The Moon’s polar regions are home to permanently shadowed craters. In those craters is ancient ice, and establishing a presence on the Moon means those water ice deposits are a valuable resource

What are permanently shadowed regions on the Moon?

Permanently shadowed regions, or PSRs, are areas near the north and south poles of the Moon that never receive direct sunlight and thus are extremely cold (25 K to 70 K; -415°F to -334°F). Even though PSRs are exposed to the vacuum of space, water ice and other volatiles (ammonia, methane, etc

What is a shadowed crater?

A permanently shadowed crater is a depression on a body in the Solar System within which lies a point that is always in darkness

What are the dark craters on the Moon?

Instead, there are craters near the moon’s poles that never receive any sunlight. Permanently engulfed in frigid darkness, these craters are appropriately called cold traps. The moon’s craters are scars from the comets that have been crashing into it for billions of years

What is the crater of eternal darkness?

Here, there are craters known as permanently shadowed regions (PSRs). Sometimes dubbed “craters of eternal darkness”, these are angled in such a way that the Sun’s rays never reach their innards, meaning they have potentially stored ice for billions of years

How is the Moon shadowed?

The Moon is covered with craters and rocks, creating a surface “roughness” that casts shadows, as seen in this photograph from the 1972 Apollo 17 mission. These cold shadows may allow water ice to accumulate as frost even at daytime.

What is the biggest crater on the moon?

1. South Pole–Aitken basin, the Moon. Our first crater is a big one: the biggest, deepest and oldest impact crater on the Moon. It is 2,500km diameter, 6.2 to 8.2km deep and formed roughly 4.2 billion years ago

What are the lunar peaks of eternal light?

Not far from home, on our own moon, a unique condition exists (below). Discovered in 1994 on Peary crater near the north pole, the so-called peaks of eternal light are the only known region in the solar system where the sun never sets. (Other such regions may exist on Mercury but have not been seen yet

Why are shadows so dark on the Moon?

On the moon, however, there is no air or atmosphere to scatter light. As such, areas where sunlight hits are extremely bright, and areas where shadows form are eerily dark – almost like little voids. As much as they might appear like slices of darkness itself, moon shadows are not completely black

What is the Moon brightest crater?

Aristarchus (crater)

Aristarchus is a lunar impact crater that lies in the northwest part of the Moon’s near side. It is considered the brightest of the large formations on the lunar surface, with an albedo nearly double that of most lunar features.

the dark side of the Moon real?

While the far side of the moon may seem dark from our perspective, it experiences a lunar day and lunar night just like the near side, and receives plenty of illumination. A lunar day lasts just over 29 days, while the lunar night lasts for about two weeks, according to NASA

Can we hear any sound on the Moon?

Sound waves need a medium to travel. As there is no atmosphere or medium on the moon, that’s why no sound can be heard on the moon. Astronauts use radio waves while talking to one another on the surface of the moon

The Moon’s polar regions are home to permanently shadowed craters. In those craters is ancient ice, and establishing a presence on the Moon means those water ice deposits are a valuable resource. Astronauts will likely use solar energy to work in these craters and harvest water, but the Sun never shines there. 

What’s the solution? According to one team of researchers, a solar collector perched on the crater’s rim. 

There’s abundant solar energy on the Moon. But not all the time and not everywhere. At the bottom of the deepest craters closest to the poles, there’s no Sun.

Dr. Darren Hartl is an associate professor of aerospace engineering at Texas A&M University. He’s leading a team of researchers working on solar reflectors. “If you perch a reflector on the rim of a crater, and you have a collector at the center of the crater that receives light from the sun, you are able to harness the solar energy,” said Hartl. “So, in a way, you’re bending light from the sun down into the crater.”

Parabolic dishes are common on Earth. Here, we can make them any size we want and build them wherever we need to. But the whole endeavour is different on the Moon. Every pound we launch into space is expensive. Their goal is a reflector small enough to be transported to the Moon and large enough to harness enough energy. 

The researchers are working with self-morphing material that was developed by Hartl and other engineers at Texas A&M. Self-morphing materials are based on natural materials that turn matter into complex surfaces. They can change shape in response to their environments. These include muscles, tendons, and plant tissue.

During space missions, astronauts may need to deploy a large parabolic reflector from a relatively small and light landing system. That’s where we come in,” said Hartl. “We are looking at using shape memory materials that will change the shape of the reflector in response to system temperature changes

Permanently shadowed regions, or PSRs, are areas near the north and south poles of the Moon that never receive direct sunlight and thus are extremely cold (25 K to 70 K; -415°F to -334°F). Even though PSRs are exposed to the vacuum of space, water ice and other volatiles (ammonia, methane, etc.) can accumulate in them because they are so cold and dark. If significant deposits of volatiles are confirmed to exist in PSRs, they could provide valuable resources, making detailed knowledge of their interiors of key importance to future human exploration.

The LROC Narrow Angle Cameras (NACs) were designed to image illuminated portions of the Moon, not shadowed areas. However, the NACs can image some PSRs through long-exposure imaging, taking advantage of light reflected from nearby Sun-facing slopes.

Long-duration exposures mean that the raw PSR images have elongated pixels. These are typically one meter wide by 20 to 40 meters down-track. By averaging the cross-track and down-track pixel widths, map-projected NAC views of the PSRs typically have final scales per pixel of 10 to 20 meters. That’s enough resolution to hint at details in the PSRs, but not enough to plan future landing and rover missions to the PSRs.

Some craters on the moon’s polar regions are permanently shadowed and never receive sunlight. However, these areas are often lit to levels similar to normal indoor lighting. The most important factor in determining the level of light in a shadowed crater is the reflecting terrain, with smaller shadows being brighter than larger ones

Some research suggests that it may be possible to harness solar energy in permanently shadowed craters by placing a reflector on the rim of the crater and a collector at the center to receive light from the sun. Computer models show that a parabolic reflector is best able to transmit light to the bottom of the crater. 

Permanently shadowed craters are difficult to image, but an AI algorithm has recently been developed that allows for sharper, higher resolution images. These craters are known to contain water ice, which could be valuable for future human exploration of the moon. NASA plans to land the Artemis 3 mission at the moon’s south pole in the mid-2020s, and hopes to establish a research base there

Astronauts will likely use solar energyto work in these craters and harvest water, but the Sun never shines there. What’s the solution? According to one team of researchers, a solar collector perched on the crater’s rim. There’s abundant solar energy on the Moon

The moon’s permanently shadowed regions are dark because the moon’s axis is almost perpendicular to the sun’s light, so some craters never face the sun. The moon’s 1.5° tilt on its axis also means that the interior and walls of some craters, like Shackleton Crater, are permanently shadowed and never receive direct sunlight.

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has provided new data that allows us to see into these dark craters in detail. However, astronauts will only be able to spend a few hours in these dark regions during the early Artemis missions. A new technique may help mission planners guide astronauts to interesting features and promising samples. 

The moon’s permanently shadowed craters are home to ancient ice, which could be a valuable resource for space exploration and colonization. Astronauts could use solar energy to harvest water from the ice deposits, which could be converted into drinkable water, breathable oxygen, and rocket propellant.

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