Slashdot Mirror


Unambiguous Evidence of Water On the Moon

Nethemas the Great writes "Information has leaked ahead of the scheduled NASA press conference tomorrow that we have found unambiguous evidence for water on the moon. From the article, 'Since man first touched the moon and brought pieces of it back to Earth, scientists have thought that the lunar surface was bone dry. But new observations from three different spacecraft have put this notion to rest with what has been called "unambiguous evidence" of water across the surface of the moon.'"

19 of 251 comments (clear)

  1. great news by SkyMunky · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'll be thirsty after the long ride.

  2. Not enough by MichaelSmith · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The water these missions have found is present in very small quantities. Extracting it would require a lot of energy. The hope with polar water is that there might be masses of the stuff in some craters so that you could at least get a kilo of water from 20 or so kilos of regolith. Water in those quantities would be of use to humans. But we haven't seen it yet.

    1. Re:Not enough by TubeSteak · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The water these missions have found is present in very small quantities. Extracting it would require a lot of energy.

      Unlimited energy is available on the moon.
      You can run a stirling engine indefinitely based on the temperature differential between sunlight/radioisotopes and shade.
      Alternatively, you could go solar.
      Weight is your only real limit.

      --
      [Fuck Beta]
      o0t!
    2. Re:Not enough by Keeper+Of+Keys · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Erm, we haven't actually run out yet. You see there's this big glowy thing in the middle of our solar system bombarding the Earth with fresh energy every day.

    3. Re:Not enough by LordKronos · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah, but good luck running your solar powered lunar water extraction system on a cloudy day.

    4. Re:Not enough by russotto · · Score: 4, Funny

      All your fantasies of hidden oceans and "water mining" won't change the fact that earth seems to be the only body in this system with anything more than sparse amounts of water and oxygen.

      Arthur C. Clarke's zombie is shambling over to your house chanting "Europa".

  3. No surprise by ctrl-alt-canc · · Score: 5, Funny

    Since Apollo expedition brought back petrified wood from the moon, water was abundant there many years ago.

    1. Re:No surprise by MichaelSmith · · Score: 4, Funny

      Be quiet or I'l send Buzz around.

  4. Re:Humanity to the Moon by Mr.+Roadkill · · Score: 5, Funny

    I hope that the Indians are able to establish a lunar colony; they certainly have the expertise.

    The casinos might take off, that's a business that will attract customers no matter where you build one. If they've gone and bought Rotary Rocket's intellectual property, the ATV is certainly the right shape too. But there are precious few bison up there...

  5. Re:Humanity to the Moon by MichaelSmith · · Score: 4, Funny

    And here I was looking forward to eating a nice curry on the moon. I had the wrong Indians all along.

  6. Coming soon: by fauxhammer · · Score: 5, Funny

    Whalers on the moon!

  7. Re:BREAKING NEWS! by venicebeach · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Clearly not common enough to assume that it was present in this particular location without direct evidence.

  8. It was the Indians who helped NASA find water by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    "India's first lunar mission has found evidence of large quantities of water on its surface, The Times newspaper reported on Thursday."

    from http://www.hindustantimes.com/Is-there-water-on-moon-NASA-to-reveal/H1-Article1-457426.aspx

    1. Re:It was the Indians who helped NASA find water by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Mod parent up please

      Original article is here:

      http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/space/article6846639.ece

    2. Re:It was the Indians who helped NASA find water by volcanopele · · Score: 4, Informative

      Using a US-built instrument. Please leave nationalism out of this...

      --
      The Gish Bar Times - Blog covering Jupiter's moon Io
    3. Re:It was the Indians who helped NASA find water by TheRaven64 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The subject of the grandparent's post (which, by the way, you copied in yours) was 'It was the Indians who helped NASA find water.' Note the word 'helped.' Note that he explicitly credited 'NASA' (which, for those watching at home, is American). When the grandparent gives credit to both of the nations involved and draws attention to the fact that it was a collaborative venture, cries of nationalism are a little hollow.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  9. Re:Yes Indeed, But Rocket Propulsion Sucks by Ant+P. · · Score: 4, Funny

    And then we can have magic flying hamburgers that zoom into your mouth when you give them the secret whistle!

  10. Re:Yes Indeed, But Rocket Propulsion Sucks by TheRaven64 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Jump off a building. Seriously. Your atoms are not accelerated quite simultaneously and equally due to the slight incline of the gravitational plane, but the difference is almost negligible (ignoring air resistance), and so you don't feel any acceleration (fall into a small black hole and the differences become important and you become spaghetti). You won't be injured until you hit the ground and the atoms in your feet are the only ones being accelerated, with the others being brought to stationary by the electromagnetic force propagating through your body. The same effect can be achieved in mass drivers with ferromagnetic projectiles in a vacuum.

    The grandparent is an idiot who has read too much science fiction, but his ideas are theoretically sound. The practical problems are huge, however, not 'just around the corner'.

    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  11. Re:Unambiguous? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 4, Informative

    The scan works by looking for the OH bond, as I recall, which resonates on a particular frequency. I may be talking nonsense now, because it's a few years since I looked at this tech, but it basically works on the same principle as your microwave oven. That emits microwaves that cause the OH bonds to resonate, exciting the molecules and generating heat. This works by causing the OH bonds to resonate (in exactly the same way) and then picking up the IR that they emit as they return to their non-excited state. All that it can conclusively say is that there are molecules containing OH bonds present, but the simplest molecule containing this bond is water and so it's very probable that they've found water. Even if they haven't, they've found something that can be turned into water relatively easily, given sufficient power (e.g. a lunar solar array).

    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News