3/2/2023 0 Comments Hamsterball![]() “The design is driven by the requirement to observe the surroundings in full 360 degrees and the necessity to protect the interior from the harsh lunar environment,” explains Dorit Borrmann of the DAEDALUS team. The hanging tether would then double as a Wi-Fi receiver, allowing DAEDALUS to relay its findings out of the pit. The 46-cm diameter DAEDALUS sphere would carry an immersive stereoscopic camera, a ‘laser radar’ lidar system for 3D mapping of cave interiors, temperature sensors, and a radiation dosimeter, as well as extendible arms to help clear obstacles and test rock properties.ĭAEDALUS would first be lowered into the cave mouth on a long tether, then disconnect to roll away autonomously under its own power. Credit: NASA/Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC)/Science Operations Center (SOC) These tubes are thought to have formed during lava flows billions of years ago, when the Moon was still geologically active. Like doorways to the underworld, photos of some pits clearly show a cavern beneath the Moon’s surface, suggesting that they are ‘skylights’ into extensive lava tubes that can be as wide as New York’s Central Park, and could extend for hundreds of kilometers. The Moon’s surface is covered by millions of craters, but it also hosts hundreds of very steep-walled holes known as pits. ![]() ![]() Skylight opening on a huge lava tube in the Marius Hills region on the lunar near side. ![]()
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