Image credit: NASA/GSFC/ASU
A new article, published this past Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, reports “direct and definitive” evidence for the presence of water ice on the lunar surface in permanently shadowed craters. The study employs spectral data from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3), which flew onboard the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft and operated from November 2008 until September 2009. According to the study, ∼3.5% of cold traps exhibit ice exposures. Spectral modeling showed that some locations may contain ∼30 wt % ice mixed with dry regolith. The presence of water ice at the lunar surface is important from the perspective of in situ resource utilization (ISRU), which is necessary for a sustained human presence on the lunar surface. READ MORE>>