> It has been suggested that under harsh and constant bombardment by energetic plasma, radiation, and micrometeoroids, the formation of defects and dangling bonds on dust grain surfaces allow for hydroxylation to take place (Farrell et al., 2017; Fink et al., 1995). The implications for understanding the hydrogen cycle on the Moon, especially regarding in situ resource utilization, are significant. Further studies investigating the role of dust size, mineralogy, and age are important in this regard.
PaulHoule•9mo ago
Anything involving water on the moon is devilishly hard to test in a lab on Earth because the moon is so much drier than Earth and there will always be a concern that any trace quantities found on real or simulated moon rocks were contamination from here.
I think that H2O from the solar wind adds up to an eye popping number of kilograms but it is so widely dispersed that it is not a resource.
Note that the average temperature of the moon is a little below freezing so if you buried some ice a few meters under the surface and wrapped in a vapor barrier to prevent sublimation it would stay there a long time. If some ice somehow got under the surface of the moon and there was the right geological trapping structure (as in petroleum geography) it might still be there and none of our remote sensing would see it. Would be a hoot if a future moon base could drill for water somewhere other than the poles.
gnabgib•9mo ago
> It has been suggested that under harsh and constant bombardment by energetic plasma, radiation, and micrometeoroids, the formation of defects and dangling bonds on dust grain surfaces allow for hydroxylation to take place (Farrell et al., 2017; Fink et al., 1995). The implications for understanding the hydrogen cycle on the Moon, especially regarding in situ resource utilization, are significant. Further studies investigating the role of dust size, mineralogy, and age are important in this regard.
PaulHoule•9mo ago
I think that H2O from the solar wind adds up to an eye popping number of kilograms but it is so widely dispersed that it is not a resource.
Note that the average temperature of the moon is a little below freezing so if you buried some ice a few meters under the surface and wrapped in a vapor barrier to prevent sublimation it would stay there a long time. If some ice somehow got under the surface of the moon and there was the right geological trapping structure (as in petroleum geography) it might still be there and none of our remote sensing would see it. Would be a hoot if a future moon base could drill for water somewhere other than the poles.