Ice on the Moon? Debate Resumes

By Nancy Atkinson - December 29, 2008 at 6:42 PM UTC | Planetary Science
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[/caption] Ice on the moon or no ice? That is the question. It's long been thought that water ice could be hiding in deep, dark craters near the Moon's poles. However in

October, 2008 Japan's Kaguya spacecraft took the best look yet

inside the Shackelton Crater at the lunar south pole and didn't see anything resembling ice, dashing hopes for an abundant water source for future colonists on the moon. But now a team of researchers have re-analyzed data from NASA's 1998 Lunar Prospector mission – the spacecraft that deliberately took a kamikaze nose-dive into the moon hoping to create a visible ice plume, which it didn't. But researchers from Glasgow and Durham Universities in the UK say that a new look at old data shows polar craters that are shaded from the sun could have ice in concentrations of up to 10 grams for each kilogram of rock.

The Lunar Prospector's Neutron Spectrometer (NS) instrument had detected large quantities of hydrogen around the Moon's north and south pole, but the spacecraft's crash into the surface didn't create the plume of ice that scientists had hoped for to prove that ice was actually present.

The latest research of the Lunar Prospector probe's data is being used to pinpoint likely locations of water ice. [caption id="attachment_22855" align="aligncenter" width="470" caption="A map showing the north and south polar regions of the moon. The dark blue shaded areas represent the highest concentrations of hydrogen. Credit: Dr Vincent Eke, Durham University/NASA "]

A map showing the north and south polar regions of the moon. The dark blue shaded areas represent the highest concentrations of hydrogen. Credit: Dr Vincent Eke, Durham University/NASA

[/caption] "We used a newly developed technique to show that the hydrogen on the moon is concentrated into permanently shaded craters near to the lunar poles," said Dr. Luis Teodoro, of Glasgow University's physics and astronomy department. "Hydrogen, together with the oxygen that is abundant within moon rock, is a key element in making water."

If water ice is actually there, it should be stable for billions of years on the moon provided that it receives no sunlight.

"If the hydrogen is present as water ice then our results imply that the top meter of the moon holds about 200 billion litres of water," Teodoro added.

However the researchers also say that instead of being water ice, hydrogen may be present in the form of protons fired from the sun into the dusty lunar surface.

The research is of interest for NASA's upcoming LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite), part of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to be launched in 2009, and another impactor mission. Dr. Richard Elphic, in the Planetary Systems Branch, NASA Ames Research Center, said "LCROSS aims to liberate water by impacting into permanently shadowed polar terrain where ice may exist, and our improved maps of hydrogen abundance can help LCROSS select a promising impact site.

"These maps will also help focus LRO's search for possible polar ice by identifying hydrogen-rich locales."

If the LCROSS mission doesn't definitively answer the ice question, it's very likely we won't know if water ice is on the moon until we go there ourselves and dig.

The findings from the UK team are published in the

scientific journal Icarus.

Source:

BBC,

Science Daily

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com