Monday, February 16, 2009

Confirmed: Moon Is "As Wet" As A Terrestrian Desert

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While this comes to no surprise based on last years analysis, it looks as if Japan's lunar satellite Selene confirms what many scientists have suspected all along.

(Moon Daily) "The surface can tell us a lot about what's happening inside the Moon, but until now mapping has been very limited," C.K Shum, professor of Earth sciences at Ohio State University, said in the February 13 issue of Science.

"For instance, with this new high-resolution map, we can confirm that there is very little water on the Moon today, even deep in the interior. And we can use that information to think about water on other planets, including Mars." [...]

The hard surface suggests very little water, researchers said. If there were water, even deep within the Moon, the surface would be more flexible than it was shown to be.

Since hauling water from the homeworld would probably increase the cost of a lunar outpost, future settlers may choose to simply import hydrogen from Earth instead (as it is much lighter).

Colonists could "simply" combine the hydrogen with oxygen extracted from lunar rocks, which would enable settlers to quench their thirst (not to mention help create rocket fuel as well).




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You can either visit the stars or watch them from afar.

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~Darnell Clayton, 2007

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