Water on the Moon
Ever since humans succeeded in landing on the moon and transporting pieces of it back to earth, scientists have been very busy analysing it and looking for, among other things, water.
All of these samples showed negative results for water and so it was generally believed that the moon was dry as a bone.
Most recently however, findings from 3 different spacecraft have indeed found absolute evidence of water on the surface of the moon.
The buzz phrase here is 'lunar polar water ice' and it's where scientists are focusing their attention especially upon craters which are in permanent shadow on the moon's south pole.
By crashing satellites armed with sensitive equipment into these selected targets NASA hopes to churn up the surface and collect more data from the water ice deposits left in the debris.
With all this excitement and eye catching headlines however, it must be remembered that the moon is still drier than any desert on earth! One researcher tells us that 1 ton of the moons surface would hold less than 32 ounces of water.
The important thing is that it's enough to open the door to creating and harvesting water on the moon and for future colonies to exist there.
It will open a new and exciting area of lunar research with many new things to understand and solve using physics to fully exploit and harness the potential of what this discovery means.
What scientists need are for the water molecules to be mobile, if even a fraction of them are in this way then the necessary mechanisms can be set up for getting more water to those same areas.
All of these samples showed negative results for water and so it was generally believed that the moon was dry as a bone.
Most recently however, findings from 3 different spacecraft have indeed found absolute evidence of water on the surface of the moon.
The buzz phrase here is 'lunar polar water ice' and it's where scientists are focusing their attention especially upon craters which are in permanent shadow on the moon's south pole.
By crashing satellites armed with sensitive equipment into these selected targets NASA hopes to churn up the surface and collect more data from the water ice deposits left in the debris.
With all this excitement and eye catching headlines however, it must be remembered that the moon is still drier than any desert on earth! One researcher tells us that 1 ton of the moons surface would hold less than 32 ounces of water.
The important thing is that it's enough to open the door to creating and harvesting water on the moon and for future colonies to exist there.
It will open a new and exciting area of lunar research with many new things to understand and solve using physics to fully exploit and harness the potential of what this discovery means.
What scientists need are for the water molecules to be mobile, if even a fraction of them are in this way then the necessary mechanisms can be set up for getting more water to those same areas.
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