NEWSWISE—As mankind envisions life on the Moon, Mars, and beyond—the question of how to sustain life revolves around the physical requirements of oxygen, food, and water. We know there is water on the Moon, but how do we find it? Is it in craters? Shady area? Poles? Figuring out what gives astronauts the best chance of successfully living on the Moon is something that has, heretofore, remained the stuff of science fiction.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego could help bring science fiction to reality by providing a celestial rod to guide future space missions, including NASA’s Artemis mission to explore and, eventually, inhabit the Moon. Wants to do. Their work appears in a special issue Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAs) Called “Water on the Moon and Mars”, it features Artemis I on its cover.
The researchers included the father-son team of Marc Thiemens, UC San Diego distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry, and Maxwell Thiemens, a research fellow at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, who is also an alumnus of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
In 1967, Nobel laureates Harold Urey and James Arnold – both faculty members in UC San Diego’s chemistry department – were among the first to obtain Apollo 11 lunar samples. Urey was one of the first scientists to theorize that there was water on the Moon, particularly in the permanently shadowed areas of the Moon’s poles. Today, scientists believe that water on the Moon originated from one of three sources:
- Swadeshi to the moon,
- Created by solar winds (where hydrogen from the Sun reacts with oxygen at high energy on the Moon and likely Mars to form water)
- Deposits (from an icy comet that has crashed on the lunar surface).
On Earth, human civilizations often bubble near bodies of water and this would be no different in space. On the Moon, knowing the origin of water sources is important because it will guide astronauts where it would be most prudent to establish bases and habitats.
To learn about the origin of water on the Moon, Morgan Nunn Martínez (who was a UC San Diego graduate student at the time) extracted small amounts from lunar rocks collected from the 1969 Apollo 9 mission. It may seem impossible to get water from a rock, but it is possible through “thermal release”, a process where lunar samples are heated to temperatures of 50, 150, and 1,000 °C (122, 302, and 1,832 °F, respectively). Was heated till. As it turns out, these rocks were surprisingly “wet.”
The lowest temperatures are those of lightly bound water molecules – molecules that are attached to other molecules (in this case, lunar rocks) through a weak attraction. At 1,000 °C, tightly bound water molecules, which are more deeply embedded in the rock, were released.
Through this process, gas water molecules are collected, then purified so that only oxygen remains. The team then measured the composition of three different oxygen isotopes.
Isotopes are atoms of the same element that have differences in the number of neutrons, which changes their mass – the more neutrons, the heavier the atom. These measurements are particularly useful in determining the origin and age of a material.
Think of it like space forensics. In the same way that humans have unique fingerprints, astronomical objects, such as comets and the Sun, have unique signatures. Scientists have been able to look at oxygen isotope measurements and determine the origin of the water.
Their data revealed that most of the lunar water probably originated from the Moon itself or from comet impacts. Contrary to popular belief, solar winds do not contribute significantly to the Moon’s water stores.
“What’s cool about this research is that we’re using the most advanced scientific measurements and it supports common sense ideas about lunar water – most of it has been there since the beginning and was added by these icy comet impacts.” Was,” Maxwell Thiemans said. , “The more complex method of solar wind-derived water does not appear to be that productive.”
Although not the main thrust of the paper, the researchers also measured samples from Mars. If NASA’s Artemis program is able to successfully colonize humans on the Moon, it will bode well for an eventual mission to live on Mars.
“This kind of work has not been done before and we think it could provide NASA with some valuable clues as to where water is located on the Moon,” said Mark Thiemens. “The real goal of Artemis is to go to Mars. Our research shows that there is likely at least as much water on Mars as there is on the Moon, if not more. ,
Of course, finding water is only the first step. Being able to extract it from lunar rocks and soil in sufficient quantities to sustain life will require further technological advances and exploration.
Full list of authors: Maxwell Thiemens (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), Morgan Nunn Martínez and Mark Thiemens (UC San Diego).
This research was supported, in part, by a NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship, a Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship, and achievement awards for college scientists.
,
