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Lunar Water Ice

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Water preserved as ice in the Moon's permanently shadowed polar regions, plus smaller amounts bound in sunlit regolith. The evidence accumulated over three decades and from independent methods: Clementine bistatic radar in 1996 (contested at the time), Lunar Prospector's neutron spectrometer detecting excess hydrogen at both poles in 1998, Chandrayaan-1's Moon Mineralogy Mapper detecting hydroxyl and water absorption features in 2009, the LCROSS impact plume the same year, and SOFIA's 2020 detection of molecular water in sunlit terrain near Clavius crater. Its significance to Artemis is practical rather than scientific: water is drinking water, breathable oxygen, radiation shielding and — split by electrolysis — hydrogen and oxygen propellant that would not have to be lifted out of Earth's gravity well. How much there is, in what physical form, at what depth, and whether it can be extracted at useful rates all remain open.

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Evidence · 3
Timeline

No dated observations are stored for this object. Atlas shows what was observed and when — it does not infer a history.

Connections · 3
Assembled narrative · 1

Assembled from 30 blocks · 3 evidence · 12 related

  1. Story
  2. Water preserved as ice in the Moon's permanently shadowed polar regions, plus smaller amounts bound in sunlit regolith. The evidence accumulated over three decades and from independent methods: Clementine bistatic radar in 1996 (contested at the time), Lunar Prospector's neutron spectrometer detecting excess hydrogen at both poles in 1998, Chandrayaan-1's Moon Mineralogy Mapper detecting hydroxyl and water absorption features in 2009, the LCROSS impact plume the same year, and SOFIA's 2020 detection of molecular water in sunlit terrain near Clavius crater. Its significance to Artemis is practical rather than scientific: water is drinking water, breathable oxygen, radiation shielding and — split by electrolysis — hydrogen and oxygen propellant that would not have to be lifted out of Earth's gravity well. How much there is, in what physical form, at what depth, and whether it can be extracted at useful rates all remain open.
  3. Knowledge
  4. Artemis Program
  5. Lunar South Pole Region
  6. Lunar Water Ice
  7. LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite)
  8. Connections
  9. LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite)
  10. Lunar South Pole Region
  11. Artemis Program
  12. LCROSS results published: water measured in the Cabeus ejecta plume
  13. Lunar Water Ice
  14. Cabeus Crater
  15. LCROSS Centaur impacts the permanently shadowed floor of Cabeus crater
  16. LCROSS results published: water measured in the Cabeus ejecta plume
  17. Shackleton Crater
  18. Cabeus Crater
  19. Lunar Water Ice
  20. LCROSS Centaur impacts the permanently shadowed floor of Cabeus crater
  21. NASA narrows candidate south polar landing regions to nine
  22. Artemis IV first crewed lunar south pole landing (planned)
  23. Lunar Water Ice
  24. Lunar Gateway
  25. NASA restructures Artemis: Artemis III re-scoped, landing moves to Artemis IV
  26. NASA pauses the Lunar Gateway in favour of surface infrastructure
  27. Evidence
  28. Reports water in the LCROSS Cabeus crater ejecta plume at 5.6 ± 2.9 per cent by mass, alongside other volatiles — the first direct measurement of water in a lunar permanently shadowed cold trap.
  29. Neutron spectrometer measurements show enhanced hydrogen concentrations at both lunar poles, interpreted as water ice in permanently shadowed regions.
  30. Reports a 6 micrometre emission feature indicating molecular water in sunlit high-latitude terrain near Clavius crater, showing water is not confined to permanently shadowed regions.
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Observed changes · 0

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/atlas?object=RESOURCE_LUNAR_WATER_ICE&experience=RESOURCE_LUNAR_WATER_ICE