Scientists Find Ice at Shackleton Crater Month

If people want to make the Moon as a place of residence, the Moon polar region may be one option for a suitable place on the axis of the Moon there is an area that receives sunlight is fixed and it can be used as a source of energy and dark areas that did not get sunlight which there are ice which both can be used as a source for the establishment of a human colony.

The area around the crater Shackleton is the main place for the scientists estimate that there are canyons as the frozen water reservoirs. However, the lack of observations in recent decades led scientists have doubts whether there really is ice in craters at the same time as the moon’s south pole.

As quoted astronomi.us of space-travel.com, Saturday (06/23/2012), Now scientists from MIT, Brown University, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, and several other research institutions Shackleton crater was mapped in detail to find evidence presence of small amounts of ice at the bottom of the crater.

By using a laser height gauge on the spacecraft Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), the research team will be able to measure the natural reflection factor of the crater. Bottom of the crater and the results are much brighter than the surrounding and the scientists concluded that there was ice on the bottom of the crater Shackleton.

Naming friend was taken from the name of Shackleton Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton. This crater has a diameter of 12 miles (19.3 km) and a depth of about 2.6 miles (4.1 km). The interior of the crater itself is not flat and it causes difficult to discover.