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Esa moon village11/10/2023 ![]() Unlike frozen water lurking in permanently shaded craters, this should be far easier to extract by humans or robots working on the moon. The latest research, published in Nature Geoscience, points to fine glass beads as the source of that surface water. In 2009, India’s Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft spotted what appeared to be a thin layer of water bound up in the surface layer of moon dust. In the 1990s, Nasa’s Clementine orbiter found evidence for frozen water in deep, steep-sided craters near the moon’s poles. Hints that the moon might not be an entirely arid wasteland have emerged from previous missions. “If you can extract the water and concentrate it in significant quantities, it’s up to you how you utilise it.” “This is going to open up new avenues which many of us have been thinking about,” said Anand. Tests on the glass particles revealed that together they contain substantial quantities of water, amounting to between 300m and 270bn tonnes across the entire moon’s surface. These then solidify and become mixed into the moon dust. The beads, which measure less than a millimetre across, form when meteoroids slam into the moon and send up showers of molten droplets. Both expect to draw on lunar materials to sustain their off-world bases.Īnand and a team of Chinese scientists analysed fine glass beads from lunar soil samples returned to Earth in December 2020 by the Chinese Chang’e-5 mission. Nasa’s Artemis mission aims to put the first woman and the first person of colour on the moon, while the European Space Agency has plans for a moon village. More than half a century after humans last walked on the moon, Nasa and other space agencies are preparing for a return. “With this finding, the potential for exploring the moon in a sustainable manner is higher than it’s ever been.” “This is one of the most exciting discoveries we’ve made,” said Mahesh Anand, a professor of planetary science and exploration at the Open University. A longtime writer for, David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. The book is a companion to the National Geographic Channel six-part series coming in November. Leonard David is author of "Mars: Our Future on the Red Planet," to be published by National Geographic this October. "One driver of this renewed interest in the moon is to assess the economic feasibility of using lunar resources for sustaining human surface-exploration activities," the brochure states.ĭata from recent moon-orbiting missions and new analyses of lunar material brought to Earth by Apollo astronauts "show that the moon is the closest place to Earth where we can find clues to the history of the solar system, including that of the early Earth and of the formation of the Earth-moon system," the brochure notes.Īdditionally, insights into the environment in which life began on Earth nearly 4 billion years ago "could be preserved in previously unexplored areas, such as the poles, the highlands and the far side of the moon," the brochure explains.Īttendees of the recent moon-exploration meeting gave Wörner's moon village vision a positive reception, according to the brochure. The brochure draws upon findings from a conference called "International Symposium on Moon 2020-2030: A New Era of Human and Robotic Exploration," which was held in December at ESA's European Space Research and Technology Center in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. ![]() That view is expressed in a new ESA brochure now in circulation. Lunar exploration will likely get a big boost in the next decade, thanks to rising interest in the moon in Europe and other parts of the world. ESA’S Johann-Dietrich Wörner backs development of an international "moon village." (Image credit: Courtesy Space Foundation/Tom Kimmell Photography)
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