> With enough ice sitting at the surface—within the top few millimeters—water would possibly be accessible as a resource for future expeditions to explore and even stay on the Moon, and potentially easier to access than the water detected beneath the Moon's surface.
OR: It could be collected, shipped back to earth, bottled, and sold to the wealthy at ludicrous prices.
Daizaburo signaled a crab. It began speaking Nihongo. “English, please,” said Daizaburo.
“Antarctic glacier water,” offered the crab. “A deep core from Pleistocene deposits. Entirely unpolluted, undisturbed since the dawn of humanity. Profoundly pure.”
“What a delightful conceit,” said Novak. “Very Vietti.”
“We have lunar water,” said the crab. “Very interesting isotopic properties.”
“Did you ever drink water from the moon, my dear?” Novak asked her.
Maya shook her head.
“We’ll have the lunar water,” Novak ordered.
--Bruce Sterling, Holy Fire.
(I should really reread that. Thanks for reminding me!)
OR, we could call it H2Moon and heavily imply it is moon water but actually just source it from the local water and run it through a filter, even during droughts.
Even sand from the moon would sell for a lot of buck, no need to transport that little water from the moon to Earth where it's abundant, but im sure people would buy end drink that for ridiculous amounts of money.
Another cool thing one could build on the moon is a rail cannon to bombard Earth. Moon's gravity well makes it relatively easy to hurl stuff from there to here, and the stuff _accelerates_ as it approaches Earth, assisted by earth gravity. The scenario is explored in detail in Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress".
Just a question, is there any reason why whenever we detect frozen water its on the north pole or south pole of any circular object in solar system? I guess ones of them is sun heating up everything in the equator region.
You've pretty much nailed it. In the high latitudes, sunlight strikes the ground at a steep angle, so there's less of it per square inch. If that leads to the temperature staying below freezing year-round, you get permanent ice caps.
(I think there's an extra twist on the Moon; the lack of atmosphere means that direct sunlight is blazingly hot even at the poles, but also that shadowed areas stay much much cooler since there's no moving air to distribute the heat evenly. Lunar ice doesn't form a continuous cap, but nestles in the bottoms of polar craters where the light never reaches.)
That's true in the inner system but by the time you get to around Jupiter the Sun is dim enough that you can have ice on the surface of bodies without atmospheres.
brundolf's response plus atmosphere, which can diffuse energy from near the equator to other parts of the planet via convection, although Venus ice caps are still colder than Earth's, so not sure anymore... The universe is a complex place.
From the article:
"M3, aboard the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, launched in 2008 by the Indian Space Research Organization, was uniquely equipped to confirm the presence of solid ice on the Moon. It collected data that not only picked up the reflective properties we'd expect from ice, but was able to directly measure the distinctive way its molecules absorb infrared light, so it can differentiate between liquid water or vapor and solid ice."
Another source:
"near the south pole of the Moon on 9 October 2009 showed the spectral signature of hydroxyl, a key indicator that water ice is present in the floor of the crater (1). Analysis of the results indicates concentrations of roughly 6% water in the impact area, including nearly pure ice crystals in some spots. "
This is interesting, I didn't think of it like that. You're saying the moon should be used as a base because less energy is required to leave the moon. I wonder if those savings amortize the up-front cost of creating a self-sufficient moon base.
That was my argument, before this article was published. The counter argument of course, is that it does sublimate (as water does from comets), but there's a vast amount (remains of a crashed comet, say); plus dust accumulating on the surface seals it fairly well over time. So I'm now guessing we're not talking "a few millimeters of water" as others have speculated, but really large amounts.
[+] [-] excalibur|7 years ago|reply
OR: It could be collected, shipped back to earth, bottled, and sold to the wealthy at ludicrous prices.
[+] [-] madza|7 years ago|reply
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0087451/
[+] [-] PhasmaFelis|7 years ago|reply
“Why not?” said Novak.
Daizaburo signaled a crab. It began speaking Nihongo. “English, please,” said Daizaburo.
“Antarctic glacier water,” offered the crab. “A deep core from Pleistocene deposits. Entirely unpolluted, undisturbed since the dawn of humanity. Profoundly pure.”
“What a delightful conceit,” said Novak. “Very Vietti.”
“We have lunar water,” said the crab. “Very interesting isotopic properties.”
“Did you ever drink water from the moon, my dear?” Novak asked her.
Maya shook her head.
“We’ll have the lunar water,” Novak ordered.
--Bruce Sterling, Holy Fire.
(I should really reread that. Thanks for reminding me!)
[+] [-] cgriswald|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dawnerd|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] throwaway66666|7 years ago|reply
Let's distill moon stuff and make MOON BEER and MOON VODKA.
Oh yeah, <<Celebrate with a shot of "Yuri G." the world's first and finest Moon Vodka>>
[+] [-] onemoresoop|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] test6554|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] F_r_k|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] siruncledrew|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] coolaliasbro|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] h4b4n3r0|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] baxtr|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Aspos|7 years ago|reply
Am I correct?
[+] [-] BurningFrog|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kajecounterhack|7 years ago|reply
https://imgur.com/a/rOyNvDG
[+] [-] akshayB|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _bxg1|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] PhasmaFelis|7 years ago|reply
(I think there's an extra twist on the Moon; the lack of atmosphere means that direct sunlight is blazingly hot even at the poles, but also that shadowed areas stay much much cooler since there's no moving air to distribute the heat evenly. Lunar ice doesn't form a continuous cap, but nestles in the bottoms of polar craters where the light never reaches.)
[+] [-] Symmetry|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] glitchc|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mirimir|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] InclinedPlane|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tripzilch|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] firefoxd|7 years ago|reply
Joking aside, wow, why can't we send someone to double check it 60 years later.
[+] [-] jaequery|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kartan|7 years ago|reply
Another source: "near the south pole of the Moon on 9 October 2009 showed the spectral signature of hydroxyl, a key indicator that water ice is present in the floor of the crater (1). Analysis of the results indicates concentrations of roughly 6% water in the impact area, including nearly pure ice crystals in some spots. "
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/ice/ice_moon.html
[+] [-] Jdam|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ddingus|7 years ago|reply
Weaker gravity well + infrastructure should = cheaper exploration.
[+] [-] anonytrary|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] modells|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Nomentatus|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] idoescompooters|7 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] subcosmos|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ionwake|7 years ago|reply