Episode 541: Why Is The Moon’s South Pole So Important? It’s All About Water
As NASA prepares to return to the Moon by 2024 as part of its Artemis program, the agency is focusing its efforts on exploring the Moon’s polar regions. These are areas of the Moon which seem to have a lot of water mixed in with the regolith.
Some of these craters are permanently in shadow, and might still have large quantities of water, that’s accessible to human and robotic explorers. This is a critical resource, and the Moon might be just the place to help humanity as it pushes out to explore the rest of the Solar System.
But it might also be an illusion. We really won’t know until we look up close.
Audio Podcast version:
ITunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/universe-today-guide-to-space-audio/id794058155?mt=2
RSS: https://www.universetoday.com/audio
What Fraser's Watching Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbJ42wpShvmkjd428BcHcCEVWOjv7cJ1G
Weekly email newsletter:
https://www.universetoday.com/newsletter
Support us at: http://www.patreon.com/universetoday
More stories at: http://www.universetoday.com/
Twitch: https://twitch.tv/fcain
Follow us on Twitter: @universetoday
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/universetoday
Instagram - http://instagram.com/universetoday
Team: Fraser Cain - @fcain / frasercain@gmail.com
Karla Thompson - @karlaii / https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEItkORQYd4Wf0TpgYI_1fw
Chad Weber - weber.chad@gmail.com
References:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/50-years-ago-lunar-landing-sites-selected
https://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/lunar/
https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/1336/what-thickness-depth-of-water-would-be-required-to-provide-radiation-shielding-i
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3480
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/lro-sheds-light-on-lunar-water-movement
https://www.nasa.gov/ames/LCROSS
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/inside-dark-polar-moon-craters-water-not-as-invincible-as-expected-scientists-argue
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/chang-e-landers-a-closer-look
https://www.isro.gov.in/gslv-mk-iii-m1-chandrayaan-2-mission/launch-kit-glance
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2017/1207-koreas-first-lunar-mission.html
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-selects-12-new-lunar-science-technology-investigations
https://www.astrobotic.com/2019/7/1/astrobotic-awarded-5-6-million-nasa-contract-to-deliver-autonomous-moon-rover
http://www.planetary.org/explore/projects/planetvac/
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-07/uom-nsu071119.php
https://today.ttu.edu/posts/2019/07/Stories/NASA-picks-Nagihara-instrument-moon-landing
Available Results
Generated results are saved to your library for reuse and search.
Choose Template
Pick the result you want. You can review provider and model before generating.
A concise first-pass summary for understanding the episode quickly.
A comprehensive, source-grounded extraction of the reusable knowledge in an episode.
Scientific findings, mechanisms, studies, hypotheses, and the limits of the evidence discussed.
A dedicated analysis of warnings, limitations, trade-offs, weak evidence, and uncertainty.
Memorable statements and important claims with attribution and source context.
Technologies, AI models, technical methods, capabilities, limitations, and adoption implications.
A concise first-pass summary for understanding the episode quickly.
A detailed readable summary organized by chapter or topic.
A navigable map of subjects, topic flow, and suggested chapters.
A comprehensive, source-grounded extraction of the reusable knowledge in an episode.
Reusable atomic knowledge units extracted from the episode.
A comprehensive extraction focused on health practices, protocols, claims, and safety caveats.
A comprehensive extraction focused on opportunities, strategy, markets, and company building.
Explicit actions, next steps, habits, recommendations, and things to avoid.
A dedicated inventory of concrete resources named in the episode.
A dedicated analysis of warnings, limitations, trade-offs, weak evidence, and uncertainty.
A concise first-pass summary for understanding the episode quickly.
A detailed readable summary organized by chapter or topic.
A navigable map of subjects, topic flow, and suggested chapters.
A comprehensive, source-grounded extraction of the reusable knowledge in an episode.
Reusable atomic knowledge units extracted from the episode.
A comprehensive extraction focused on health practices, protocols, claims, and safety caveats.
A comprehensive extraction focused on opportunities, strategy, markets, and company building.
Scientific findings, mechanisms, studies, hypotheses, and the limits of the evidence discussed.
Technologies, AI models, technical methods, capabilities, limitations, and adoption implications.
Investment theses, assets, catalysts, valuation reasoning, time horizons, and risks.
Chronologies, actors, causes, consequences, turning points, and competing historical interpretations.
Policies, proposals, stakeholders, arguments, implementation constraints, and predicted effects.
Career paths, skills, hiring signals, workplace decisions, transitions, and limitations of the advice.
Behavioral mechanisms, biases, motivation, habits, emotions, interventions, and evidence limitations.
Economic mechanisms, incentives, indicators, market structure, forecasts, and uncertainty.
Leadership principles, team systems, organizational design, culture, feedback, and failure modes.
Audience, positioning, messaging, acquisition, retention, experiments, metrics, and failed approaches.
Teaching methods, learning strategies, practice, feedback, assessment, and effectiveness evidence.
Theses, premises, arguments, objections, values, thought experiments, and unresolved questions.
Communication patterns, conflict, boundaries, expectations, repair methods, and contextual limitations.
Books, papers, authors, courses, and other learning resources mentioned in the episode.
Repeatable methods, frameworks, mental models, processes, and systems.
Explicit actions, next steps, habits, recommendations, and things to avoid.
Memorable statements and important claims with attribution and source context.
A dedicated inventory of concrete resources named in the episode.
A dedicated analysis of warnings, limitations, trade-offs, weak evidence, and uncertainty.