Ice confirmed at the Moon’s poles • Hacker News Board

Re: Ice confirmed at the Moon’s poles

#21

Post by throwaway66666 » Tue, Aug 21, 2018, 8:47 PM UTC

excalibur wrote: post #2

> With enough ice sitting at the surface—within the top few millimeters—water would possibly be accessible as a resource for future expeditions to explore and even stay on the Moon, and potentially easier to access than the water detected beneath the Moon's surface. OR: It could be collected, shipped back to earth, bottled, and sold to the wealthy at ludicrous prices.

Forget about Lunar Water man, that's so 2002.

Let's distill moon stuff and make MOON BEER and MOON VODKA.

Oh yeah, >

Re: Ice confirmed at the Moon’s poles

#22

Post by Bluestrike2 » Tue, Aug 21, 2018, 8:51 PM UTC

madza wrote: post #11

excalibur wrote: post #2

> With enough ice sitting at the surface—within the top few millimeters—water would possibly be accessible as a resource for future expeditions to explore and even stay on the Moon, and potentially easier to access than the water detected beneath the Moon's surface. OR: It could be collected, shipped back to earth, bottled, and sold to the wealthy at ludicrous prices.

Forgive me. It’s been stuck at the back of my brain for 30 years now. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0087451/

That trailer's voiceover is so cheesy, I have to hunt down the movie and watch it. And the movie poster: "See...Great Special Affects!" Clearly, the producers had a lot of self-awareness.

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0087451/mediaviewer/rm3916634368

Re: Ice confirmed at the Moon’s poles

#23

Post by excalibur » Tue, Aug 21, 2018, 8:52 PM UTC

Bluestrike2 wrote: post #22

madza wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forgive me. It’s been stuck at the back of my brain for 30 years now. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0087451/

That trailer's voiceover is so cheesy, I have to hunt down the movie and watch it. And the movie poster: "See...Great Special Affects!" Clearly, the producers had a lot of self-awareness. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0087451/mediaviewer/rm3916634368

See... Space Herpie the Love Bug!

Re: Ice confirmed at the Moon’s poles

#24

Post by Bluestrike2 » Tue, Aug 21, 2018, 8:55 PM UTC

excalibur wrote: post #23

Bluestrike2 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That trailer's voiceover is so cheesy, I have to hunt down the movie and watch it. And the movie poster: "See...Great Special Affects!" Clearly, the producers had a lot of self-awareness. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0087451/mediaviewer/rm3916634368

See... Space Herpie the Love Bug!

And see...Ferocious Space Possums!

Re: Ice confirmed at the Moon’s poles

#25

Post by kartan » Tue, Aug 21, 2018, 9:00 PM UTC

jaequery wrote: post #19

Wasn't this confirmed several years ago?

From the article: "M3, aboard the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, launched in 2008 by the Indian Space Research Organization, was uniquely equipped to confirm the presence of solid ice on the Moon. It collected data that not only picked up the reflective properties we'd expect from ice, but was able to directly measure the distinctive way its molecules absorb infrared light, so it can differentiate between liquid water or vapor and solid ice."

Another source: "near the south pole of the Moon on 9 October 2009 showed the spectral signature of hydroxyl, a key indicator that water ice is present in the floor of the crater (1). Analysis of the results indicates concentrations of roughly 6% water in the impact area, including nearly pure ice crystals in some spots. "

https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/ice/ice_moon.html

Re: Ice confirmed at the Moon’s poles

#26

Post by modells » Tue, Aug 21, 2018, 9:06 PM UTC

So moon crater ice sublimates slow enough to not disappear a-la Europa?

Re: Ice confirmed at the Moon’s poles

#27

Post by baxtr » Tue, Aug 21, 2018, 9:11 PM UTC

excalibur wrote: post #2

> With enough ice sitting at the surface—within the top few millimeters—water would possibly be accessible as a resource for future expeditions to explore and even stay on the Moon, and potentially easier to access than the water detected beneath the Moon's surface. OR: It could be collected, shipped back to earth, bottled, and sold to the wealthy at ludicrous prices.

Just got off the phone with Elon, he’s on it...

Re: Ice confirmed at the Moon’s poles

#28

Post by Symmetry » Tue, Aug 21, 2018, 9:14 PM UTC

rzzzt wrote: post #9

zipwitch wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To save mass (and thus cost) they'll probably dehydrate the water before shipping it back to Earth. Their target market won't care.

They could also split it up, and ship the gases in compressed form.

Because oxygen and especially hydrogen are such a pain to store compared to water some rocket designs contemplate just leaving all the fuel mass as water and only splitting it into its parts as needed before firing.

Re: Ice confirmed at the Moon’s poles

#29

Post by Symmetry » Tue, Aug 21, 2018, 9:14 PM UTC

dawnerd wrote: post #3

excalibur wrote: post #2

> With enough ice sitting at the surface—within the top few millimeters—water would possibly be accessible as a resource for future expeditions to explore and even stay on the Moon, and potentially easier to access than the water detected beneath the Moon's surface. OR: It could be collected, shipped back to earth, bottled, and sold to the wealthy at ludicrous prices.

I think the wealthy would rather take a vacation to the moon.

A local source of water would make the hotel much cheaper to run.

Re: Ice confirmed at the Moon’s poles

#30

Post by Symmetry » Tue, Aug 21, 2018, 9:15 PM UTC

akshayB wrote: post #8

Just a question, is there any reason why whenever we detect frozen water its on the north pole or south pole of any circular object in solar system? I guess ones of them is sun heating up everything in the equator region.

That's true in the inner system but by the time you get to around Jupiter the Sun is dim enough that you can have ice on the surface of bodies without atmospheres.