Comments on: Disappointing News: No Icy Patches in the Lunar Craters

By: Pete

Pete — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 00:13:15 +0000

It looks like I am a little late to this party, but I still thought I would put my two cents in.

Eric – Our trash is circling the planet, and is strewn across every planet, moon, or comet to which we have ever visited or sent a probe or satellite, in addition to fouling our own nest. I would be surprised if there was no life elsewhere in our solar system, but I seriously doubt there is any other sentient life.

Damian – Considering most of the bodies we have sent probes or satellites to have little to no atmosphere, substantial portions would have survived the impact. They would have required velocities far greater than current propulsion systems and/or gravitational acceleration could provide to achieve total vaporization. P.S. Tell your dad I said hi.

By: Damian

Damian — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:36:33 +0000

Your sentiments are noble, Eric, but small meteors around the size of these impact probes hit these cratered areas all the time (hence, craters). If there is life on the moon, it must be able to tough out both the constant impacts and the punishing radiation that bombard the moon every hour of every day (over billions of years). I don’t see how us sending down a football or laundry-basket sized impactor is going to cause an extinction event to creatures that hardy.

If you’re worried about us making the moon “a landfill for our trash”, then I would point out that even a gentle lander with a drill is eventually going to break down and become a piece of trash on the moon. An impactor would vaporize, and thus would not leave any trash at all.

By: Eric

Eric — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:08:39 +0000

I think the idea of crashing probes into the moon or a planet is horrible. It’s invasive, destructive, and makes it into a landfill for our trash. The proper thing to do would be to land a rover on the surface and scoop up the soil or drill down a few feet. Honestly, if there is a chance of water in any form, then there is a chance of there being microscopic life as well. If this crater is the only place that water is on the moon, we could in fact be destroying the only place that any microbes could survive.