Anomaly detected under the Moon's South Pole-Aitken basin

originally posted by: Zeropinion
Is this mass different from the rest of the lunar mascons?
Mascons are a well documented phenomena, I believe the first few Ranger probes to the moon crashed because of them until NASA mapped the gravitic perturbations.

Arbitrageur has given a very thorough explanation, but just to add the minor correction that first Ranger probes were deliberately crashed into the moon 'head on'.

It's the probes (manned or otherwise) that are in lunar orbit that require adjustment to compensate for the influence of these mascons.

a reply to: LookingAtMars

Plausible sources for this anomaly include metal from the core of a differentiated impactor or oxides from the last stage of magma ocean crystallization.

or an underground Moon base

a reply to: LookingAtMars

I would take any information from the US government with a grain of salt,from amatuer astronomers it's clear they are not craters but engineered structures,like the craters on earth,where is the impact debris from said asteroid or comet,nowhere around only vitrified soil,the story we were told looks very unlike the truth

a reply to: Oldtimer2

You'll not find any terrestrial telescopes with a very good view of the lunar south pole, the best shots are from lunar orbit. There are records from several such probes, not all of them NASA, and none of them show engineered structures.

a reply to: Zeropinion

Is this mass different from the rest of the lunar mascons?

I don't think they know yet. It would be nice if they are all the same. Then every mascon on the moon and probable on Mercury, Mars and Earth would have chunks of metal from asteroids under them. Sounds like a treasure map.

originally posted by: rickymouse
I don't think we should start mining a big rock that might alter it's orbit by doing so. It should be evaluated very well before starting to possibly alter it's electromagnetic properties. People screw with this planet too much already, so they want to start messing with a rock hanging in orbit above our head.

Haha, we mess with everything, and i think we already nuked the moon, multiple times,

But there are resources, and (SNIP) heads will want to have them. No way around that one.

a reply to: solve

Once Helium-3 becomes a real commodity in demand there will be "No way around" going back to the moon.

Plenty "Ilmenite" up there also which amounts to of valuable titanium ore.

As a professional lunatic, I approve of anything to do with the moon.

a reply to: BrianFlanders

We can't go digging up there.it might end up like Guam supposedly will.
You know like tipping over from the weight.
LOL

Oh wait then we could see the dark side from here

originally posted by: LookingAtMars
a reply to: IAMTAT

Just think if was something like gold, silver or platinum! Water has also been found in that area, so a mining base could be possible.

The article itself says it's iron.

a reply to: baddmove

Have you heard of Google Search?

a reply to: LookingAtMars

TMA -1 finally detected
en.wikipedia.org...(Space_Odyssey)

Anyone who's played the game Destiny already knows what it is.

a reply to: HoldenGlass

hahah yeh totally , but it could just as easily be the death star!

originally posted by: sapien82
a reply to: HoldenGlass

hahah yeh totally , but it could just as easily be the death star!

That's no moon!

a reply to: LookingAtMars

What about the size of it? If it's the size of HI then would it throw the moon off of its orbit or anything? If you mined it, needed the resources, and removed it all?

originally posted by: LSU2018
a reply to: LookingAtMars

What about the size of it? If it's the size of HI then would it throw the moon off of its orbit or anything? If you mined it, needed the resources, and removed it all?

The amount of money and resources required to do any kind of lunar mining is never going to be repaid by what they mine. The only use for anything mined on the moon is on the moon, so it's not going to be changed by anything we can do to it.

They found Dahak!

This is based upon common sense, rather than expertise, so this is just guess work, but...

Isn't orbit dictated by the relationship between mass and velocity around a larger body?

If so, then changing the mass of the orbiter will surely effect the orbit.

Greater mass gives the obverting object greater inertia away from the planet, whereas less mass increases the force of the planets gravity that prevents it from flying off into space, thus pulling it closer.

Could excavating mass from the Moon cause it to be pulled closer to the Earth; this decaying orbit ultimately leading to collision?

If the substance being excavated is particularly heavy in relation to the rest of the Moon ('Metals' certainly sound as if they are), then removing a small amount could have a large effect.

Again, apologies if i'm way off. I'm no expert, but this seems elementary to my modest interlect.

a reply to: LookingAtMars

a pile of metal five times larger than the Big Island of Hawaii"

Time to start mining.