“There is no evidence of pure surface ice within the shadowed areas, implying that any ice must be mixed with lunar soil or lie underneath the surface,” says Bickel. After analyzing their images, the team has determined that no water ice is visible in these shadowed areas of the moon-even though its existence has been proven by other instruments. Now, with the help of artificial intelligence, the team has succeeded in making such efficient use of this data that these previously dark areas become visible. This camera captures photons that are bounced into the shadowed regions from adjacent mountains and crater walls. The team used images taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, which has been documenting the surface of the moon for over a decade. The lead author is Valentin Bickel, a postdoctoral researcher at the chair of glaciology and formerly at the chair of engineering geology at ETH Zurich. Their work appears in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The researchers developed a method to better understand the moon’s shadowed region. Not only might the ice harbor clues as to how water is integrated into the Earth-moon system, it could also prove to be an important resource to be used by future astronauts for consumption, radiation shielding, or as rocket propellant. This potential for ice to be present makes those shadowed crater floors intriguing sites to explore. But in this extreme cold, water vapor, and other volatile substances can become trapped or frozen within or even on the lunar soil. At higher temperatures, ice would sublimate and very quickly turn into gas in the vacuum of space. These shadowed regions are consequently incredibly cold-colder even than the surface of Pluto, with temperatures of around −170° to −240° Celsius and approaching absolute zero. What makes the south polar region so fascinating is that the sun hovers near the horizon due to the Moon’s axial tilt, the sunken floors of impact craters never see sunlight and lie in perpetual shadow. Astronauts will then concentrate their exploration in this area. With China having landed a robot-and raised its flag-on the far side of the Moon in 2020, NASA is planning for its Artemis program to land in the lunar south pole region, probably between 20. The information they have obtained about the area’s surface properties will help to identify suitable locations for future lunar missions. 21), China denied the stage was from their mission the country, which has been criticized for space junk practices in recent years, added it is very careful about its disposal policies after launch.With the help of artificial intelligence, researchers have explored the moon’s permanently shadowed regions. Several independent observations do suggest that the mission is Chang'e-5-T1, but that assertion is not completely confirmed. This mission was a precursor technology demonstration to the more famous Chang'e 5 mission that brought a sample of the moon back to Earth in December 2020. At first it was identified as part of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that launched the Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite in February 2015.įollow-up observations indicated the orbit, however, did not match the Falcon 9 and came closer to the Chinese Chang'e 5-T1 mission's rocket launched in 2014. If you spot the rocket stage in a telescope before it hits the moon, let us know! Send images and comments in to origin story of the rocket stage is murky, to say the least.
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