Slashdot Mirror
NASA Estimates 600 Million Metric Tons of Water Ice At Moon's North Pole
After analyzing data from a radar device aboard last year's Indian Chandrayaan-1 mission to the Moon, NASA scientists have found what they estimate to be 600 million metric tons of water ice in craters around the Moon's north pole.
"Numerous craters near the poles of the Moon have interiors that are in permanent sun shadow. These areas are very cold and water ice is stable there essentially indefinitely. Fresh craters show high degrees of surface roughness (high circular polarization ratio) both inside and outside the crater rim, caused by sharp rocks and block fields that are distributed over the entire crater area. However, Mini-SAR has found craters near the north pole that have high CPR inside, but not outside their rims. This relation suggests that the high CPR is not caused by roughness, but by some material that is restricted within the interiors of these craters. We interpret this relation as consistent with water ice present in these craters. The ice must be relatively pure and at least a couple of meters thick to give this signature."
Why would you want to live on the moon when there are so many third world countries left to rape of resources on earth?
Why would you settle there in the first place, when it's a barren rock? Sure ice makes the moon SLIGHTLY more survivable, but to what end?
Oh, and Heinlein was a hack. He was only slightly more talented than uber-hacks like Hubbard and Harlan Ellison.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
It's like finding a bunch of ready cut diamond rings lying around, as opposed to having to build a strip mine, excavate them and cut them, mine the gold for the ring, smelt it, make a ring, and mount the diamond.
Well, yeah sure, finding the ring is great for us slashdotters, but if you've ever had a girlfriend, you'd realize that she would expect you to "build a strip mine, excavate them and cut them, mine the gold for the ring, smelt it, make a ring, and mount the diamond".
"Where did you get that ring???" sob - slap slap
I prefer imperial units. I know metric units are more simple and logical, but... "A pint's a pound the world around."
Pints are 20 oz where I am. Pounds are 16. Remind me to never order a pint of beer in your country.
How dare you use logic when peoples dreams are involved!!!
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
And obviously, you've been reading TOO MUCH Heinlein. Imagination is fine. But there is a difference between realistic dreams and delusional fantasies. Settlers will only settle in an area if they have a chance of not only surviving, but thriving. There is no other planet or body in this solar system where humans can, or will likely ever be able to (barring some VERY major advances here on earth), do *either*. And yes, it's true that things change. But fundamental things don't. People don't settle in places just because they can. They do it because they think they can make their fortunes there. And no fortune awaits on the moon or Mars, just an unsustainable nightmare that would be infinitely more inhospitable than just about any spot on Earth. Again, no gold mine, no farmland--just vacuum and radiation.
So, even if humans did find a way to survive on the moon or Mars (which I seriously doubt), an even more important question is "Why would they want to?"
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.