Moon's Glass Beads and Lunar Soil Hold Billions of Tonnes of Water, Chinese Scientists Discover

Glass beads on the moon's surface, formed by meteoroid impacts, contain substantial quantities of water that could be extracted and used by astronauts on future lunar missions, according to a study by Chinese scientists and the Open University. The beads could hold between 300m and 270bn tonnes of water across the entire moon's surface, making it a highly accessible source of not only water but also hydrogen and oxygen. The water appears to form when high-energy particles from the sun strike the molten droplets, and it can be released by heating the material.