A specific appeal
Shackleton Crater is about 13 miles (21 kilometers) wide, with a surface area about the same as the cities of Philadelphia, Las Vegas or Detroit. The crater is 14,000 feet (4.2 kilometers) deep. If Endurance and Chang’e 7 are expected to land on or near the rim of the crater, marking the first time landers from different nations have operated so closely together on another planetary body at the same time.
Plans to send Shackleton two simultaneous missions are also emblematic of the brewing competition between the United States and China to land men on the moon by the end of this decade. Both countries plan to build a lunar base near the moon’s south pole in the 2030s.
The highest peaks of Shackleton’s ring offer the advantage of near-continuous sunlight, providing a steady source of solar energy for a lander or future lunar base in perpetual shadow, near the crater floor where temperatures are cold enough to preserve ancient ice deposits. The polar cold traps of the Moon, including Shackleton, are attractive targets for future exploration. The ice in these locations can be harvested to supply the lunar outpost with potable water, oxygen, and rocket fuel.
Shackleton has some relevance for fans of Apple TV’s sci-fi alternate history series. For All HumanityExplorers from the United States and the Soviet Union compete for water resources inside the crater.
Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander is being tested at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Credit: Blue Origin
Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander is being tested at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Credit: Blue Origin
Blue origin Endurance The lander is the first test flight of the company’s Blue Moon Mark 1 design, a 26-foot-tall (8-meter) vehicle designed to deliver cargo and experiments to the lunar surface. Blue Moon Mark 1 is a step Blue Origin’s manned lunar lander for NASA’s Artemis program.
