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WELCOME HOME!
Where We Should (Not) Go
Where We Should (Not) Go
Before deciding where to go, we need to know where to not go. We shouldn't go somewhere that does not receive sunlight, has extreme temperature fluctuations, or is too sloped or rocky. All of these criteria are known as hazards and could make things dangerous or difficult for the astronauts or for the machines being used by astronauts. Consequently, we should aknowledge glactic cosmic radiation (GCR) as it is harmful to any living thing. We can also consider what materials can be found on the Moon to aid our habitat.
Lets Look at Some Minerals
Lets Look at Some Minerals
Figure 1: from https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-40405-0
From the maps above, we can see the concentrations of galactic cosmic radiation on the Moon. There are notable (the yellow) peaks from -60 longitude to 30 longitutde, and 60 latitude to -30 latitude. Although these are the peaks, they fortunately do not meet dangerous levels of radiation. The CDC and International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) reccomend an upper limit of 20mSv/yr for workers, though the average public person should only recieve or have an upper limit of 1 mSv/yr. At this point, any point on the Moon could be considered "safe" in terms of radiation.
Figure 2a and 2b
The map (fig. 2a) above shows thorium abundances in parts per million (ppm). Thorium is thought to be a good fuel source for nuclear power. (I aquired the map using QuickMap).
Figure 3a and 3b
The map (fig. 3a) above shows titanium abundances in weight percentage, which means for every 100 grams of regolith, the percentage is the amount of the element in the regolith. So if we were in a 6% area, we could expect 6 grams of titanium per 100g of regolith.
Titanium is an imporant resource which will allow more room for payload since habitants can mine and utilitze titanium on the surface.
Since the radiation is (almost) negligable and these elements can be found in abundnace AND are cruicial to our habitat, I'm going to focus on the previously mentioned -60 longitude to 30 longitutde, and 60 latitude to -30 latitude area. Note that these resources are found in the mare, so we will focus on the mare regions as well.
Some Physical Observables
Some Physical Observables
Figure 4: Equidstant cylindrical view of the Moon, ~270 deg E to ~30 deg E, ~60 deg N to ~30 deg S
Figure 5: Mare boundaries
Figure 6: Equidstant cylindrical view. Orange indicates craters >20km. Blue indicates craters 5-20km.
It is important to note craters for landing elipses. You don't want to land somewhere with a lot of loose ejecta or a rocky area in general!
Figure 7 : Terrain slope with range of 0 to 5 deg. Note that this does not mean that the highest degree slope on the moon is 5 degrees, this is just the limit.
Terrain slope and roughness need to be considered for landing elipses and for our sake for ease of acsessibility. No one wants to hike to work.
Temperature
Temperature
Figure 8: Thermal model calculations of monthly and annual lunar surface temperature variations at various latitudes from https://www.diviner.ucla.edu/science
Figure 9: Annimation showing measured Diviner-measured monthly global bolometric lunar surface temperatures from https://www.diviner.ucla.edu/science
**FIND TEMPERATURE MAP**
Drum Roll Please...
Drum Roll Please...
**circle this area on the other maps and explain why this is a good idea**
NOTE: I plan on coming back to cite everything properly
Megan Bourque jnm951@vols.utk.edu
All maps were aquired by me using QuickMap unless otherwise stated.
All maps were aquired by me using QuickMap unless otherwise stated.
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