Lunar water

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Diffuse reflection spectra of lunar regolith samples extracted at depths of 118 and 184 cm by the 1976 soviet
probe Luna 24 showing minima near 3, 5 and 6µm, valence-vibration bands for water molecules.

These images show a very young lunar crater on the far side, as imaged by the Moon Mineralogy
Mapper aboard Chandrayaan-1

The image shows the distribution of surface ice at the Moon's south pole (left) and north pole (right) as viewed
by NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) spectrometer onboard India's Chandrayaan-1 orbiter

Lunar water is water that is present on the Moon. Liquid water cannot persist at the Moon's surface,
and water vapor is decomposed by sunlight, with hydrogen quickly lost to outer space. However,
scientists have conjectured since the 1960s that water ice could survive in cold, permanently
 shadowed craters at the Moon's poles. Water molecules are also detected in the thin layer of gases
above the lunar surface.[1][2]
Water (H2O), and the chemically related hydroxyl group (-OH), can also exist in forms chemically
bound as hydrates and hydroxides to lunar minerals (rather than free water), and evidence strongly
suggests that this is indeed the case in low concentrations over much of the Moon's surface.[3] In
fact, adsorbed water is calculated to exist at trace concentrations of 10 to 1000 parts per
million.[4] Inconclusive evidence of free water ice at the lunar poles had accumulated during the
second half of the 20th century from a variety of observations suggesting the presence of bound
hydrogen.
On 18 August 1976 the Soviet Luna 24 probe landed at Mare Crisium, took samples from the depths
of 118, 143 and 184 cm of the lunar regolith and then took them to Earth. In February 1978 it was
published that laboratory analysis of these samples shown they contained 0.1% water by
mass.[5][6][7] Spectral measurements shown minima near 3, 5 and 6 µm, distinctive valence-vibration
bands for water molecules, with intensities two or three times larger than the noise level.[8]
On 24 September 2009 it was reported that the NASA's Moon Mineralogy
Mapper (M3) spectrometer onboard India's ISRO Chandrayaan-1 probe had detected absorption
features near 2.8–3.0 μm (0.00011–0.00012 in) on the surface of the Moon. For silicate bodies, such
features are typically attributed to hydroxyl- and/or water-bearing materials.[9] In August 2018, NASA
confirmed that M3 showed water ice is present on the surface at the Moon poles.[10][11]
Water may have been delivered to the Moon over geological timescales by the regular bombardment
of water-bearing comets, asteroids and meteoroids [12] or continuously produced in situ by the
hydrogen ions (protons) of the solar wind impacting oxygen-bearing minerals.[13]
The search for the presence of lunar water has attracted considerable attention and motivated
several recent lunar missions, largely because of water's usefulness in rendering long-term lunar
habitation feasible.

Contents

 1History of observations
o 1.120th century
o 1.221st century
 2Possible water cycle
o 2.1Production
o 2.2Trapping
o 2.3Transport
 3Uses
 4Ownership
 5Tribute
 6See also
 7References
 8External links

History of observations[edit]
20th century[edit]
Apollo Program
The possibility of ice in the floors of polar lunar craters was first suggested in 1961
by Caltech researchers Kenneth Watson, Bruce C. Murray, and Harrison Brown.[14] Although trace
amounts of water were found in lunar rock samples collected by Apollo astronauts, this was
assumed to be a result of contamination, and the majority of the lunar surface was generally
assumed to be completely dry.[15][7] However, a 2008 study of lunar rock samples revealed evidence
of water molecules trapped in volcanic glass beads.[16]
The first direct evidence of water vapor near the Moon was obtained by the Apollo
14 ALSEP Suprathermal Ion Detector Experiment, SIDE, on March 7, 1971. A series of bursts of
water vapor ions were observed by the instrument mass spectrometer at the lunar surface near the
Apollo 14 landing site.[17]
Luna 24
In February 1978 Soviet scientists M. Akhmanova, B. Dement'ev, and M. Markov of the Vernadsky
Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry published a paper claiming a detection of water
fairly definitively.[5][6] Their study showed that the samples returned to Earth by the 1976 Soviet
probe Luna 24 contained about 0.1% water by mass, as seen in infrared absorption spectroscopy (at
about 3 μm (0.00012 in) wavelength), at a detection level about 10 times above the threshold.[7]
Clementine

Composite image of the Moon's south polar region, captured by NASA's Clementine probe over two lunar days.
Permanently shadowed areas could harbour water ice.

A proposed evidence of water ice on the Moon came in 1994 from the United States
military Clementine probe. In an investigation known as the 'bistatic
radar experiment', Clementine used its transmitter to beam radio waves into the dark regions of the
south pole of the Moon.[18] Echoes of these waves were detected by the large dish antennas of
the Deep Space Network on Earth. The magnitude and polarisation of these echoes was consistent
with an icy rather than rocky surface, but the results were inconclusive,[19] and their significance has
been questioned.[20][21] Earth-based radar measurements were used to identify the areas that are in
permanent shadow and hence have the potential to harbour lunar ice: Estimates of the total extent of
shadowed areas poleward of 87.5 degrees latitude are 1,030 and 2,550 square kilometres (400 and
980 sq mi) for the north and south poles, respectively.[22] Subsequent computer simulations
encompassing additional terrain suggested that an area up to 14,000 square kilometres
(5,400 sq mi) might be in permanent shadow.[23]
Lunar Prospector
The Lunar Prospector probe, launched in 1998, employed a neutron spectrometer to measure the
amount of hydrogen in the lunar regolith near the polar regions.[24] It was able to determine hydrogen
abundance and location to within 50 parts per million and detected enhanced hydrogen
concentrations at the lunar north and south poles. These were interpreted as indicating significant
amounts of water ice trapped in permanently shadowed craters,[25] but could also be due to the
presence of the hydroxyl radical (•OH) chemically bound to minerals. Based on data from Clementine
and Lunar Prospector, NASA scientists have estimated that, if surface water ice is present, the total
quantity could be of the order of 1–3 cubic kilometres (0.24–0.72 cu mi).[26][27] In July 1999, at the end
of its mission, the Lunar Prospector probe was deliberately crashed into Shoemaker crater, near the
Moon's south pole, in the hope that detectable quantities of water would be liberated. However,
spectroscopic observations from ground-based telescopes did not reveal the spectral signature of
water.[28]
Cassini–Huygens
More suspicions about the existence of water on the Moon were generated by inconclusive data
produced by Cassini–Huygens mission,[29] which passed the Moon in 1999.
21st century[edit]
Deep Impact
In 2005, observations of the Moon by the Deep Impact spacecraft produced inconclusive
spectroscopic data suggestive of water on the Moon. In 2006, observations with
the Arecibo planetary radar showed that some of the near-polar Clementine radar returns, previously
claimed to be indicative of ice, might instead be associated with rocks ejected from young craters. If
true, this would indicate that the neutron results from Lunar Prospector were primarily from hydrogen
in forms other than ice, such as trapped hydrogen molecules or organics. Nevertheless, the
interpretation of the Arecibo data do not exclude the possibility of water ice in permanently
shadowed craters.[30] In June 2009, NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft, now redesignated EPOXI,
made further confirmatory bound hydrogen measurements during another lunar flyby.[15]
Kaguya
As part of its lunar mapping programme, Japan's Kaguya probe, launched in September 2007 for a
19-month mission, carried out gamma ray spectrometry observations from orbit that can measure
the abundances of various elements on the Moon's surface.[31] Japan's Kaguya probe's high
resolution imaging sensors failed to detect any signs of water ice in permanently shaded craters
around the south pole of the Moon,[32] and it ended its mission by crashing into the lunar surface in
order to study the ejecta plume content.[33]
Chang'e 1
The People's Republic of China's Chang'e 1 orbiter, launched in October 2007, took the first detailed
photographs of some polar areas where ice water is likely to be found.[34]
Chandrayaan-1
Direct evidence of lunar water in the Moon atmosphere obtained by the Chandrayaan-1's Altitudinal
Composition (CHACE) output profile

Image of the Moon taken by the Moon Mineralogy Mapper. Blue shows the spectral signature of hydroxide,
green shows the brightness of the surface as measured by reflected infrared radiation from the Sun and red
shows a mineral called pyroxene.

India's ISRO spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 released the Moon Impact Probe (MIP) that
impacted Shackleton Crater, of the lunar south pole, at 20:31 on 14 November 2008 releasing
subsurface debris that was analysed for presence of water ice. During its 25-minute descent, the
impact probe's Chandra's Altitudinal Composition Explorer (CHACE) recorded evidence of water in
650 mass spectra gathered in the thin atmosphere above the Moon's surface
and hydroxyl absorption lines in reflected sunlight.[35][36]
On September 25, 2009, NASA declared that data sent from its M3 confirmed the existence of
hydrogen over large areas of the Moon's surface,[29] albeit in low concentrations and in the form of
hydroxyl group ( · OH) chemically bound to soil.[9][37][38] This supports earlier evidence from
spectrometers aboard the Deep Impact and Cassini probes.[15][39][40] On the Moon, the feature is seen
as a widely distributed absorption that appears strongest at cooler high latitudes and at several fresh
feldspathic craters. The general lack of correlation of this feature in sunlit M3 data with neutron
spectrometer H abundance data suggests that the formation and retention of OH and H2O is an
ongoing surficial process. OH/H2O production processes may feed polar cold traps and make the
lunar regolith a candidate source of volatiles for human exploration.
Although M3 results are consistent with recent findings of other NASA instruments onboard
Chandrayaan-1, the discovered water molecules in the Moon's polar regions is not consistent with
the presence of thick deposits of nearly pure water ice within a few meters of the lunar surface, but it
does not rule out the presence of small (<∼10 cm (3.9 in)), discrete pieces of ice mixed in with the
regolith.[41] Additional analysis with M3 published in 2018 had provided more direct evidence of water
ice near the surface within 20° latitude of both poles. In addition to observing reflected light from the
surface, scientists used M3's near-infrared absorption capabilities in the permanently shadowed
areas of the polar regions to find absorption spectra consistent with ice. At the north pole region, the
water ice is scattered in patches, while it is more concentrated in a single body around the south
pole. Because these polar regions do not experience the high temperatures (greater than 373
Kelvin), it was postulated that the poles act as cold traps where vaporized water is collected on the
Moon.[42][43]
On March 2010, it was reported that the Mini-SAR on board Chandrayaan-1 had discovered more
than 40 permanently darkened craters near the Moon's north pole that are hypothesized to contain
an estimated 600 million metric tonnes of water-ice.[44][45] The radar's high CPR is not uniquely
diagnostic of either roughness or ice; the science team must take into account the environment of
the occurrences of high CPR signal to interpret its cause. The ice must be relatively pure and at
least a couple of meters thick to give this signature. [45] The estimated amount of water ice potentially
present is comparable to the quantity estimated from the previous mission of Lunar Prospector's
neutron data.[45]
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter | Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite

Video generated from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter images showing areas of permanent shadow.
Realistic shadows evolve through several months.

On October 9, 2009, the Centaur upper stage of its Atlas V carrier rocket was directed to
impact Cabeus crater at 11:31 UTC, followed shortly by the NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and
Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) spacecraft that flew through the ejecta plume.[46] LCROSS detected a
significant amount of hydroxyl group in the material thrown up from a south polar crater by an
impactor;[47] [48] this may be attributed to water-bearing materials – what appears to be "near pure
crystalline water-ice" mixed in the regolith.[44][48][49] What was actually detected was the chemical group
hydroxyl ( · OH), which is suspected to be from water,[3] but could also be hydrates, which are
inorganic salts containing chemically-bound water molecules. The nature, concentration and
distribution of this material requires further analysis;[48] chief mission scientist Anthony Colaprete has
stated that the ejecta appears to include a range of fine-grained particulates of near pure crystalline
water-ice.[44] A later definitive analysis found the concentration of water to be "5.6 ± 2.9% by mass".[50]
The Mini-RF instrument onboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) observed the plume of
debris from the impact of the LCROSS orbiter, and it was concluded that the water ice must be in the
form of small (< ~10 cm), discrete pieces of ice distributed throughout the regolith, or as thin coating
on ice grains.[51] This, coupled with monostatic radar observations, suggest that the water ice present
in the permanently shadowed regions of lunar polar craters is unlikely to be present in the form of
thick, pure ice deposits.[51][52][53]
The data acquired by the Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector (LEND) instrument onboard LRO show
several regions where the epithermal neutron flux from the surface is suppressed, which is indicative
of enhanced hydrogen content.[54] Further analysis of LEND data suggests that water content in the
polar regions is not directly determined by the illumination conditions of the surface, as illuminated
and shadowed regions do not manifest any significant difference in the estimated water
content.[55] According to the observations by this instrument alone, "the permanent low surface
temperature of the cold traps is not a necessary and sufficient condition for enhancement of water
content in the regolith."[55]
LRO laser altimeter's examination of the Shackleton crater at the [lunar south pole]] suggests up to
22% of the surface of that crater is covered in ice.[56]
Melt inclusions in Apollo 17 samples
In May 2011, Erik Hauri et al. reported[57] 615-1410 ppm water in melt inclusions in lunar sample
74220, the famous high-titanium "orange glass soil" of volcanic origin collected during the Apollo
17 mission in 1972. The inclusions were formed during explosive eruptions on the Moon
approximately 3.7 billion years ago.
This concentration is comparable with that of magma in Earth's upper mantle. While of considerable
selenological interest, this announcement affords little comfort to would-be lunar colonists. The
sample originated many kilometers below the surface, and the inclusions are so difficult to access
that it took 39 years to detect them with a state-of-the-art ion microprobe instrument.

Possible water cycle[edit]

Production[edit]
Lunar water has two potential origins: water-bearing comets (and other bodies) striking the Moon,
and in situ production. It has been theorized that the latter may occur when hydrogen ions (protons)
in the solar wind chemically combine with the oxygen atoms present in the lunar minerals
(oxides, silicates etc.) to produce small amounts of water trapped in the minerals' crystal lattices or
as hydroxyl groups, potential water precursors.[58] (This mineral-bound water, or hydroxylated mineral
surface, must not be confused with water ice.)
The hydroxyl surface groups (X–OH) formed by the reaction of protons (H+) with oxygen atoms
accessible at oxide surface (X=O) could further be converted in water molecules (H2O) adsorbed
onto the oxide mineral's surface. The mass balance of a chemical rearrangement supposed at the
oxide surface could be schematically written as follows:
2 X–OH → X=O + X + H2O
or,
2 X–OH → X–O–X + H2O

where "X" represents the oxide surface.

The formation of one water molecule requires the presence of two adjacent hydroxyl groups,
or a cascade of successive reactions of one oxygen atom with two protons. This could
constitute a limiting factor and decreases the probability of water production, if the proton
density per surface unit is too low.
Trapping[edit]
Solar radiation would normally strip any free water or water ice from the lunar surface,
splitting it into its constituent elements, hydrogen and oxygen, which then escape to space.
However, because of the only very slight axial tilt of the Moon's spin axis to the ecliptic
plane (1.5 °), some deep craters near the poles never receive any sunlight, and are
permanently shadowed (see, for example, Shackleton crater, and Whipple crater). The
temperature in these regions never rises above about 100 K (about −170 ° Celsius),[59] and
any water that eventually ended up in these craters could remain frozen and stable for
extremely long periods of time — perhaps billions of years, depending on the stability of the
orientation of the Moon's axis.[16][19]
Transport[edit]
Although free water cannot persist in illuminated regions of the Moon, any such water
produced there by the action of the solar wind on lunar minerals might, through a process of
evaporation and condensation, migrate to permanently cold polar areas and accumulate
there as ice, perhaps in addition to any ice brought by comet impacts.[15]
The hypothetical mechanism of water transport / trapping (if any) remains unknown: indeed
lunar surfaces directly exposed to the solar wind where water production occurs are too hot
to allow trapping by water condensation (and solar radiation also continuously decomposes
water), while no (or much less) water production is expected in the cold areas not directly
exposed to the Sun. Given the expected short lifetime of water molecules in illuminated
regions, a short transport distance would in principle increase the probability of trapping. In
other words, water molecules produced close to a cold, dark polar crater should have the
highest probability of surviving and being trapped.
To what extent, and at what spatial scale, direct proton exchange (protolysis) and
proton surface diffusion directly occurring at the naked surface of oxyhydroxide minerals
exposed to space vacuum (see surface diffusion and self-ionization of water) could also play
a role in the mechanism of the water transfer towards the coldest point is presently unknown
and remains a conjecture.

Uses[edit]
The presence of large quantities of water on the Moon would be an important factor in
rendering lunar habitation cost-effective since transporting water (or hydrogen and oxygen)
from Earth would be prohibitively expensive. If future investigations find the quantities to be
particularly large, water ice could be mined to provide liquid water for drinking and plant
propagation, and the water could also be split into hydrogen and oxygen by solar panel-
equipped electric power stations or a nuclear generator, providing breathable oxygen as well
as the components of rocket fuel. The hydrogen component of the water ice could also be
used to draw out the oxides in the lunar soil and harvest even more oxygen.
Analysis of lunar ice would also provide scientific information about the impact history of the
Moon and the abundance of comets and asteroids in the early Inner Solar System.

Ownership[edit]
The hypothetical discovery of usable quantities of water on the Moon may raise legal
questions about who owns the water and who has the right to exploit it. The United
Nations Outer Space Treaty does not prevent the exploitation of lunar resources, but does
prevent the appropriation of the Moon by individual nations and is generally interpreted as
barring countries from claiming ownership of in-situ resources.[60][61] However most legal
experts agree that the ultimate test of the question will arise through precedents of national
or private activity. Some private companies such as Shackleton Energy Company are
already asserting their right to own whatever resources they remove and/or benefit from the
Moon or asteroids through their own effort, risk and investment. The Moon
Treaty specifically stipulates that exploitation of lunar resources is to be governed by an
"international regime", but this treaty has been ratified by only a few of the major space-
faring nations.[62]