Lunar water

Common card · No. 264318

The search for the presence of water on the Moon has attracted considerable attention and motivated several recent lunar missions, largely because of water's usefulness in making long-term lunar habitation feasible. The Moon was believed to be generally anhydrous after analysis of Apollo mission soil samples. It was understood that any water vapor on the surface would generally be decomposed by sunlight, leaving hydrogen and oxygen lost to outer space. However, subsequent robotic probes found evidence of water, especially of water ice in some permanently shadowed craters on the Moon. In 2018, water ice was confirmed in multiple locations. This water ice is not in the form of sheets of ice on the surface nor just under the surface, but there may be small (less than about 10 centimetres (3.9 in)) chunks of ice mixed into the regolith, and some water is chemically bonded with minerals. Other experiments have detected water molecules in the negligible lunar atmosphere, and even some in low...

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