New data from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter suggests that ice may make up as much as 22 percent of the surface material in Shackleton Crater, located on the moon’s south pole. The uncertainty of science: New data from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter suggests that ice may make up as much as 22 percent of the surface material in Shackleton Crater, located on the moon’s south pole.
The uncertainty of science: New data from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter suggests that ice may make up as much as 22 percent of the surface material in Shackleton Crater.
What I find most interesting about this result is that the team leader of this paper, Maria Zuber, was also one of the co-authors of the paper I wrote about two days ago that said there was no water in Shackleton Crater.
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The uncertainty of science: New data from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter suggests that ice may make up as much as 22 percent of the surface material in Shackleton Crater.
What I find most interesting about this result is that the team leader of this paper, Maria Zuber, was also one of the co-authors of the paper I wrote about two days ago that said there was no water in Shackleton Crater.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
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You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Ignoring a consideration of the validity of the “LEND” paper, but carefully examining what they analyzed, you will find they excluded Shackleton, whether for reasons that were technical or otherwise.
Specifically, that paper listed the “tested” permanently shadowed regions (PSRs). They state “The set selected for analysis in this study all have areas >100 km2. The list of tested PSRs is presented in Table 1. “ If you examine this Table 1 list, you find 29 South Pole PSRs and 17 North Pole PSRs, which are ALL the PSRs they looked at for that study. But if you look at the list, there is no Shackleton Crater (which has an area of 350 km^2). Also, if you look carefully at the locations, they get no closer than -88.6 deg latitude to the South Pole. They also examine a craters AROUND Shackleton namely Shoemaker, Faustini, Sverdrup and de Gerlache, but not Shackleton. Curious.
So, apparently they did not specifically state anything about Shackleton Crater.
One other minor point regarding the very nice Zuber paper. I still do not have the Nature article so that I may confirm my assessment, but from what was stated, there were 5 million measurements. “Measurements” translates to laser shots that bounced from the crater surface. The laser beam is 5 meters in diameter, so each “bounce” covers 20 m^2 of the surface. The crater is 21 km in diameter, so the area is 346 km^2 or 346000000 m^2. So to cover the entire crater surface with laser bounces, you need about 346000000/20 or 17,640,000 bounces. With only 5,000,000 bounces, they had only 5,000,000/17,640,000 of coverage or 28 % of the surface lit up with laser light! Those are nice looking images given 62% should be blank. Hopefully they point this out in the paper.