tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6717506789759388697.post9142548508041380521..comments2024-03-12T21:13:38.994+00:00Comments on Lunar Pioneer: More cavern entrances discovered on the MoonJoel Raupehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10479149035458870955noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6717506789759388697.post-90881191885243485932010-02-27T15:20:57.910+00:002010-02-27T15:20:57.910+00:00You are absolutely dead-on correct, Chuck. The stu...You are absolutely dead-on correct, Chuck. The study cited is not JAXA which, unlike ISRO's farm-league, has tended to be more measured in their "original claims." On a global-scale, institutional memory sometimes seems as lacking as it is in politics in the U.S. <br /><br />There's another Print-Only submission to next week's conference in Texas wherein the author has an unattributed image <br /><br />http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/_ah-Ic9iGmpybO-Gy7NHMw?authkey=Gv1sRgCJfkhJGn5Y-vmQE&feat=directlink<br /><br />(ISRO?, tented Apollo metric cropping of southeastern Serenitatis?) showing a rille bisected by an "uncollapsed roof." It shows too-soon a leap of faith in what seems to my less-trained eye to be a rubble-filled channel within an overall scene long since gardened into a >2 - >3.2 Ga old ruin. Of course, it might be more accurately labeled than I'm giving the writer credit for, and I think it's likely that there are accessible voids, probably far less apparent than the "holes," and perhaps better designated as less-unsafe geologically "stable opportunities" for excavation below the estimated 11 meters or so of regolith needed to attain an Earth-like equivalent of protection from GCR's. <br /><br />Rather than scaling such a hole in what is probably thin ice, I think these hole are only really useful as evidence for the Moon's under-appreciated, undiscovered aspects. After General Bolden's expression of disinterest in the Moon at Senator Nelson's hearing, this past week, I simply couldn't resist pulling a Percival Lowell, I suppose. His astounding belief in a relatively hospitable Mars, the idea of leap-frogging the Moon's essential lessons to go off into the Solar System unarmed with the knowledge we so obviously need to gain there betrayed what seemed to me like performing brain surgery as a first-year med student.<br /><br />-JoelJoel Raupehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10479149035458870955noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6717506789759388697.post-60570320209468250462010-02-27T14:12:30.869+00:002010-02-27T14:12:30.869+00:00Collapses in the roofs of lunar lava tubes - skyli...Collapses in the roofs of lunar lava tubes - skylights - have been recognized and correctly interpreted since the late 1960s, and their value as entrances to shelters has been discussed for decades. What is new with these discoveries is the smallness of the skylights, which implies youthfulness and still existing voids (again, already known from the existence of uncollapsed areas between skylights). Vertical shafts such as these will not be useful for entering tubes because of the danger.Tychocraterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07163742030826999233noreply@blogger.com