Our Moon is wet and welcoming, says excited NASA
Crater bottom pole-plunge probe's moist bonanza
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The Moon has water in usable amounts in one of its south-polar craters, scientists have announced. The news means that manned Moonbases could potentially be much cheaper to operate than they would otherwise be.
Results from NASA's Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) reveal sizeable amounts of ice crystals in the Moon's permanently shaded craters.
Michael Wargo, chief lunar scientist at NASA, said: "NASA has convincingly confirmed the presence of water ice and characterized its patchy distribution in permanently shadowed regions of the moon."
The LCROSS mission saw a used rocket stage crashed into the Cabeus crater at the lunar south pole in order that the resulting plume of long-buried material could be studied by Earthly telescopes and instruments aboard the LRO and a special spaceprobe following the empty rocket down. About 20 per cent of the plume was made up of volatiles including methane, ammonia, hydrogen gas, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide.
The probe also found light metals like sodium, mercury and possibly silver.
NASA reckons the materials found could offer evidence of a water cycle through which water reacts with the lunar soil. The cycle could take hundreds of thousands of years and could also be happening on other chilly bodies.
The presence of water - which would otherwise need to be brought up from Earth at huge expense - and potential fuel like methane and hydrogen makes future habitation of the Moon much more achievable. It also offers the prospect of lunar rocket-fuel exports to other places, for instance Earth orbit.
NASA's release is here. ®
COMMENTS
LMAO!!!
How has no one said anything about the title of this article!!?? All I have to say is awesome!! LOL!
Missing the point
Finding the energy to split water isn't the problem, it's shining down from the lunar sky. Alternatively, a small N-plant could be boosted up from Earth. The problem we face in space is getting bulk material (e.g. water, propellant base-stock) up out of the gravity well that is the planet Earth. Finding it on the Moon's surface saves us a lot of trouble.
Energie
Energie is easy to get on the moon. Just open some solar panels and produce electricity. Fuel, such as you need to lauch a rocket, not as much. So you use the easy to get energie to make the fuel.
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