These permanently shadowed craters feature some of the lowest temperatures in the solar system - down to -414 degrees Fahrenheit (-248 Celsius). If an astronaut was standing near the south pole, the Sun would always appear on the horizon, illuminating the surface sideways, and, thus, skimming primarily the rims of deep craters, and leaving their deep interiors in shadow. This angle is based on the 1.54-degree tilt of the Moon’s axis (Earth’s is 23.5 degrees). The floors of polar craters reach frigid temperatures because they’re permanently in shadow as a result of the low angle at which sunlight strikes the Moon’s surface in the polar regions (and also because the Moon has no atmosphere to help warm up its surface). These robotic precursors will further investigate regions of interest to human explorers, including the south pole, and will provide information to the engineers designing modern lunar surface systems. Ahead of a human return, NASA is planning many to send new science instruments and technology demonstration payloads to the Moon using commercial landers through Commercial Lunar Payload Services ( CLPS). There’s still so much to learn about Earth’s nearest neighbor. “We’ve mapped every square meter, even areas of permanent shadow,” said Noah Petro, an LRO project scientist based at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Through its thousands of orbits in the last decade, LRO has collected the most precise information about the south pole region than any other, offering scientists precise details about its topography, temperature and locations of likely frozen water. The elliptical, polar orbit of NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter ( LRO) is closest to the Moon during its pass over the south pole region. The south pole is also a good target for a future human landing because robotically, it’s the most thoroughly investigated region on the Moon. “The south pole is far from the Apollo landing sites clustered around the equator, so it will offer us a new challenge and a new environment to explore as we build our capabilities to travel farther into space.” “We know the south pole region contains ice and may be rich in other resources based on our observations from orbit, but, otherwise, it’s a completely unexplored world,” said Steven Clarke, deputy associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The experience NASA gains on the Moon, including using lunar natural resources, will be used to help prepare the agency to send astronauts to Mars. Water is a necessity for furthering human exploration because it could potentially be used for drinking, cooling equipment, breathing and making rocket fuel for missions farther into the solar system. Water is a critical resource for long-term exploration, and that’s one of the main reasons NASA will send astronauts to the Moon’s south pole by 2024. NASA is working right now to send American astronauts to the surface of the Moon in five years, and the agency has its sights set on a place no humans have ever gone before: the lunar south pole.
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