NASA confirms there is water on the moon that astronauts could use

 Water on the moon could also be more abundant and accessible than previously thought, which may be excellent news for future astronauts.

Paul Hayne at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and his team used camera images and temperature measurements taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to map cold, permanently shadowed regions on the moon, which are thought to be the places possibly to contain ice because of their lack of exposure to sunlight.

While there has been any evidence for the presence of water on the moon, these “cold traps” were previously thought to be restricted to deep, kilometers-wide craters. However, the team found that there are micro-cold traps – areas at the meter and millimeter-scale that are permanently shadowed and then could contain more accessible ice. Altogether, the researchers estimate that cold traps occupy about 40,000 square kilometers or roughly 0.1 percent of the moon’s surface.

“We’re seeing billions and billions of those cold traps at scales that haven’t been seen before,” says Hayne. “That presents a chance to extract ice rather more readily. we predict this is often revolutionary in terms of what is going to be possible for astronauts on the moon.”

A separate study has additionally confirmed the presence of water ice (H2O) instead of hydroxyl (OH), which previous observations were unable to tell apart between. Casey Honniball at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and her colleagues used the agency’s SOFIA telescope, which is mounted on a plane to induce a clearer view through Earth’s atmosphere, to identify a spectral signature that's unique to water. “I screamed in excitement,” says Hannibal.

Hannibal says the readings are in keeping with the presence of individual water molecules incorporated in grains within the lunar surface. “This type of water is predicted to be widespread on the surface,” she says.

“Water is central to human life but is pricey to start space,” says Hannibal. “Finding water on the moon may mean we will utilize the water that's there versus bringing the water with us.”

But it still isn’t clear how stable water during this form is over long periods, says William Bottke at the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado. “Astronauts may additionally have great difficulty extracting this water,” he says. “For example, to replenish a bottle, the astronauts might process thousands of kilograms of rocks.”