The recent discovery can be useful for both lunar science as well as future exploration. NASA has highlighted the importance of water ice as it would make human exploration of the moon more sustainable.
Fremont, CA: It was previously thought that water ice might be more present on the surface of the moon, but that discovery seems unlikely to have any immediate effect on NASA's lunar exploration plans.
A few days back, scientists reported discovering traces of water in the crater Clavius on the moon's surface utilizing NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) aircraft. SOFIA identified an infrared emission feature at a wavelength of 6 microns that matched with water on the surface in the crater's vicinity.
Stay ahead of the industry with exclusive feature stories on the top companies, expert insights and the latest news delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe today.
This is not the first time that water has been seen on the moon. Over the past few decades, scientists have gathered evidence, mainly from spacecraft missions, that water ice is present on the moon. For instance, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission in 2009 that identified water in a plume of material created when a Centaur upper stage affected the south polar region of the moon.
The recent discovery can be useful for both lunar science as well as future exploration. NASA has highlighted the importance of water ice as it would make human exploration of the moon more sustainable. That water can be a great resource to help astronauts sustain and converted into liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellants for spacecraft.
Upon expecting to find water only at the poles, NASA has focused its lunar exploration activities there. The south pole of the moon is the usual landing site for the first Artemis crewed landing.
Water on the surface of the moon could create new opportunities for human lunar missions beyond the polar regions. However, one challenge is the small amount of water available has the concentrations detected by SOFIA equivalent to a 355-milliliter bottle of water in a cubic meter of regolith.
