6/23/2023 0 Comments Lunar orbiter 1![]() ![]() So on the Moon, it's a similar set of questions, and as we think about water at the polar regions of the Moon, a question is after the Moon formed, it could be a record of all of the water delivered to the Earth-Moon system a bit later, you know, 3.5 billion years onward record just of what has coming on asteroids and comets that hit the Moon, and then kind of got cold-trapped hot the way in and then got stuck in these very cold regions. But of course now we also have oceans and an atmosphere, rains and snows and is otherwise full of water. Some of it is still trapped in Earth's mantle and is released through volcanoes. Then, of course, it takes other forms since. Is it similarly on the Moon intrinsic in the material, or, as you say, in ice skating rink type manifestations?īethany Ehlmann: That is the question where does the water come from? So on Earth, initially the supply of water within our entire planet came from the asteroids and comets that collided together, and over time, in the early history of the solar system, formed our planet. Where's the water then? And the idea is that it's intrinsic in the material. And you think, well, that doesn't make sense. Robyn Williams: Now, when we're talking about the Earth and where its water came from, we often describe it as coming in rocks from the sky. And that's one of the key questions that Lunar Trailblazer will help answer. We think we know there's a little, from prior measurements, and there could be a lot, but we don't know yet. ![]() The real question though is is there water there? How much? Are we talking small amounts of water? Or are we talking about, you know, skating rinks full of slabs of water? We don't know the answer to that question yet. But we think that in the permanently shadowed regions, at particularly the north and south polar regions, there is water in permanently shadowed craters where the temperature is quite low, it doesn't get above 100 Kelvin. Well, there appear to be tiny amounts on the sunlit side of the Moon, which is actually quite confusing, it perhaps shouldn't exist, because the heating (the Moon is actually quite hot), the heating should drive it off. Robyn Williams: So where is the water you're going to be looking for?īethany Ehlmann: Where is the water? That is the question. Why? Because it's been pummelling by impacts over the years that melt, then impact to create the shards and repeat with no water or appreciable transport downhill to round off those edges. And so on the Moon, the soil is quite sharp, it's shards, effectively, of glass. I mean, as planetary scientists, what's fun and what gives us real insight is to think about how other bodies are different from Earth. In other words, the soil is not weathered, it's sharp.īethany Ehlmann: Yeah, that's right. And if they didn't have proper thick clothing on they would die because it would puncture it. Robyn Williams: I'm reminded to some extent going back in history that Brian O'Brien in Perth, who was a person fascinated by the Moon, he warned Apollo 11 about the fact that it would have rather sharp bits of…if you can call it soil. So we're the scout, the trailblazer (it is called Lunar Trailblazer) in advance of those future missions. Robyn Williams: You're not going to land your mission yourself?īethany Ehlmann: This one's not a lander, this one's an orbiter. In fact, we're a new flavour of NASA mission, a smaller, nimbler, higher risk type of mission, we're going to orbit the Moon and provide the highest resolution maps of water, and the composition and thermal properties of the surface, to understand why is there water on the Moon in the first place, and then also provide those maps that are going to guide our landed exploration by robots and astronauts. You mean that's one of the missions going up?īethany Ehlmann: One of the missions going up, yes, we are scheduled to launch later this year. In fact, right now, I've added another focus on the Moon, leading a mission Lunar Trailblazer. ![]() Since then, my interests though have expanded across the solar system and a bit beyond. And to begin our royal parade, Professor Bethany Ehlmann of Caltech, who is the president of the Planetary Society, and bent on exploring Mars and the Moon.īethany Ehlmann: Mars is one of the planets I love, and is how I got introduced to planetary science. ![]()
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