Cold Traps on the Moon (IMAGE)

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Cold Traps on the Moon

Caption

Lunar cold traps located at the South Pole of the moon, are critical to all moon-based operations because they contain frozen water molecules. Water is required for all moon-based operations because it is needed to grow food, and to break down into oxygen for breathing and hydrogen for fuel. The four white-circled regions in this image contain the coldest terrain with average annual near-surface temperatures of 25-50 K. They are about 50 km across.

Credit

Credit: David Paige, reproduced with permission.

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