Principles of efficient usage of thermal resources for heating on moon

Abstract

Introduction: Understanding lunar surface and subsurface temperatures is critical for future human and robotic exploration (Paige 2010). The fact that the extreme thermal cycling on the Moon takes place over a 28 day cycle, with 14 days of intense sun and 14 days of dark cold, has important implications on the availability of power, operation feasibility and poses a variety of safety and reliability questions (Cohen 2002). Note that the Apollo missions all involved landings which took place in equatorial regions and were conducted during the lunar day. Future exploration is needed to cover a much wider range of latitudes (Paige 2010).