There are more than 200 lunar pits that could provide shelter to future astronauts, new observations from the NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft has revealed.
The pits range in size from about 5 meters across to more than 900 meters in diameter, and three of them were first identified using images from the Japanese Kaguya spacecraft. Hundreds more were found using a new computer algorithm that automatically scanned thousands of high-resolution images of the lunar surface from LRO's Narrow Angle Camera (NAC).
Women Comprise More Than Half Of NASA's New Astronaut Class
An announcement was made by NASA that it has selected its first new contingent of potential astronauts in four years and half of them are women.
Advertisement
Robert Wagner, Arizona State University, said that pits would be useful in a support role for human activity on the lunar surface as a habitat placed in a pit ideally several dozen meters back under an overhang would provide a very safe location for astronauts: no radiation, no micrometeorites, possibly very little dust, and no wild day-night temperature swings.
Most pits were found either in large craters with impact melt ponds, areas of lava that formed from the heat of the impact and later solidified, or in the lunar maria, dark areas on the moon that are extensive solidified lava flows hundreds of miles across.
![Toothbrush of a Dead Astronaut on Auction for $4000]( "Toothbrush of a Dead Astronaut on Auction for $4000")
A toothbrush is being auctioned off at a starting bid of $4000, as it was used by one of the American astronauts who flew to the Moon, a Los Angeles auction house said Tuesday.
There are almost certainly more pits out there, given that LRO has only imaged about 40 percent of the moon with appropriate lighting for the automated pit searching program, according to Wagner. He expects there might be at least two to three more mare pits and several dozen to over a hundred more impact melt pits, not including any pits that likely exist in already-imaged areas, but are too small to conclusively identify even with the NAC's resolution.
Wagner further explained that the ideal follow-up would be to drop probes into one or two of these pits, and get a really good look at what's down there, however, Pits, by their nature, cannot be explored very well from orbit, but even a few pictures from ground-level would answer a lot of the outstanding questions about the nature of the voids that the pits collapsed into, so they are currently in the very early design phases of a mission concept to do exactly this, exploring one of the largest mare pits.
Source: ANI
Toothbrush of a Dead Astronaut on Auction for $4000
A toothbrush is being auctioned off at a starting bid of $4000, as it was used by one of the American astronauts who flew to the Moon, a Los Angeles auction house said Tuesday.
Advertisement
There are almost certainly more pits out there, given that LRO has only imaged about 40 percent of the moon with appropriate lighting for the automated pit searching program, according to Wagner. He expects there might be at least two to three more mare pits and several dozen to over a hundred more impact melt pits, not including any pits that likely exist in already-imaged areas, but are too small to conclusively identify even with the NAC's resolution.
Wagner further explained that the ideal follow-up would be to drop probes into one or two of these pits, and get a really good look at what's down there, however, Pits, by their nature, cannot be explored very well from orbit, but even a few pictures from ground-level would answer a lot of the outstanding questions about the nature of the voids that the pits collapsed into, so they are currently in the very early design phases of a mission concept to do exactly this, exploring one of the largest mare pits.
Source: ANI
Advertisement
Advertisement
|
Advertisement
Latest Lifestyle and Wellness News
The 'tight' sensation on your face after washing is explained by skin contraction in the outer layer.
The skin between the toes and behind the ears can harbor many harmful germs that can cause a variety of skin illnesses.
Prolonged sitting among office goers, pose risk of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, hypertension, and certain types of cancers.
Yogurt's protein and fat content demonstrated its unidentified deodorizing properties against garlic's pungent odor.
People who smoke tobacco and cannabis have an increased risk of depression and anxiety than those who use either substance alone or not at all.
