IEEE Spectrum: There's Water on the Moon, but Making Use of it Won't be Easy

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There's Water on the Moon, but Making Use of it Won't be Easy

The lunar soil is as wet as desert sand, but that's more moisture than expected

Last week, scientists presented evidence from three different spacecraft that shows the widespread presence of water on the moon. In this podcast, IEEE Spectrum editors Josh Romero and Steven Cherry discuss why this discovery comes as a surprise and what it means for the future of space exploration.

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Robert Shreeve 10.02.2009
If you perform the following trivial experiment you would expect ice to be some depth below the surface preferentially at the equitorial regions of the moon. Experiment: a.Fill a round flask with sand b.Add some water to the flask c.Evacuate the flask so that the phase diagram would indicate an ice/water phase, mostly ice. d.Rotate the flask. e.Over time the ice/water will accumulate at the centroid outer edge of the flask. 1.We have sent probes to the moon and have suggested sending more. Do any of these probes have a drill and how deep can we drill? 2.Do we have any remote chemical sensing tools which would allow us to detect water 1000 feet under the surface? .

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