Lunar Pits Could Shelter Astronauts

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Lunar Pits Could Shelter Astronauts, Reveal Details of How 'Man in the Moon' Formed

While the moon's surface is battered by millions of craters, it also has over 200 holes – steep-walled pits that in some cases might lead to caves that future astronauts could explore and use for shelter, according to new observations from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft.

The pits range in size from about 5 meters (~5 yards) across to more than 900 meters (~984 yards) in diameter, and three of them were first identified using images from the Japanese Kaguya spacecraft. Hundreds more were found using a new computer algorithm that automatically scanned thousands of high-resolution images of the lunar surface from LRO's Narrow Angle Camera (NAC).

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Edited July 18, 2014 by Waspie_Dwarf
added tags.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Peeking Into Lunar Pits

This video shows images from NASA's LRO spacecraft of various lunar pits.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/D. Gallagher

Source: NASA Goddard - Multimedia

[DecoNoir]

Yeah.... glad that wasn't found by some poor Apollo astronaut cruising around on the buggy.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Yeah.... glad that wasn't found by some poor Apollo astronaut cruising around on the buggy.

If, after years of training costing millions of dollars, you can't avoid a hole in the ground that is between 5 and 900 metres across in a vehicle that achieved a maximum speed of 11.2 mph then you probably deserve everything you get.

[DecoNoir]

If, after years of training costing millions of dollars, you can't avoid a hole in the ground that is between 5 and 900 metres across in a vehicle that achieved a maximum speed of 11.2 mph then you probably deserve everything you get.

True, however certain terrain features can obscure large objects, especially a relatively monochrome landscape such as the moon. In the US we have desert highways with dips that you can hide a semi truck in.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

In the US we have desert highways with dips that you can hide a semi truck in.

I'll take your word for it. We're not big on deserts in the UK.

[DecoNoir]

I'll take your word for it. We're not big on deserts in the UK.

Trust me, you're not missing much.