Onwards! To the Moon!
28/10/20 11:53![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kiaa posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
talkpoliticsThe discovery of water in the regions of the Moon that are directly lit by the Sun is great news. It could make the precious resource much more accessible than previously thought. The location of the water pockets is of key significance in choosing a place for potential future Moon bases.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/10/water-on-moon-surface-may-be-more-abundant-than-once-thought/
Previous explorations have shown that there's frozen water in the permanently shaded areas of the Moon, in craters in the polar zones. And now it has been confirmed that the sunlit areas also have water. The discovery was made with the infrared telescope of the flying Sofia observatory, attached to a Boeing 747.
Finding the exact location of the Moon's water resources is among the main goals of the Artemis program (whose goal is to send the first woman to the moon in 2024). But not only that. The expedition should be the first step toward establishing a permanent human presence there, ie building a research station on the Moon surface, the so called Artemis Base Camp. It's supposed to be the starting point of both Moon surface exploration and rocket testing, the development of life-supporting infrastructure, with a plan to eventually upgrade all that to serve manned flights to Mars and beyond. The idea is that due to the 6 times weaker gravity on the Moon, launching spacecraft from there would be easier and more energy-efficient than on Earth.
The discovery also comes at a key time, when NASA is fighting for a funding hike worth 3.2 billion dollars for the Artemis program so they could develop a private Moon-landing craft. They've also performed an auction, and approved the initial funding of three companies for that task, Blue Origin, SpaceX and the Dynetics consortium. It now up to Congress to decide which of these would pass beyond the exploratory phase, and start constructing a real prototype of the Moon-landing craft.
Easier access to water resources would allow a future base to be less dependent on deliveries from Earth, whose transportation is extremely difficult and expensive. Future Moon explorers would be using ice to break it down to hydrogen and oxygen through electrolysis, and then use these elements for life-supporting systems around the Artemis Base Camp, and for making synthetic rocket fuel. Water is critical for deep space exploration as a source of oxygen for breathing. It could also serve for fuel production. And of course you need water for drinking, and a whole bunch of other stuff.
The electricity needed for breaking down water to H2 and O2 will be produced by solar panels and/or nuclear reactors. Recently, NASA signed a partnership memorandum with the US Department of Energy, and they've already got a prototype of a small nuclear reactor called Kilopower, with a capacity between 1 and 10 kW. Their estimates are that four such reactors would suffice to ensure the proper functioning of a base for 4-6 astronauts.
NASA's discovery is important in that it'll allow the future Moon explorers to get water with much less time and energy spent. It's also fascinating because the previous expectations were that any water on the Moon would evaporate during daytime under direct sun light. Now we know that water could be more evenly distributed around the Moon surface, and its presence is not restricted to the cool, shady, inaccessible places in the polar zones. Still, the registered quantities are not that big - compared to the Moon, Sahara is about 100 times wetter. The Lunar water is roughly about 350 ml per m3 of soil, which is not much, but is still something.
We still don't know for sure which form of water molecules is most abundant on the Moon, and to what extent they're mixed with the Lunar soil (the so called regolite). The scientists expect that it could be trapped in glass-like grains that were generated during impact and by melting meteorites that contained water, or in result of a chemical reaction caused by Solar wind. No matter which form the water is in, it's still unclear what will be necessary to extract it from the soil, and what sort of infrastructure would need to be developed by NASA and its international partners.
Still, the scientists believe that the presence of the precious resource outside the shady polar craters is a big step forward. Of course they won't be able to come up with an immediate answer whether this will provide sufficient amounts of water for certain activities, but that's a natural part of the long process of exploring the Moon's water cycle. And ultimately, for colonizing space.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/10/water-on-moon-surface-may-be-more-abundant-than-once-thought/
Previous explorations have shown that there's frozen water in the permanently shaded areas of the Moon, in craters in the polar zones. And now it has been confirmed that the sunlit areas also have water. The discovery was made with the infrared telescope of the flying Sofia observatory, attached to a Boeing 747.
Finding the exact location of the Moon's water resources is among the main goals of the Artemis program (whose goal is to send the first woman to the moon in 2024). But not only that. The expedition should be the first step toward establishing a permanent human presence there, ie building a research station on the Moon surface, the so called Artemis Base Camp. It's supposed to be the starting point of both Moon surface exploration and rocket testing, the development of life-supporting infrastructure, with a plan to eventually upgrade all that to serve manned flights to Mars and beyond. The idea is that due to the 6 times weaker gravity on the Moon, launching spacecraft from there would be easier and more energy-efficient than on Earth.
The discovery also comes at a key time, when NASA is fighting for a funding hike worth 3.2 billion dollars for the Artemis program so they could develop a private Moon-landing craft. They've also performed an auction, and approved the initial funding of three companies for that task, Blue Origin, SpaceX and the Dynetics consortium. It now up to Congress to decide which of these would pass beyond the exploratory phase, and start constructing a real prototype of the Moon-landing craft.
Easier access to water resources would allow a future base to be less dependent on deliveries from Earth, whose transportation is extremely difficult and expensive. Future Moon explorers would be using ice to break it down to hydrogen and oxygen through electrolysis, and then use these elements for life-supporting systems around the Artemis Base Camp, and for making synthetic rocket fuel. Water is critical for deep space exploration as a source of oxygen for breathing. It could also serve for fuel production. And of course you need water for drinking, and a whole bunch of other stuff.
The electricity needed for breaking down water to H2 and O2 will be produced by solar panels and/or nuclear reactors. Recently, NASA signed a partnership memorandum with the US Department of Energy, and they've already got a prototype of a small nuclear reactor called Kilopower, with a capacity between 1 and 10 kW. Their estimates are that four such reactors would suffice to ensure the proper functioning of a base for 4-6 astronauts.
NASA's discovery is important in that it'll allow the future Moon explorers to get water with much less time and energy spent. It's also fascinating because the previous expectations were that any water on the Moon would evaporate during daytime under direct sun light. Now we know that water could be more evenly distributed around the Moon surface, and its presence is not restricted to the cool, shady, inaccessible places in the polar zones. Still, the registered quantities are not that big - compared to the Moon, Sahara is about 100 times wetter. The Lunar water is roughly about 350 ml per m3 of soil, which is not much, but is still something.
We still don't know for sure which form of water molecules is most abundant on the Moon, and to what extent they're mixed with the Lunar soil (the so called regolite). The scientists expect that it could be trapped in glass-like grains that were generated during impact and by melting meteorites that contained water, or in result of a chemical reaction caused by Solar wind. No matter which form the water is in, it's still unclear what will be necessary to extract it from the soil, and what sort of infrastructure would need to be developed by NASA and its international partners.
Still, the scientists believe that the presence of the precious resource outside the shady polar craters is a big step forward. Of course they won't be able to come up with an immediate answer whether this will provide sufficient amounts of water for certain activities, but that's a natural part of the long process of exploring the Moon's water cycle. And ultimately, for colonizing space.
(no subject)
Date: 28/10/20 17:49 (UTC)A short while later.
Mr Bean wanders on stage and drinks it.
(no subject)
Date: 30/10/20 23:38 (UTC)The idea of water at all on a place that doesn't really have an atmosphere is....something.