There is now cast-iron evidence for water on the Moon

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A new study shows that more of the Moon's surface is in permanent shadow—where lunar water in the form of ice is thought to be stable—than was previously believed

IF HUMAN BEINGS ever wish to build bases on the Moon, those bases will need water. Residents will require it not only for their own sustenance but also as a raw material for rocket fuel to power adventures farther afield—Mars, for example. Given the cost of blasting things off the surface of Earth, however, such a base would be best served by finding its water locally.

In October 2009, a few months after the results from M3 had been published, NASA crash-landed the spent stage of an Atlas V rocket onto the southern polar region of the Moon—specifically, into a crater called Cabeus that includes areas of perpetual shadow which might act as cold traps. This was followed minutes later by the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite , its cameras trained on the site of the impact, in order to take pictures and measurements of the resulting cloud of debris.

One way to tell the difference is to look for missing light at six microns, too—for only water molecules absorb at this wavelength. So that was what Dr Honniball set out to do. She commandeered the only instrument capable of making the relevant measurement—the 2.5-metre-wide Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy telescope, which sits on board a modified Boeing 747 that can fly it to an altitude of 13km. This is above 99.

How useful such water would be for future missions depends not only on how much of it there is, though, but also on how it is stored in the regolith. One possibility is that it exists as ice crystals in microscopic voids between regolithic grains. If that is true, lunar settlers could simply heat the regolith up to liberate its water.

 

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The monolith

😀

This is a great pleasure.

Angus will be right onto this.

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By “cast-iron” they mean “iron-clad” right? 🤔🙄

Re: Celine Dion's 'Water From The Moon.' What you're saying is I have a chance. IYKYK. CelineDion WaterOnTheMoon

Just in case the world has changed...

Ice as you say is not just water..what does dry ice look like..what does any gaseous form Frozen look like..man is actually secretly living on Mars,but does anybody know about that...The Earth is actually a cold Star still cooling off..what does make sense for us all,Red October!

95% only bad news(

Did they mean iron-clad?

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