Craters of eternal darkness might be advantageous for
space exploration and
colonization, as they preserve sources of water ice that can be converted into drinkable water, breathable oxygen, and rocket propellant. Several of such craters show indications of water ice in their interiors, including
Rozhdestvenskiy and
Cabeus craters on the Moon, and Juling Crater on Ceres. Other volatiles besides water can also be trapped in such craters, such as
mercury. The
LCROSS mission additionally found native
silver and
gold in permanently shadowed craters on the Moon, probably brought there by electrostatic dust transport, and some inconclusive evidence for
platinum. Gold was estimated to have a soil mass abundance of 0.52% in these craters from LCROSS data, and mercury 0.39%. This high mercury abundance has been noted as a possible health hazard of water derived from permanently shadowed craters. The craters may also contain unusually high concentrations of
helium-3. Permanently shadowed regions have a stable surface temperature. On the Moon, the temperature hovers somewhere at or below . Another temperatures estimate is . The low temperatures make the regions desirable locations for future infrared telescopes. There are other unique challenges of such regions: dark environments that restrict the ability of rovers to perceive their surroundings, cryogenic regolith that could be hard to move on, and communication interruptions. In some cases,
peaks of eternal light are located nearby, that could be advantageous for solar power generation. For example, there are two peaks near
Shackleton Crater that are illuminated a combined ~94% of a lunar year. == Utilization ==