Discussion of the paper by Kenneth Watson, ‘Proposed lunar heat flow measurement from a polar orbiting satellite’

Abstract

In his recent note Watson [1967] suggested that the steady heat flux from the moon's interior might be estimated from measurements of the thermal emission flux in permanently shaded lunar craters. The success of the method depends (among other things) on being able to calculate or neglect the heat conducted laterally from beneath the crater's warm rim. On the basis of an approximate calculation Watson concludes that this contribution would be of the order of earth heat flux (1.2 × 10−6 cal cm−2 sec−1) at the center of a crater with a 5-meter radius, and that it would be two orders of magnitude less if the radius were 0.5 km. He suggests, therefore, that ‘the [lower] limiting radius on the permanently shaded areas necessary to provide a reasonable measurement of the moon's internal heat flow is less than 1 km.’