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Artemis

Looks Like The Moon Has Water All Over The Place

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
October 26, 2020
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Looks Like The Moon Has Water All Over The Place

NASA’s SOFIA Discovers Water on Sunlit Surface of Moon, NASA
“NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has confirmed, for the first time, water on the sunlit surface of the Moon. This discovery indicates that water may be distributed across the lunar surface, and not limited to cold, shadowed places. SOFIA has detected water molecules (H2O) in Clavius Crater, one of the largest craters visible from Earth, located in the Moon’s southern hemisphere. Previous observations of the Moon’s surface detected some form of hydrogen, but were unable to distinguish between water and its close chemical relative, hydroxyl (OH). Data from this location reveal water in concentrations of 100 to 412 parts per million – roughly equivalent to a 12-ounce bottle of water – trapped in a cubic meter of soil spread across the lunar surface.”
Keith’s note: I asked Jacob Bleacher: “Now that water seems to be a ubiquitous resource, one would think that the polar focus might pivot. Are you reconsidering landing sites as a result of this discovery? Up until now the Artemis program has put forth a persistent mantra about focusing human landings at the lunar south pole due to potential water resources. It has been polar, polar, polar.” Bleacher replied that sunlight access more than half the time is also being sought in terms of power and you get that at the poles. “Water is one resource on the lunar resource but it is not the only resource – right now we are still focused on south polar region.”

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

23 responses to “Looks Like The Moon Has Water All Over The Place”

  1. TheBrett says:
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    Most of the ice is still in the southern polar region, so going there would be wise if you want to do a base. That’s a lot of rock you’d have to go through just to get a decent amount for making propellant otherwise, even if it’s more water than we expected.

    • james w barnard says:
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      Would mining this be considered water fracking or placer mining? Sounds like you’d need to get some regolith-moving and crushing machinery up there. Hey, SpaceX and Blue Origin, will your heavy-lifters handle that stuff?

      • TheBrett says:
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        Not necessarily. If you cover it with something to catch the water vapor, you could heat up the regolith with either microwaves or mirror-reflected light to get it to rise up as steam and get captured.

        • fcrary says:
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          The first author of the study suggested that the ice may be present, despite being in hot regions of the Moon, if it were within glassy inclusions produced by meteor impacts. If it’s trapped inside a bubble of glass, I’m not sure if heating will get the water out. Unless you heat the regolith enough to melt glass, not just vaporize water.

          • TheBrett says:
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            You could still use microwaves to evaporate it out of glass, although it would be more complex than just heating something up with focused light.

            I doubt we’d be traveling all over the Moon trying to accumulate fuel from scattered cold traps, though – especially if there are larger deposits at the south pole.

          • fcrary says:
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            The big news from this observation is that they found water (not just hydrated minerals) outside of cold traps. Clavius is high latitude (58 deg.) but not polar or permanently shadowed. The other part is a second paper, which said permanently shadowed regions (although small ones) are much more common than previously thought. To me, that isn’t too surprising while water in places that see sunlight every day is surprising. On the other hand, even 400 ppm isn’t much water, not when about 65 tonnes of hydrogen to fuel a SpaceX Starship.

          • ThomasLMatula says:
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            That would fit with the research done on the Apollo 15 samples that showed there water associated with the lunar mineral Apatite, although the Sofia estimates seem to be about 20 times higher.

          • fcrary says:
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            The detection looked at two places on the Moon, Clavius at 58 deg. south latitude, and Mare Serenitatis at 28 deg. north latitude. They used the spectra of Serenitatus as a control (i.e. they assumed there was no water there) and the 100 to 400 ppm water abundance is for Clavius. If you assume the water present at high, but not polar, latitudes, that could explain the difference from the Apollo samples.

          • ThomasLMatula says:
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            Yes, it could. Since it was on the sun lite areas I wonder if the interaction of the Solar Wind with the surface could also be a factor based on this speculation by some GSFC researchers.

            https://solarsystem.nasa.go
            February 20, 2019

            How Ingredients for Water Could Be Made on the Surface of Moon

            By Lonnie Shekhtman
            NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

          • fcrary says:
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            It’s possible, but I have my doubts. I know the first author of that paper (O.J. Tucker) and, although I haven’t gone through it in detail, I’m confident his modeling is sound. But any model does depend on the assumptions behind it, and in this case, some of those assumptions involve things we aren’t really sure about. My concern is that the solar wind mass flux is quite low. I make it, on average, about 100 micrograms per square meter per year.

            I have trouble seeing how that’s enough explain 100-400 ppm water abundances. It look like the paper focused on explaining the observations of hydrated minerals, rather than water itself. Maybe hydrogen from the solar wind (over a very long time) producing hydrated minerals, and then subsequent impacts converting that into water in glassy inclusions.

  2. Rabbit says:
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    Paul Hayne (lead researcher on the LO study) is also involved in the Lunar Compact Infrared Imaging System which is going to be a ride-along payload on the upcoming commercial Lunar landers – worth a look at the University of Colorado web site.

  3. ex-NASA says:
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    I see water as just one factor on where to set up shop: Water, power and radiation protection. Water, check. Power, in a sun lit area, check. Solar and cosmic radiation protection? If there aren’t any lava tubes in the area then they will have to spend time, energy and effort to cover habitats with regolith.

  4. Chris says:
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    Phil Metzger put it best:

    “To put this in context, the water everywhere on the surface of “dry” Martian soil is about 100 times more than this, and the Mars resource community debates whether *even that* is concentrated enough to be a useful resource.”

  5. mfwright says:
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    I was thinking what if Gerald O’Neill was still around and what he would propose for activities on the moon? Some of you remember those books from the 1970s of mining the moon and pictures of mass drivers to deliver material from the moon. I believe back then all this was from a perspective that the moon is bone dry everywhere.

  6. Dr. Malcolm Davis says:
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    We do need a better idea of just how much water is on the Moon, how easy is it to extract and process into a usable resource, to sustain humans on the surface, generate oxygen for a base, or rocket fuel to allow the Moon to be a stepping stone to other locations at low cost. So far, everything I’ve read about this discovery suggests there is tiny amounts there. It might be different in the polar regions, in deep shadowed craters, but this discovery, whilst important, isn’t Earth shattering.

    So, its time NASA or other space agencies, or commercial actors did a proper survey of just how much is there, and where is it.

  7. Michael Spencer says:
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    SOFIA reports an H2O density about ⅙ that of our Sahara desert.

    This is the sort of preliminary finding expected; it’s emblematic of just how little we know about lunar details. The real question here is hidden in the details: how the hell are these molecules even foermed, given the environment? The answer to this question is a lot more interesting than imagining bulldozers scooping up regolith to extract water.

    • rb1957 says:
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      My thoughts too … how does the water (from the impacting body ?) remain given the heat and low atmospheric pressure ? No doubt someone smarter than I will figure it out ! And of course … once we start removing this water (if we can) what’ll happen next (to the regolith) ? too dry to be stable any more ??

      • ThomasLMatula says:
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        Given it will probably be mined as part of a comprehensive process that includes extraction of oxygen and other elements, and given how small the areas will be relative to the total surface of the Moon, it should be nothing to worry about.

  8. Ben Russell-Gough says:
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    As I understand it, the real issue is still high-energy solar radiation. Are they planning to bury the base modules just under the surface? Or maybe tunnel under the surface via a steep crater wall?

    • rb1957 says:
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      Yes, I thought the prime solution to high energy cosmic radiation was piling regolith on top of the domes.

  9. Donald Barker says:
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    Published earlier this year and still “holds water” regarding any ISRU knowledge and goals.

    https://www.sciencedirect.c

  10. Ben Russell-Gough says:
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    Regarding the water issue, I remember seeing on this very site someone who knows a bit about selenology suggesting that solar protons (alpha radiation) interacting with lunar regolith might make Hydroxyl (HO). I don’t suppose that making tiny quantities of H20 is too much of a stretch.