3 ms·
> There's basically zero carbon on the moon. That's a big citation needed. There is very little carbon on the sites that we have studied, but they were all fa
by Tuna-Fish 4y ago
> There's basically zero carbon on the moon.
That's a big citation needed.
There is very little carbon on the sites that we have studied, but they were all fairly similar equatorial locations. CO2 is heavy enough that it doesn't immediately escape moon, when some is delivered (for example by a meteorite), it will bounce around for a while. If, during that time, it hits a really cold surface, it will freeze and stay there. Such cold surfaces are available in abundance at permanently shadowed craters at the poles, and also inside lava tubes.
We have gone a long way since we thought that moon was dry and lacked carbon. These days, most of the people studying it are fairly confident that every single permanently cold crater holds a glacier, composed of mixed ices, mostly water, CO2 and methane.
The only element needed for people that we still think that the Moon has a shortage of is nitrogen.
- gene-h 4y agoLava tubes have been measured to be quite warm[0]. This study concludes that "Neither [regolith or PSRs can provide] a abundant long-term supply of carbon to support a sustainable human presence on the Moon"[1] Although permanently shadowed craters are not very well understood. [0]https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2022GL099710 https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2022GL09... [1]https://arxiv.org/pdf/2104.13521.pdf https://arxiv.org/pdf/2104.13521.pdf
- Vikerchu 4y agoDoesn't moon dust give you giga cancer? Well i guess its a cave...
- shagie 4y agoThe cave is to reduce the need for cosmic ray and micrometeoroid shelter (it's easier to build in a balloon in a cave than it is to build on the surface and fortify it). Moon dust is toxic and jagged ( https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/The_toxic_side_of_the_Moon https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Ex... and https://www.livescience.com/62590-moon-dust-bad-lungs-brain.html https://www.livescience.com/62590-moon-dust-bad-lungs-brain.... ). > In several lab tests, a single scoop of replica moon dust proved toxic enough to kill up to 90 percent of the lung and brain cells exposed to it.