Glass beads on the moon contain billions of tonnes of water

[thewayne]

As you may, or may not, remember, in 2020 China successfully landed a rover on the moon, collected samples, and returned them to Earth. They've made a pretty impressive discovery: "...analysed fine glass beads from lunar soil samples returned to Earth in December 2020 by the Chinese Chang’e-5 mission. The beads, which measure less than a millimetre across, form when meteoroids slam into the moon and send up showers of molten droplets. These then solidify and become mixed into the moon dust.

Tests on the glass particles revealed that together they contain substantial quantities of water, amounting to between 300m and 270bn tonnes across the entire moon’s surface."

and further... "“It’s not that you can shake the material and water starts dripping out, but there’s evidence that when the temperature of this material goes above 100C, it will start to come out and can be harvested,” Anand said.

The water appears to form when high-energy particles streaming from the sun – the so-called solar wind – strike the molten droplets. The solar wind contains hydrogen nuclei, which combine with oxygen in the droplets to produce water or hydroxyl ions. The water then becomes locked in the beads, but it can be released by heating the material.

Further tests on the material showed the water diffuses in and out of the beads on the timeframe of a few years, confirming an active water cycle on the moon."

It's been established that there's frozen water on the moon, in shaded craters,

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/mar/27/glass-beads-on-moon-surface-hold-billions-of-tonnes-of-water-scientists-say

https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/03/27/2034216/glass-beads-on-moons-surface-may-hold-billions-of-tons-of-water-scientists-say

Comments

[mtbc]

Wow, thank you for the summary, most promising.

[disneydream06]

Call me cynical, but are we relying on the Chinese to tell us this?

They are less then a millimeter big, but there is tons of water up there?
The surface must be deep with those beads. :o
Hugs, Jon

[thewayne]

NASA has not landed and returned soil samples from the moon, the Chinese have.  It's possible that the Apollo missions that brought back soil samples were in areas devoid of these, more likely that the original analysis tools from the '70s weren't capable of detecting them.  I expect our soil samples are being re-evaluated to confirm/deny what the Chinese are saying.

[disneydream06]

Cue the Jeopardy music. lol........

[silveradept]

Hrm, that's interesting. I wonder whether the energy required to extract that water is small enough to make it feasible, or whether it'll be one of those things where we know it's possible but the requirements to actually get it will be prohibitive at current energy production.

[thewayne]

Yeah, that's my question: what's the energy cost to liberate the water?  Everything comes down to energy, in one form or another.  Especially critical in space habitats.

[kellan_the_tabby]

awww YEAH