To live on the moon, humans and technology would have to cope with extreme conditions. At least there would be a place with relatively pleasant temperatures.
Spectrum of Science
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Ever since the first moon landing, people have been dreaming that we could build a settlement or at least a research base on the satellite and live there permanently. Until then, science and technology still have to develop a little, but at least one potential problem may have taken care of itself. Within the Mare Tranquillitatis near the moon's equator, there are craters and pits, and possibly also caves, where a constant temperature of around 17 degrees Celsius could prevail, Tyler Horvath of the University of California in Los Angeles and his team write inGeophysical Research Letters. This makes these areas very different from the lunar surface, which sometimes has extreme temperature fluctuations between minus 170 and plus 130 degrees Celsius during the day.
Humans and technology would have to withstand this extreme stress; a research base in such a crater, on the other hand, could be built with somewhat simpler means. The pits in Mare Tranquillitatis were discovered in 2009, and since then researchers have been wondering whether they might also lead to caves that could potentially offer protection from the harsh lunar weather. According to Horvath, 16 of the roughly 200 pits known so far are probably collapsed lava tube passages: some of these offer overhangs that shade the bottom of the collapse funnels; one of the candidates also seems to lead into a large cave.
For their study, Horvath and co analysed thermal images taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. They then used the data to feed a computer model to determine the heat capacity of the rock and the environment in general. The results suggest that temperatures in the permanently shaded area of the crater fluctuate only slightly during the course of the day and remain in a moderate range on average. The researchers conclude that a possible adjacent cave should also offer good temperature conditions.
The sunny area of the pit, on the other hand, could heat up to 150 degrees Celsius during the day. "Since the Tranquillitatis pit is closest to the lunar equator, the illuminated floor is probably the hottest place on the entire moon at midday," Horvath says. A lunar day lasts almost 15 Earth days, which leads to extreme heating; conversely, a lunar night ( equivalent to 15 Earth nights) leads to severe cooling. The technology used would have to cope with this and a potential research station "outdoors" would have to be cooled or heated at great expense for the corresponding time. The pits and caves would also offer somewhat more protection from cosmic radiation and small meteorites.
Not every lunar crater is suitable, however. Others are so deep and dark that solar radiation never reaches them and warms them up. That's why there could also be frozen water in them. Robots will soon be lowered down there. The ice could then perhaps also be used as drinking water for a lunar base - and solve a second problem of permanent settlement.
