Many nations are planning trips to the moon, in order to be the first to lay claim to the precious Helium 3 fuel there. But when it comes to setting up a mining operation on the moon, they all have the same problem: lack of water. Now that problem may be solved.
Leonard David writes in space.com that the solution may be simpler than we thought. We will bombard the moon with tons of ice. Craters will become lakes and the problem will be solved! The new project is appropriately called SLAM. Researcher Alan Stern says, “When we have people on the moon, they are going to need water. This is an exceptionally efficient, low-cost way to get it there?It appears to be entirely feasible, simple, and really cheap.”
The same thing happens whenever a comet, which is mainly ice, strikes the moon. This fact has scientists puzzled: why isn?t there water there now, since this has happened so often in the past?
The answer is that there may already BE water on the moon. Satellites that have orbited the moon in the past detected hydrogen that might be part of water ice at the poles. But no one knows for sure if the ice is really there, or if it is, how MUCH is there.
Art credit: gimp-savvy.com
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