The temperature inside the PSR is drops below -200C (-390F), A great place to look for ice. NASA’s rover is scheduled to head to the Moon’s South Pole at the end of 2024. called viper, drive into some of these PSRs, turn on your headlights, and literally shed light on their secrets. Dan Andrews, Viper’s project manager at NASA’s Ames Research Center, said the mission should tell us if there are “clumps of ice” or “small crystals mixed in with the sand.” talk.
However, Viper may not be the first mission to join the PSR.A preliminary mission called micronova hopperA satellite from US company Intuitive Machines could be sent to the moon in early 2024. Although it lacks Viper-like equipment, such as a drill for digging into the surface, it will use its thrusters to “jump” to a PSR on the lunar surface. The moon’s south pole has given us our first glimpse inside.
However, this is not the only mission targeting the moon’s south pole. Follow-up mission in India in partnership with Japan, Chandrayaan-4will also head here, but China communicated the intention It is scheduled to land in the region, and Russia is planning another Antarctic mission.
Water ice is increasing that interest. If it exists in abundance and is accessible, it can be. It is also a valuable resource for human habitation on the moon. And exploration deeper into the solar system. If ice could be removed from the lunar soil, it could be broken down into hydrogen and oxygen. An important component of rocket fuel or a potential source of drinking water and oxygen in human settlements.
“The easiest way to mine is to dig up icy soil and put it in some kind of oven to sublimate the ice,” says Kevin Cannon, an assistant professor of geology at the Colorado School of Mines. “We can put enough propellant in storage to refuel a rocket to reach the outer solar system multiple times, and we have access to a place that is illuminated for up to 90 percent of the year. It can provide enough solar power to treat soil’s oxygen and metals such as aluminum. ”
Dreams of deep space travel and living on the moon are closer than you think. NASA plans to land humans in 2025 SpaceX lander lands on the moon for the first time in half a century Artemis III Mission. They will land at a currently unselected location in Antarctica and will explore the ice directly for the first time.
“The main goal of that mission is to learn how to land and operate in polar regions,” says Jacob Breacher, NASA’s chief exploration scientist. Depending on the nature of the ice discovered by previous missions like Viper in Antarctica, astronauts will likely carry tools to collect the ice and return it to Earth. Future Artemis missions may consider using this more actively as a resource. “It’s a series of iterative steps,” Breacher says.
Other prospects Potentially exploitable minerals and metals on the moon’s surface It can also be mined and used by astronauts. build infrastructure They need to survive there.