Moon's South Pole Mission Becomes Several Countries Target
- decodedscience.com
Burrowing its sensors into the lunar soil along the way, the rover has revealed a curiously sharp drop in temperature beneath the surface. At the surface it measured a temperature of around 50C (120F), but just 80mm (3 inches) below this, it fell to -10C (14F) – a temperature difference that has "surprised" scientists.
Onboard chemical analysis equipment has also indicated the presence of sulphur, aluminium, calcium iron, titanium, manganese, chromium and oxygen in the lunar soil.
Ilustrasi Kutub Selatan Bulan.
- Pixabay
Both of these early findings hint at why scientists are eager to explore the south polar region of the Moon.
The Moon's shallow axis of rotation, 1.5 degrees compared to Earth's 23.5 degrees, means some craters at its poles never see sunlight.
Coupled with low temperatures in these locations, scientists believe this has resulted in an abundance of ice, much of it made of water, that is either mixed into the soil or exposed on the surface.
There are hopes that the ice could be used as both a resource for astronauts and a springboard for future scientific discoveries.
"It is a unique location. The availability of water is very important," Saumitra Mukherjee, a professor of geology at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India stated.
Our best evidence for water ice on the moon comes from a Nasa experiment in October 2009 when an empty rocket was purposefully slammed into a crater at the South Pole.
"The plume of material had evidence of water. That's our one direct observation of water ice on the Moon," said Margaret Landis, a planetary scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, in the United States.
Other data points to a higher reflectance at the poles, a likely result of ice, while a higher amount of hydrogen at the poles has been observed, perhaps a result of water ice.
