If the Shuttle technology could take us to the Moon and install a garage-base on the north pole, I played Starry night to figure out what would happen if I were at 90° north, looking at the horizon.
The Earth is above on feb 12, down on feb 26, up on march 10 etc..
The Earth comes and goes, because of its libration (about 8° above and the same below the horizon).
It takes 26 hours to see the Earthrise from the first Earth-point-of-light to the complete globe above the horizon!
The Sun is just below the horizon now and appears above it in june and gets back doxn the horizon in late october.
Astronauts on the poles would have lots of interesting things to do!
For instance, a Moonbus could have an autonomy of 2 weeks (perhaps with fuel cells; I wonder if a longer autonomy is feasable with fuel cells, without too much added weight ); I wonder how far it could venture!
To start, a voyage could be entirely done under sunlight and on near side.
But later, other voyages could include a visit of far side, but also under sunlight.
Then, an expedition could start in the sunlight and end in the dark, but under Earthlight (with very long shadows to recognize the relief, as the Earth is very low above the horizon).
An expedition could also start in the sunlight, venture to farside and in the dark of the night!
What would they do? Try to find volatiles, collect them, install telescopes or a bunch of antennae for ultra-long wave astronomy; study the Moon under the darkness of night (perhaps some properties change, on the surface); test their spacesuits under extreme conditions...
The timing of their arrival will condition the kind of trip they'll undertake and where they'll go. But how about distant sites like Copernicus or Schröter Valley? If they could travel at 50 km/h, the moonbus would very often find itself with all wheels above the ground and it could be much too bumpy for the stomach.
When you're outside, don't walk too fast, your muscles are not used to 1/6th of a G. On the Earth, you first touch the ground with your heel then your toes; on the Moon, your foot is flat. On the Moon, you run instead of walk because both your feet are for a brief moment, during every step, simultaneously above the ground. On Earth, one starts running at 3m/second (or 11 km/h) ; on the Moon, if your speed is above 4km/h, you'll already be running!
Well, we'll see if it becomes real!
Raoul
If we were on the Moon
