Botball Research Project

Aitkin Basin-South Pole Information

There are several craters around the Lunar south pole that never receive any sun light.  There is a possibility that ice may be found in these craters.  But it is difficult to explore them. 

We have very little information about the insides of these craters.  Most of the Aitkin Basin is on the far side of the moon, and we could not see these craters from the earth [3] until we started to explore with space crafts.  With the Galileo mission fly-by and the Clementine mission Lunar orbits we were able to confirm that the Aikin Basin is a very large impact crater -- the largest we know of in the Solar System [4].  But the polar orbits that over-fly the poles are difficult to establish.  The Lunar Prospector mission gave us some evidence of water [5], but we need to more detail to make decisions with future missions.

No light can be seen from the deep craters from orbit [6]; therefore, Robots inside the craters will not be able to use solar cells for power [7] nor directly communicate with the Earth.