A group of American scientists is working on the creation of reflectors that could direct solar energy into shadowed lunar craters. This would allow future colonists to operate uninterruptedly with the resource essential to life on the Moon—deposits of water ice that are abundant in such craters.

The Moon’s South Pole has long attracted the attention of scientists. The main reason for this is the presence of permanently shadowed craters containing abundant water ice. Future colonists plan to extract this ice to meet the oxygen, water and fuel needs of the first settlements on the Moon.

Even the water ice on the Moon is quite old, which is of particular interest to scientists. When the Moon was relatively young, its surface was often bombarded by water-rich comets, and volcanoes spewed water vapor from its depths (yes, volcanoes were erupting on our moon). According to some scientists, the water and water vapor may then have turned into ice and have been preserved from exposure to sunlight at the bottom of the craters ever since.

One of the leading theories regarding the formation of the Moon today is multiple impact. It proves that Selena was formed from debris thrown from Earth by asteroids. If this were the case, ancient lunar ice near the poles should be extremely close to terrestrial ice in isotopic composition. In other words, by studying lunar ice, scientists will learn more about the origins of the Earth and the Moon and may even understand how life on our planet arose.

There may be more than 600 billion kilograms of water ice at the bottom of permanently shadowed lunar craters, according to data sent by India’s Chandrayaan-1 probe and NASA’s LRO station. If melted, there would be enough water to fill at least 240,000 Olympic swimming pools.

But to extract this valuable resource, energy is needed that will “feed” everything necessary for the search and extraction of the system. The constant shadow of the ice makes access difficult.

Engineers from the Texas Department of Aerospace Engineering, together with colleagues from the NASA Langley Research Center, have proposed a method that would facilitate the study of ice colonizers with special reflectors. Engineers told the UniverseToday portal about their development.

The American researchers’ technology is an array of reflectors mounted on the edge of the crater where the light falls (so-called peaks of infinite light) and a receiver – placed at the bottom of the dark crater. Reflectors “capture” the light and direct it to the receiver, which distributes the energy to systems operating in the crater.

Engineers used computer simulations to figure out which reflector shape would be most efficient at transmitting more light. According to preliminary calculations, this is the shape of a parabola.

Parabolic structures are frequently used by scientists on Earth; They are found in solar reflectors as well as in a variety of devices such as telescopes, microphones, and car headlights. On our planet, researchers can build these structures of any size and build them where they are needed, but on the moon such a trick will not work. The lunar reflector needs to be very compact because launching an extra kilogram of cargo into space is expensive.

The goal of American engineers is to create a reflector that is small enough to be sent to the moon without paying much, and relatively “powerful” enough to redirect the maximum amount of solar energy.

To kill two birds with one stone, researchers developed a self-forming material based on natural ingredients that can change shape depending on the environment (when it needs to increase in size and when it does not need to shrink).

Another problem that American engineers must solve in order for their technology to work at full capacity is sharp temperature changes.

At midday, the temperature at the lunar equator can rise to plus 121 degrees Celsius, much hotter than on Earth. However, at night it can drop to minus 133 degrees. At the bottom of permanently shadowed craters, the temperature is often minus 250 degrees.

Scientists have developed another material that can withstand a sharp temperature drop. This is the so-called shape memory material. It will be able to change the shape of the reflector in response to the change in temperature. In other words, the reflector will adjust its shape so that it can withstand a certain temperature.

“This material will feature shape memory alloys that self-regulate heat dissipation depending on how hot or cold the environment is. For us, temperature drops are a solvable problem,” explained co-developer Darren Hartle.

In 2019, NASA announced plans to return humans to the moon (the Artemis-3 mission will not arrive until 2026), as well as the creation of the international near-lunar station Deep Space Gateway and a permanent base on the Earth’s surface. satellite for major research studies. Advanced technologies are needed to solve these problems, so reflectors and self-transforming materials developed by a team of American engineers could play an important role in the success of future missions.