A new cornerstone during years of research and investigation: Presence of Water on the Moon's surface. With the support of years of observations, Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has detected water molecules (H2O) in the Clavius Crater, one of the largest craters on the Moon. “We had indications that H2O – the familiar water we know – might be present on the sunlit side of the Moon,” said Paul Hertz, director of the Astrophysics Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Now we know it is there. This discovery challenges our understanding of the lunar surface and raises intriguing questions about resources relevant for deep space exploration.”
The Sahara Desert Has 100 Times More Water
Although there are only a small number of water particles, the discovery raises new questions about how water is created and how it stays on the hard, airless lunar surface. And most importantly, this situation creates many new areas of discovery. For the Artemis Program, which will take place in 2024, before NASA sends the first woman and the next man to the lunar surface and creates a sustainable human presence there, it will work hard to advance its discoveries about the existence of water. SOFIA's follow-up flights will look for water in additional sunny locations and different lunar stages to learn more about how water is produced, stored, and transported throughout the Moon. The data will contribute to the work of future Lunar missions such as NASA's Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) to create the first water supply maps of the Moon for future human space exploration. Also, The European Space Agency (ESA) is preparing a surface sampling payload that will prospect for lunar water among other resources. It is due to be flown to the Moon aboard Russia’s Luna-27 lander in 2025.
How Can Water Be Formed on the Moon?
“Without a thick atmosphere, water on the sunlit lunar surface should just be lost to space,” said Honniball, who is now a postdoctoral fellow at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “Yet somehow we’re seeing it. Something is generating the water, and something must be trapping it there.” There may be more than one factor in the presence of water on the Moon surface. Micrometeorites that rain down on the lunar surface and carry a small amount of water can accumulate water on the lunar surface in case of impact.
Another possibility could be a two-stage process in which the solar wind from the Sun sends hydrogen to the lunar surface and causes a chemical reaction with oxygen-carrying minerals in the soil to form hydroxyls. How water is then stored - by enabling storage - also raises some interesting questions. Water can be trapped in tiny bead-like structures in the soil formed from the high heat created by micrometeorite impacts. Another possibility is that the water is concealed between grains of lunar soil and protected from sunlight - potentially making it slightly more accessible than water trapped in bead-like structures.
Earth's leading space research institutions will simultaneously continue to investigate the mystery of water particles on the Moon's surface. Detailed research and efforts to establish an established system with the Artemis Program in 2024 and the Luna-27 in 2025 seem to have accelerated.
Bibliography
“Hunting out Water on the Moon.” ESA, 26 Oct. 2020, www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2020/03/Hunting_out_water_on_the_Moon
Patel, Neel V. “Water on the Moon Should Be More Accessible than We Thought.” MIT Technology Review, MIT Technology Review, 26 Oct. 2020, www.technologyreview.com/2020/10/26/1011228/water-moon-more-accessible-nasa-sofia-lro-glass-micro-cold-trap/.
Perkins, Sid. “The Moon May Hold Much More Water than We Think.” Science, 26 Oct. 2020, www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/10/moon-may-hold-much-more-water-we-think.
Potter, Sean. “NASA's SOFIA Discovers Water on Sunlit Surface of Moon.” NASA, NASA, 26 Oct. 2020, www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-sofia-discovers-water-on-sunlit-surface-of-moon/.
