3 ms·

PRO TIP: locate your moon-base near the lunar poles where this is significantly easier/cheaper!

Retric 5y ago
The pools get months long night just line on earth. You would need to build a mega structure with rotating panels or have serious batteries.
- Reason077 5y ago
  The moon only has a 1.5 degree axis of tilt, so unlike on earth (23.5 degree tilt!) the seasons aren’t super pronounced. It’s true that there are still short periods of darkness even at the poles, but they’re not months long like on Earth. Further, you could still access 24 hour sunlight by building a transmission grid with multiple solar panels, but the length of the transmission lines required would be much shorter near the poles.
  - Retric 5y ago
    Here’s an actual visualization of the moons South Pole, a few points might not see months long full dark, but 99% of the area ends up in shadow several weeks. And that scales up to some areas being full dark throughout the year. https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4770 https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4770 Of course this means seriously low temperatures as in below negative 150 range. https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/Gallery/moonpole.html https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/Gallery/moonpole.html
    - Reason077 5y ago
      Deep craters aside, the lunar poles get the most sunshine of any points on the moon. Lunar "night" lasts ~29.5 earth days at the equator, but much less, on average, at the poles. You get similarly extreme cold temperatures (-180C or so) anywhere on the moon during darkness, even at the equator.
      - Retric 5y ago
        You get those temperatures on the surface, but the day and night time temperatures average out underneath the surface. As the moon has no atmosphere, long term human habitation needs to take place under the surface to survive micrometeorite bombardment. Larger impactors throw up huge clouds of debris which then impact across the moon up to the moons escape velocity ~2400 m/s ~5400 mph. There are some advantages to those temperatures being so consistent, but a compromise location is probably the better alternative.
        JoeAltmaier 5y ago
        The big advantage of 'sunlight all the time' makes the pole the trump-card for lunar habitation. At least for the energy collectors. I suppose the energy could be bounced off a satellite to be delivered most anywhere on the moon. So habitation could be elsewhere. That lack of atmosphere has its advantages!

The pools get months long night just line on earth. You would need to build a mega structure with rotating panels or have serious batteries.

Reason077 5y ago
The moon only has a 1.5 degree axis of tilt, so unlike on earth (23.5 degree tilt!) the seasons aren’t super pronounced. It’s true that there are still short periods of darkness even at the poles, but they’re not months long like on Earth. Further, you could still access 24 hour sunlight by building a transmission grid with multiple solar panels, but the length of the transmission lines required would be much shorter near the poles.
- Retric 5y ago
  Here’s an actual visualization of the moons South Pole, a few points might not see months long full dark, but 99% of the area ends up in shadow several weeks. And that scales up to some areas being full dark throughout the year. https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4770 https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4770 Of course this means seriously low temperatures as in below negative 150 range. https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/Gallery/moonpole.html https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/Gallery/moonpole.html
  - Reason077 5y ago
    Deep craters aside, the lunar poles get the most sunshine of any points on the moon. Lunar "night" lasts ~29.5 earth days at the equator, but much less, on average, at the poles. You get similarly extreme cold temperatures (-180C or so) anywhere on the moon during darkness, even at the equator.
    - Retric 5y ago
      You get those temperatures on the surface, but the day and night time temperatures average out underneath the surface. As the moon has no atmosphere, long term human habitation needs to take place under the surface to survive micrometeorite bombardment. Larger impactors throw up huge clouds of debris which then impact across the moon up to the moons escape velocity ~2400 m/s ~5400 mph. There are some advantages to those temperatures being so consistent, but a compromise location is probably the better alternative.
      - JoeAltmaier 5y ago
        The big advantage of 'sunlight all the time' makes the pole the trump-card for lunar habitation. At least for the energy collectors. I suppose the energy could be bounced off a satellite to be delivered most anywhere on the moon. So habitation could be elsewhere. That lack of atmosphere has its advantages!