Space: Shelter for astronauts the “craters-caves” on the Moon

A big problem, to which scientists are asked to provide a solution in view of the return of man to Moon and the creation of a permanent base there, is to protect the astronauts from the extreme conditions that prevail on the surface of the Earth’s natural satellite.

The evidence collected by scientists does not look forward to a… comfortable life. The temperatures they range from several tens of degrees Celsius during the day, to as low as 280 below zero at night. However, according to a new study, crater caves can provide an oasis from the “crazy” temperatures that prevail.

To find out what it might be like inside these lunar cavities, a team of planetary scientists at UCLA used thermal imaging from its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter NASA and he determined that the temperature, at least in one of these pits, is always constant at 63 degrees. The findings were recently published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

One of the authors of the study, Mr Tyler Horvath, Ph.D. student at UCLA, stated: “Imagine a full day on the moon… you have 15 days of extreme heat well above the boiling point of water. And then you have 15 days of extreme cold, which are some of the coldest temperatures in the entire solar system. So to be able to be in a place where you don’t have to expend energy to heat up during those 15 days is almost priceless because during the night, if you’re trying to use solar energy as your primary form of getting energy, you can’t do this for 15 days.”

The UCLA research team focused on the gap in the Sea of ​​Tranquility, or Mare Trenquillitatis, which is about 220 miles from where Apollo 11 landed and also equidistant from the Apollo 17 landing site.

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