The satellites had a few new sites lined up for us based on [tooltip term=”polarization” tip=”Ice is transparent to radar at a wavelength of 12.6 cm, and imperfections in the ice can scatter the radar in a way that hard, rocky, reflective surfaces will not. The circular polarization ratio can indicate the presence of water ice.”], color, crater and boulder distributions, proximity to base, electrical charging, and other factors. I sampled those, and they have about 0.5% water by mass. The material isn’t too hard, and we do have to stay close to storm shelters during solar maximum. But that’s three months away.
I had a hunch we’d find a better pocket just a little closer to the center of the crater, and Mac trusts me to go hunting off the beaten satellite path. My sampling shows 0.9% water by mass, which should be as good as the First Crew’s haul. If we work quickly, we can pull up more ice than they did before the solar trouble hits.