The Indian Space Research Organization—or
ISRO—announced plans to launch a rover to
the moon sometime in July of 2019.
Not only will this be India’s first attempt
to land on our big gray satellite, the mission
is going where no one has gone before: the
moon’s south pole.
They won’t be alone for long though, because
Jeff Bezos’s space company Blue Origin is
planning a trip to the lunar south pole as
well.
But why the sudden interest, what could be
down there that’s worth seeing?
Turns out, quite a bit, and it could be the
key to a human colony in space.
Up to this point, only three other nations
have landed probes on the moon: the former
Soviet Union, the United States, and China
in that order.
An Israeli organization made an attempt in
April of 2019, but their Beresheet lander’s
rocket failed in the final moments before
touchdown, adding another tiny crater to the
moon’s face and leaving 4th place in the
lunar rover race up for grabs.
So India’s ISRO is next to take their shot,
launching their lander Vikram with the rover
Pragyan tucked away inside on a mission they’re
calling Chandrayaan-2.
Yes, while this is their first attempt at
landing on the moon, it’s not their first
mission to it.
In October of 2008, ISRO’s Chandrayaan-1
mission sent an orbiter to the moon.
It operated for 312 days, while a NASA instrument
on board studied the moon’s surface.
In 2018, it was announced that those observations
revealed what appears to be water ice on the
surface of the moon’s polar regions.
That’s what’s kicked off this race to
the poles.
Now don’t go picturing massive ice sheets
like what the Earth has… for now anyway.
The moon’s ice is sparse and probably mixed
in with the regolith.
You may be wondering how ice could exist on
the moon at all.
Truth be told, we’re not sure how it got
there.
It could be from early volcanism or the ice
could have been brought there by impactors.
But we know how it stays there.
At the poles, because the sun is edge on to
the moon, the insides of some craters are
in permanent darkness.
And inside these craters, it cold.
The temperature never rises above -156 Celsius.
Since it’s forever dark down there, the
ice doesn’t get the chance to evaporate,
and estimates predict there could be anywhere
from 10 thousand to 100 million tons of ice
at the south pole.
That’s great news for us, because, and I
don’t know if you’ve heard, but humans
need water to live.
So if we could extract it from the moon instead
of bringing it with us from Earth, that could
save a lot of rocket fuel.
Speaking of rocket fuel, it just so happens
that it’s made of Hydrogen and Oxygen.
Guess what has a lot of hydrogen and oxygen
in it?
I really hope you said water or I’m failing
at my job.
So given the enormous benefits of water ice,
it’s starting to look like a lunar colony
at one of the poles would be ideal.
Well, except for the cold, and the fact that
permanent shadows aren’t conducive to solar
power.
But that’s where the poles’ unique geometry
with the sun comes into play again.
The same way some craters have permanent shadow,
some mounds, crests, and crater rims at the
poles see near-constant daylight, some for
more than 200 consecutive Earth days.
And some of these sunny spots are right next
to craters that could contain ice.
One such place is the Shackleton Crater, and
that’s Blue Origin’s targeted landing
spot.
Even if ISRO beats Blue Origin to the punch,
Bezos’s company is still planning serious
polar exploration; they’ve unveiled a mock
up of a lander capable of carrying four rovers
or an ascent stage that could lift human astronauts
back off the surface of the moon.
So ISRO’s Chandrayaan-2 mission could be
more than just a feather in the cap of India’s
space agency, it’ll be our first chance
to get down in the regolith and see just how
abundant the ice is.
If the mission fails however like Beresheet
did, Blue Origin could wind up being first
to the south pole, as well as the first private
company to land on the moon.
No matter who gets there first confirming
abundant ice at the south pole could be a
huge milestone in human history.
If it could sustain a lunar colony and produce
rocket fuel, then the moon’s south pole
could be the first stop on a journey to Mars
and beyond.
The Vikram lander is tentatively set to touchdown
September 6th, 2019, and we will be watching
it very closely indeed.
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If we find enough ice at the south pole, would
you be willing to live on the moon?
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