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Scientists Think They've Discovered Lava Tubes Leading To the Moon's Polar Ice (sciencealert.com)
schwit1 quotes ScienceAlert:
Small pits in a large crater on the Moon's North Pole could be "skylights" leading down to an underground network of lava tubes -- tubes holding hidden water on Earth's nearest neighbour, according to new research. There's no lava in them now of course, though that's originally how the tubes formed in the Moon's fiery past. But they could indicate easy access to a water source if we ever decide to develop a Moon base sometime in the future.
Despite the Moon's dry and dusty appearance, scientists think it contains a lot of water trapped as frozen ice. What these new observations carried out by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) show is that it might be much more accessible than we thought... Scientists have long been thinking about how to extract the ice reserves we think are up there -- solar power was originally out of the question, as it's the freezing shadowed areas of the Moon that have preserved the ice in the first place. Not only would natural skylights like these provide easier access to the underground ice, it would also mean solar power would be back on the table as an idea.
Despite the Moon's dry and dusty appearance, scientists think it contains a lot of water trapped as frozen ice. What these new observations carried out by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) show is that it might be much more accessible than we thought... Scientists have long been thinking about how to extract the ice reserves we think are up there -- solar power was originally out of the question, as it's the freezing shadowed areas of the Moon that have preserved the ice in the first place. Not only would natural skylights like these provide easier access to the underground ice, it would also mean solar power would be back on the table as an idea.
Journey to the Centre of the Moon
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
Because in a few years, that senile joke will be dead, but the lava tubes will be there for eons to come?
Ezekiel 23:20
With no atmosphere, obviously they would have to be propelled by thrusters
Well, there's also this ancient thing called "a rope"...
Ezekiel 23:20
Well, it makes lunar habitation feasible in the relatively nearer future.
Consider this analogous question: did the discovery of the cancer gene BRCA1 affect anyone at all? To your way of thinking, no, because it didn't immediately cure anyone's cancer. It only affected the lives of a very small number of cancer scientists by pointing them down promising avenues of research.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Lunar ice-miner twenty-forty-niner!
In space and/or on an airless rock, water is far more valuable than gold.
This lunar ice deep in lava tubes on the moon was predicted back in 1966 in the science fiction novel "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress" by Robert A. Heinlein.
Of course in Heinlein's story, the Moon was a penal colony. Considering the authoritarian direction most nations seem to be drifting towards, maybe this is another Heinlein "prediction" that will come to pass.
"This Court sentences you to life in the Alcatraz-II lunar penal colony."
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
http://en.tintin.com/images/ti...
-- Alastair