Apollo Moon missions of 1969-1972 all share a dirty secret. "The major issue the Apollo astronauts pointed out was dust, dust, dust," says Professor Larry Taylor, Director of the Planetary Geosciences Institute at the University of Tennessee. Fine as flour and rough as sandpaper, Moon dust caused 'lunar hay fever,' problems with space suits, and dust storms in the crew cabin upon returning to space.
Mini subs to probe odd structures in BC lake
Single person submersibles have been called in to help scientists retrieve samples from a lake in northern British Columbia that may hold vital clues to the history of life on Earth and on other planets.
NASA Scientists Pioneer Method for Making Giant Lunar Telescopes
Scientists working at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., have concocted an innovative recipe for giant telescope mirrors on the Moon. To make a mirror that dwarfs anything on Earth, just take a little bit of carbon, throw in some epoxy, and add lots of lunar dust.
Observations from space: NASA environmental data and lung disease
NASA gathers a tremendous amount of data on the environment that can be helpful in understanding lung disease.
LIDAR Imaging Detector Could Build 'Super Road Maps' of Planets and Moons
Technology that could someday "MapQuest" Mars and other bodies in the solar system is under development at Rochester Institute of Technology's Rochester Imaging Detector Laboratory (RIDL), in collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory.
Astronaut health on moon may depend on good dusting
Lunar dust could be more than a housekeeping issue for astronauts who visit the moon. Their good health may depend on the amount of exposure they have to the tiny particles.
Brown Scientist Answers How Peruvian Meteorite Made It to Earth
Brown University professor Peter Schultz's study of the Peruvian meteorite has yielded some interesting conclusions that could upend the conventional wisdom about the size and type of meteorites that can strike Earth.
Naval Research Laboratory to design lunar telescope to see into the dark ages
A team of scientists and engineers led by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) will study how to design a telescope on the Moon for peering into the last unexplored epoch in the Universe's history.
Space tourism to rocket in this century, researchers predict
Seeking an out-of-this-world travel destination? Outer space will rocket into reality as "the" getaway of this century, according to researchers at the University of Delaware and the University of Rome La Sapienza.
MIT to lead development of new telescopes on moon
NASA has selected a proposal by an MIT-led team to develop plans for an array of radio telescopes on the far side of the moon that would probe the earliest formation of the basic structures of the universe.
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