There is never enough data. And when there is no data, the argument is that you have to at least spend a few billion to disprove something that is likely false (i.e. methane on Mars, microbes on Mars, accessible water in the Moon's Shackleton crater, etc)
I don't understand why the claim is that nobody hasn't sent a probe to discover this already. There are dozens of probes that have been used to look for ice in a variety of locations. There is no evidence of anything accessible. If there ever was evidence, it would have been questioned to non-existence.The closest evidence of ice might be Enceladus. But there isn't a clear singular data point about accessible ice, or oxygen, or the ability to generate oxygen.
The moon could retain an argon atmosphere indefinitely if cold enough (argon's boiling point is 87.3 K), and whilst 02 (boiling point 90.2 K) would be gradually lost on geological timescales, it probably wouldn't be noticeable on human timescales, and could be topped up from lunar resources if required.So if you use solar shades to make it not too much warmer than Titan and import lots of argon, along with local production of O2, then you could create a long-lived breathable (as long as you pre-heat it first) atmosphere. I'm not sure why anyone would be actually motivated to do that, though.
There's an interesting article that proposes that ~100 Halley's-sized comets could add both volatiles and angular momentum to the Moon: http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/07/terraforming_the_moon_it_would_be_a_lot_like_florida.htmlIf they impact at the right angle and speed they could reduce the lunar day duration from 28 days to 60 hours, reducing temperature extremes. If desired they could also tilt a bit the axis of rotation of the Moon to create Earth-like seasons.
If there isn't enough water, we'll need to import water to the moon, likely by impacting comets or asteroids bearing water on the surface. A healthy hydrosphere is vital to regulate temperature and support plant life....We will need to literally move mountains by sending asteroids and comets to collide with the moon. We'll potentially need to add oceans of water and build mirrors and shades that are hundreds of kilometres long. Frankly, it isn't possible yet.
Quote from: pierre on 08/27/2017 05:23 pmThere's an interesting article that proposes that ~100 Halley's-sized comets could add both volatiles and angular momentum to the Moon: http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/07/terraforming_the_moon_it_would_be_a_lot_like_florida.htmlIf they impact at the right angle and speed they could reduce the lunar day duration from 28 days to 60 hours, reducing temperature extremes. If desired they could also tilt a bit the axis of rotation of the Moon to create Earth-like seasons.Umm, no.Impacting 100 comets of similar mass to Halley's comet, at the moon surface (say into a convenient mountain), at a speed of 90km/s (i'm being very generous, assume you can sling your comets real hard, retrograde to earth's solar orbit, etc...) AND somehow absorbing 100% of the momentum, would.....Increase its rotational speed from 1 turn per 2360621 seconds to 1 turn per 2360587 seconds.In less than 5900 YEARS, the moon would have turned once more than it currently does.To just double the moon's rotation using Halleys-comet size impactors, at 90km/s, with 100% absorption of impact, would require 7.2 million impacts.
With that big a feat of engineering, you may as well dig down a few km below the crust, peel beneath the surface, lift it up on jacks and have the crust rotate on rails.