NASA unveiled a mosaic of Shackleton Crater on September 19, demonstrating the capabilities of two lunar-orbiting cameras working together to provide insight into the moon’s south polar region. The image released by NASA was constructed using data from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) and ShadowCam.
LROC has been operational since 2009 and excels at capturing detailed images of the lunar surface, but faces limitations in photographing shadow areas on the moon that are deprived of direct sunlight, called permanent shadow areas.
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ShadowCam is a NASA instrument aboard the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) Danuri spacecraft. Developed by Malin Space Science Systems and Arizona State University, it was launched in August 2022. It is extremely light-sensitive, 200 times larger than LROC. This feature allows ShadowCam to reveal features and terrain that LROC cannot capture.
ShadowCam relies on sunlight reflected from geological features of the moon or Earth to capture images of shadow areas. ShadowCam’s high light sensitivity prevents it from capturing images of parts of the moon directly illuminated by sunlight, leading to saturated results.
By combining images from both cameras, researchers can generate a comprehensive visual representation of the lunar landscape and the geological features of both the brightest and darkest parts of the moon.
In this mosaic, the permanently shadowed areas, including the interior floor and walls of Shackleton Crater, are the result of ShadowCam images, while the sunlit areas such as the crater’s rim and flanks are the result of images taken by LROC.
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Thanks to ShadowCam, NASA is able to capture images of the Moon’s permanently shadowed regions in exceptional detail. It has given scientists a much better view of the Moon’s south polar region. The Moon’s South Pole remains unexplored by humans and is therefore of great interest for scientific exploration. It is believed to contain ice deposits or other frozen volatiles. Because ice is composed of hydrogen and oxygen, it can be used as rocket fuel or for life support systems.
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Updated: Sep 21, 2023 2:42 PM IST