Plenty of Ice Awaits Future Moon Settlers at South Pole Crater
Shackleton Crater Elevation (left) and shaded relief (right) image of Shackleton, a 21-km-diameter (12.5-mile-diameter) permanently shadowed crater adjacent to the lunar south pole. The structure of the crater's interior was revealed by a digital elevation model constructed from more than 5 million elevation measurements from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter. NASA/Zuber, M.T. et al. If humans ever move to the moon, we'll need a steady supply of the two most basic elements for life: Sunlight and water. The lunar poles have long been prime candidates for settlement, because they're exposed to sunlight almost all the time and because for at least three years now, scientists have known they contain water. One particular promising crater just had its water content freshly measured, and there's plenty of ice. The Shackleton crater, named for the Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton, is right near the moon's south pole and is half-shadowed all the time. It is super...