Mapping moon's Shackleton reveals icy secrets

New Scientist Article

NASA has announced that its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has returned measurements that indicate ice on the surface in the Shackleton crater at the moon's south pole. The crater is over 19 kilometres wide and 3 kilometres deep, and is thought to have been created more than 3 billion years ago.

The lunar south pole is in permanent sunshine because of the moon's tilt, but Shackleton's interior is permanently shaded by its own walls. The LRO's laser altimeter mapped the dark crater floor (as seen in this image) and also measured the brightness of reflections from its surface. From the brightness readings, it looks like up to 22 per cent of the crater's surface could be covered in ice, mostly in the walls. Other craters in the region appear to be much drier.

Ah the wonders and stuff we shall see as science progresses, 22 percent of he surface (crater) covered in ice...

This is why we need to stop killing each other .... their are PLENTY of resources out there!!! we just need to put all that money we spend on killing each other and spend it on exploring space together!

Glass of ice cold moon water anyone? (soon to be sold by evian)

We'd work together for a few years, get to the moon, and then kill each other over who owned the ice.

We're parasites. I just hope we extinct ourselves before we ruin the planet for all the other life that exists here.

Spend millions, if not billions, to harvest water from the moon
OR
Spend thousands, maybe millions, to push through and produce desalination machines.
There are plenty of natural resources, but we lack the ability to use them efficiently.

Pretty cool though and shows hope for lunar colonies.

Originally posted by jtap66
We'd work together for a few years, get to the moon, and then kill each other over who owned the ice.

We're parasites. I just hope we extinct ourselves before we ruin the planet for all the other life that exists here.

the moon wars of 2136? yeah very poss lol

as for your 2nd line .. no matter what species rises ( and even if we go extinct one def will ) they will have the same problem so i say we get together and sort it out now.. life seems to feed off life on this planet .. theirs always a bigger fish !!

Watch out for that moon fish.....

shouldnt this be common knowledge?
the moon was part of the earth originally
wouldnt surprise me if theres more 'earthly' findings in the near future

Moon theories

i know theres 3 theories but my vote goes to numaro uno!

The article doesn't seem to dwell on how the ice came to be there. Amazingly, the idea that it jumped there is one of the leading theories, perhaps in the absence of any other idea. A comet striking the moon would more or less vaporise, but an electrical exosphere might help some of the ice particles into the dark areas of craters.

This mapping could be a precursor for a return to the moon.

To add, here's the old article I was looking for, (just in case some of you think I have fallen out of my tree)

Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) a new probe to study this effect amongst others

I see it is/was to be launched this year,

science.nasa.gov...

The pdf,

www.lpi.usra.edu...

We should leave space alone until we can sort out our problems here on earth first.

love and harmony
Whateva