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NASA's Big Moon News: There's Water All Over the Place:
NASA promised some "exciting" news about the Moon today, and we're pleased to report the space agency has delivered. As many of you correctly guessed, the discovery has to do with frozen water on the lunar surface. The new research, in addition to providing the best evidence to date of water ice on the Moon, suggests this valuable resource is scattered across the lunar surface, including in areas exposed to direct sunlight and in tiny pockets cast in permanent shade.
Two papers published today in Nature Astronomy are redefining what we know about the Moon and its ability to stock a precious natural resource: water. Scientists have long suspected that frozen water exists on the Moon, particularly at the poles, but the new research provides the most definitive evidence yet, owing to the detection of actual water molecules on the lunar surface. The new research also identifies a slew of shadowy pockets, known as cold traps, in which much of this frozen water could be hiding.
That water ice exists on the Moon is significant from a purely scientific perspective, but it's also important in terms of how it will influence future missions to the lunar surface. An important goal for the upcoming NASA Artemis missions will be to collect and retrieve water ice from the southern polar regions, which now seems more possible than ever. What's more, the apparent abundance of water on the Moon means it can be sourced locally, which is excellent news for future explorers or colonists.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2020, @08:24PM (5 children)
Now just need to find oxygen, gravity and roaming buffalo.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Freeman on Monday October 26 2020, @08:44PM (2 children)
It already have gravity, just not much of it. The Oxygen could be created, if there's plenty of ice. The roaming buffalo comes with the earth science museum, after the colony has been established.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2020, @08:49PM (1 child)
Already has gravity you say? Whoop-di-doo! That's one less thing on my to-do list.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2020, @10:05PM
1/6 less thing to do!
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday October 26 2020, @09:53PM
They need to find WHALERS on the moon [youtube.com]
Lyrics: [1] [gotfuturama.com] [2] [lyricsbox.com]
Would a Dyson sphere [soylentnews.org] actually work?
(Score: 3, Informative) by driverless on Tuesday October 27 2020, @04:05AM
Meh, there is water at the bottom of the ocean [imgur.com]!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Freeman on Monday October 26 2020, @08:50PM (2 children)
I find it very interesting that even though we've put people on the Moon. We're still speculating about whether there's actually any non-trivial amount of water on the moon. The vastness of our ignorance about our celestial companion, just goes to show how little we know of any place, that's not Earth. Even then, we keep discovering new life and surprising things, like life that can live in the deepest dark depths of our ocean, and dart in and out of boiling hot water and very cold ocean water.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 4, Interesting) by DECbot on Monday October 26 2020, @09:34PM
It would not surprise me if there were vast aquafers beneath the surface. The lack of atmosphere my make surface erosion due to weather impossible, but that doesn't rule out the possibility of ice under the surface. Given the proximity to Earth and the various theories of how the moon was formed, it likely has the same general composition and relative quantities of elements as Earth minus an atmosphere due to the lack of mass and magnetosphere necessary to keep solar winds from blasting it away. Thus the presence of water is a reasonable assumption--the question is is it easily accessible? The news is, Nasa thinks so in the places where the sun won't cause it to sublimate it away. Obliviously this is the poles and deep craters, but why not subterranean?
So, here's what we do. We fly up a bunch of oil rig drillers to the moon. Then they can make a bunch of deep core samples and look for evidence of water. Then they drop a nuclear weapon into the bore hole to radiate all the water to make sure the moon is never habitable and thus permanently isolate humanity from the stars guaranteeing that humanity will never infect the cosmos further than our place of origin. It is the mission for the brave team of Chinese and Russian cosmonauts to work with a rogue lesbian Nasa astronaut to overcome their differences and stop the evil western corporate overlords directing Nasa's oilmen. ***but why am I giving away my Hollywood movie plots here?
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 1, Troll) by DannyB on Monday October 26 2020, @10:02PM
I agree. It is interesting. But I would point out ...
The vastness of our ignorance goes way beyond that.
We're still speculating:
* how the stars affect our daily lives related to the time of our birth
* whether the earth is flat
* whether climate change is real
* whether COVID-19 is a hoax, created in a lab by...
* who will win on [insert name of stupid pointless tv game show or reality show]
We can no longer agree even on basic facts. Because it's a HUGE CONSPIRACY I TELL YOU to control and enslave us all with SOCIALISM!
Would a Dyson sphere [soylentnews.org] actually work?
(Score: 2) by dltaylor on Monday October 26 2020, @09:09PM (2 children)
Use "transportees" to build some tunnels and mine the water, grow food using techniques not legal in "civilized" countries (no pesky environmental or labor laws), and send it to Earth, effectively shipping the water.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2020, @09:54PM
I WANNA GROW FOOD AND EAT IT. THAT'S WHAT. HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW? BRUSH YOUR TEETH! NO YES NO YES NO YES NO YES NO YOU SLIMEBALL WHAT HOW DARE YOU CALL ME THAT WHY SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS ARE SLIMEBALLS. LET'S GET IT ON. OKAY. YOU ARE A REPTILE THOUGH. NO IM NOT YES YOU ARE NO IM NOT!!! YES. YOU. ARE.
FUCK THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111111111
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Tuesday October 27 2020, @01:18AM
The dearth of carbon and nitrogen on the moon make crop production at large scale problematic. Hopefully we'll find some source for them when we get back up there.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2020, @09:40PM (5 children)
RE: N/\S/\, which is what I see everywhere, why is it companies, agencies, etc. have a hard-on for turning the letter "A" into "/\" ? A pyramid maybe?
Or is this just a bunch of occult related shit?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday October 26 2020, @09:55PM (1 child)
There is no all seeing eye in that logo.
Would a Dyson sphere [soylentnews.org] actually work?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2020, @10:26PM
Who said there were? It's about the A they use as /\. This isn't about the eye sign.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Monday October 26 2020, @10:00PM (1 child)
Did you not get the memo about the New World Order and the Illuminati this week? It's all the rage.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2020, @10:27PM
yup, def. occult based on lame comical reply.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 28 2020, @03:22AM
honest question there, OP, shot down by those in the know. Roaches run from the light.
(Score: 2) by corey on Monday October 26 2020, @10:06PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 27 2020, @01:09AM (6 children)
Cool, water can provide O2 and H2O which is good for humans, but rockets want O2 and something to burn with it.
H2 is hard on the reusable sotry.
To make methane, where does the carbon come from to make the moon a fuel source?
(Score: 1) by istartedi on Tuesday October 27 2020, @01:52AM (5 children)
Googling around, I haven't seen anything that says H2 makes it harder to re-use the rocket. Instead the problems they cite are the need for bigger fuel tanks and the difficulty of keeping it cool. Both of those things might be less problematic on the Moon.
If we need hydrocarbons, then of course the next step is to look for methane ice on the Moon which might be like a gold mine.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Tuesday October 27 2020, @08:21AM (4 children)
Does calcium carbonate form without sedimentary action (i.e. not limestone/biological source)? I couldn't find an obvious answer googling.
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Tuesday October 27 2020, @09:15AM (3 children)
I recall an SN story about producing calcium carbonate as a form of carbon capture. Something like this? https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47638586 [bbc.com]
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Tuesday October 27 2020, @12:41PM (2 children)
Thanks for the link - very interesting although not what I was getting at. If you look at earth's surface, most carbon is not in oil, not methane, nor carbon dioxide - it's calcium carbonate (limestone). Limestone is formed by sedimentation of living organisms.
Most igneous rock (volcanoes) is granite - essentially silicon dioxide.
So my question was - before animals and plants, where was the carbon? Is there a naturally forming version of limestone? Was it all in CO2 in the atmosphere? And by analogy, where is the moon's carbon?
Note that geologists talk about, on geological timescales, things like cycles of glaciers scraping away the entire earth's crust and exposing rock, which leads to quite different atmospheric content of e.g. CO2 etc.
ps: climate change is off topic! Let's not go there...
(Score: 2) by captain_nifty on Tuesday October 27 2020, @06:38PM
The calcium is there, on the moon with no liquid water and no life there isn't limestone, but there is a lot of raw lime (aka quicklime), about 12-15% of the surface samples taken were lime.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon#Physical_characteristics [wikipedia.org]
As for fuel sources on the moon, there is no shortage of oxygen on the moon. Most of the regolith is made of oxidized metals and could be processed into oxygen and metal which will make a serviceable solid or hybrid rocket.
Water on the moon is useful as a source of hydrogen, which the moon lacks as most hydrogen compounds are volatile and have been lost to the solar wind.
(Score: 2) by captain_nifty on Tuesday October 27 2020, @06:55PM
Misread you wanted the carbon, no idea where that is, sorry
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday October 27 2020, @02:44PM
Just not any place that any of the 6 (successful) Apollo moon missions landed, I guess? Plus the couple dozen or whatever unmanned landers which presumably one of the first things they were designed to do, was test for the presence of water.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"