A SPOT on the moon has been declared by researchers to have an ideal environment for a human base to be placed.
On the south pole of the moon, there is an area in between two craters that has access to plenty of water and permanent sunlight making it possible for humans to inhabit.
The amount of sunlight available to the spot on the moon is crucial so that solar panels can be used for power.
There are five craters that were being considered due to permanent sunlight, but the amount of water and other resources needed to be considered before a spot could be determined.
Researchers at the University of Atacama in Chile examined existing data on the five possible craters to determine which would be best, per New Scientist.
The five craters are named de Gerlache, Henson, Sverdrup, Shackleton, and one of them is an unnamed crater.
They considered the distribution of water ice, slope angles, and the amount of sunlight available to each crater.
Along with the density of icy water carbon dioxide, and other potential power sources.
It also needs to have access and communication links with Earth.
“Now, we have a place,” team leader Giovanni Leone told New Scientist.
“It’s a trade-off between the water within reach and, at the same time, the base must be in light to have some energy,” Leone said.
The Henson crater was declared the best possible spot to set up the first base.
However, the researcher did determine that it should be possible to expand to other areas eventually as well.
“There is a possibility to expand all around, given that there is direct access in and out of these [Sverdrup-Henson] craters,” Leone added.
It was noted that a lot of the data that was observed comes from remote locations and that their conclusions may slightly change once they actually observe the area.
“There are lots of ideas for where to build a lunar base. I think the real answers will come when we get more ground truth measurements about all these parameters,” Simeon Barber at the Open University in the UK told New Scientist.
