All articles tagged with #lunar ice
China’s Chang’e-7 mission, featuring an orbiter, lander, rover and a hopping lander, aims to locate and characterize water ice in permanently shadowed craters near the Moon’s south pole, mapping its depth and accessibility to support future science and resources like drinking water, fuel, and oxygen for crewed missions while highlighting ongoing international interest in lunar water and related policy questions.
A new Science Advances study shows that buried water ice in the Moon’s permanently shadowed polar regions can be detected with surface seismic surveys: frozen regolith increases P-wave speed, enabling ice mapping down to about 800 meters. Lab experiments with lunar-like regolith and early flight tests underpin this approach, which is slated for real-world testing by China’s Chang’e 7 and NASA’s Artemis missions to locate ice for on-site water and rocket propellant production for future lunar bases.
Water is argued to be the most valuable space resource because, when split into hydrogen and oxygen, it becomes rocket propellant that can be produced in orbit from solar energy. A propellant depot in orbit would sell to outbound missions (Moon, Mars, and beyond) rather than Earth, since launching propellant from Earth is costly. The near-term path focuses on lunar water ice and Artemis tests, while asteroid mining remains uncertain. The key test is whether space-made propellant can beat Earth-launched propellant; until then water is valuable mostly in theory. Past ventures into space mining failed to mature, and the market for in-space refueling remains unproven.
Countries and private companies are racing to the moon's heavily cratered south pole due to the presence of frozen water, which is seen as a key resource for moon colonization, lunar mining, and potential missions to Mars. Scientists have found evidence of water on the moon's surface and below its surface in shadowed craters. Water on the moon is important because it could provide drinking water, cooling for equipment, and be broken down to produce hydrogen for fuel and oxygen to breathe. The south pole is particularly challenging due to its craters and deep trenches, but countries like India, the United States, and China have planned missions to this region.