MnAstro Forums

If water is spread all over the surface of the Moon in a thin layer, as the recent findings seem to indicate, how would we collect it? A vacuum device wouldn't work in a vacuum. Maybe we need a fleet of Zambonis to scoot around the surface!

Yep, augers should work in a vacuum.

Zamboni may be unnecessary. A leading theory (at this early stage) is that protons in the solar wind interact with oxygen in the soil, producing water. Then the water slowly migrates to cold areas and collects. This suggests that we could set up a network of "oases" across the moon by erecting reflective canopies that would create cold spots, where the water would collect. Would this work fast enough to be useful? Who knows?

Geologists will find the economically viable concentrations (if any) and then obviously mine them, if profitable (i.e., if it is technically feasible and worth doing).

---Tom

This morning's APOD picture (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ ) was on this subject and they suggested that the water may be only a few molecules thick and largely evaporate during the lunar day. I think any water at the very surface probably would evaporate. However, a small fraction of that may go deeper into the ground where the temperature is more stable. If so, it is possible that over the eons appreciable amounts of water may gave absorbed onto the surfaces of the rocks and dust particles a few to a few dozen feet underground. If that is the case, then the water could be released by simply heating the rocks and condensing the resulting vapor.

Does anyone happen to know ther maximum depth to which the Apollo astronauts dug when they collected their lunar soil samples?

Apollo astronauts drilled 2-3 meters deep.

--Ben

http://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/lunar/lsc/Drillcore.pdf