{"id":18391,"date":"2018-08-21T22:10:48","date_gmt":"2018-08-21T14:10:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/fresh-findings-about-water-ice-at-moons-poles-boost-prospects-for-lunar-settlement\/"},"modified":"2018-08-21T22:10:48","modified_gmt":"2018-08-21T14:10:48","slug":"fresh-findings-about-water-ice-at-moons-poles-boost-prospects-for-lunar-settlement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/fresh-findings-about-water-ice-at-moons-poles-boost-prospects-for-lunar-settlement\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresh findings about water ice at moon\u2019s poles boost prospects for lunar settlement"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ice
The image shows the distribution of surface ice at the Moon\u2019s south pole (left) and north pole (right), detected by NASA\u2019s Moon Mineralogy Mapper instrument. Blue represents the ice locations, plotted over an image of the lunar surface, where the grayscale corresponds to surface temperature. Darker shades represent colder areas, while lighter shades indicate warmer zones. (NASA Graphic)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Newly published research lays out a map that traces water ice deposits at the poles of the moon \u2014 and points to prime territory for future lunar settlements.<\/p>\n

The findings, detailed in this week\u2019s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, are based on data from NASA\u2019s Moon Mineralogy Mapper, or M3, which was placed aboard India\u2019s Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter for its 2008-2009 mission.<\/p>\n

The M3 team, led by the University of Hawaii\u2019s Shuai Li, reports that most of the ice at the south pole lies in permanently shadowed craters near the poles, where the warmest temperatures are never higher than 250 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. In some areas, frozen water appeared to account for about 30 percent of the soil content.<\/p>\n

Ice in the moon\u2019s north polar region is more widely spread, but at sparser concentrations.<\/p>\n

The findings are consistent with decades\u2019 worth of data, including observations made during the Clementine mission in the 1990s. The newly reported evidence is firmer than that uncovered by past missions, however, thanks to M3\u2019s ability to measure three light absorption signatures for water ice in near-infrared wavelengths.<\/p>\n

Scientists suspect that the ice was trapped in the shadows of lunar craters over the course of billions of years. Water molecules could have been delivered to the moon by asteroids and comets, stirred up by the cosmic impacts that followed, and then preserved in cold, dark shadows.<\/p>\n

Lunar exploration and settlement have been targeted as long-term priorities for space exploration, by the Trump administration as well as commercial ventures including Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin.<\/p>\n