Science and Exploration

Water Ice on the Moon – Cold Facts and a Resource Reckoning

By Leonard David
SpaceRef
September 29, 2023
Filed under ,
Water Ice on the Moon – Cold Facts and a Resource Reckoning
Artist’s rendering of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) project prior to impacting the Moon in a search for lunar water ice. Image credit: NASA.

Without doubt, Earth’s Moon looms as nations and for-profit private companies alike have our celestial next-door-neighbor in their exploration cross-hairs.

The drumbeat of getting back to the Moon, then putting humans on a permanent footing there, is on the upswing — a prospect made all the more practical by harvesting lunar resources. One need-to-have top priority is water ice, thought to reside within permanently-shadowed polar craters.

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Leonard David

Leonard is author of Moon Rush: The New Space Race, Mars – Our Future on the Red Planet, and co-authored with Apollo 11’s Buzz Aldrin of Mission to Mars – My Vision for Space Exploration - all published by the National Geographic Society.