Weird Science

[kyonides]

Water Exists on the Moon

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020...ts-confirm

Using images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, Paul Hayne, of the University of Colorado in Boulder, and colleagues mapped the distribution of smaller craters and areas of rough ground, and calculated that approximately 40,000 km2 of the lunar surface has the capacity to trap water. Although this still only represents 0.15% of the lunar surface, their existence may also reduce the risk of conflict between moon-faring nations.

But how do they know there's water on the moon? It could have been hydroxyl alias a molecule consisting of one hydrogen atom and a single oxygen atom.

Casey Honniball at Nasa’s ASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, US, and colleagues have detected a chemical signature that is unambiguously H2O, by measuring the wavelengths of sunlight reflecting off the moon’s surface.

With billions of potential water reservoirs scattered over the polar regions, the focus should be shifted away from the handful of well-known large craters and towards the multitude of potential landing sites our study reveals.

So far eight countries including the United Kingdom have signed the Artemis Accords. These would regulate the exploration of our only natural satellite.
Sadly, Russia and China don't seem to be interested in joining them.

Anyway, scientists still debate on how they might be able to find those water reservoirs on the moon. Are they mixed with lunar glass? I mean, soil turned into glass after a meteorite has hit the surface. Or are we talking about tiny ice crystals? Plus extracting the water is no easy task at all.

Harvesting it from dark, steep-walled craters where the temperature rarely climbs above -230C – which is where the bulk of any frozen water was assumed to lie – would be a perilous undertaking.