Fed2 Star - the newsletter for the space trading game Federation 2

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by ibgames

EARTHDATE: July 27, 2014

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REAL LIFE NEWS: CAVES ON THE MOON

by Hazed

From metal on Mars, to caves on the Moon. the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which as the name suggests is orbiting the moon, has sent images back to NASA which show more than 200 steep-sided holes. These shaft-like pits may have caves or overhangs which would make them ideal as locations for future lunar bases. The source link below shows pictures of some of the pits.

Robert Wagner of Arizona State University spotted the pits using a computer algorithm which he developed to scan the LRO’s high-res photos and automatically identify the holes. He said, “Pits would be useful in a support role for human activity on the lunar surface. A habitat placed in a pit – ideally several dozen meters back under an overhang – would provide a very safe location for astronauts: no radiation, no micrometeorites, possibly very little dust, and no wild day-night temperature swings.”

Wagner thinks the pits were created when the roofs of pre-existing caves collapsed, maybe following a meteorite crash-landing close by. Alternatively, a direct meteor strike may have created them. Or maybe molten rock beneath the surface flowed away, leaving large voids… it seems theories about their origin abound!

However they were created, it would be great to explore them. Wagner suggests probes could be dropped into one or two pits to see what’s down there, and he’s started to sketch out the details of a mission to do just that.

Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/07/21/homes_for_cavemen_found_on_moon/

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