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Ice confirmed at the Moon’s poles

phys.org

51–60 of 96 posts

Re: Ice confirmed at the Moon’s poles

#51
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Likely, but the ice-mining scheme will be much easier to pull off, and will therefore be possible sooner, and is therefore more likely to be the primary means by which these resources are exploited.

Let the wealthy pay tons of money to go work the ice mines in the moon for a few weeks at a time while it has its novelty. Kill 2 birds with one stone.

Re: Ice confirmed at the Moon’s poles

#52
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Don't you need an energy source to turn the water into its parts? That's the energy you recoup when you burn the hydrogen. Or did I miss the joke?

Re: Ice confirmed at the Moon’s poles

#55
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Don't you need an energy source to turn the water into its parts? That's the energy you recoup when you burn the hydrogen. Or did I miss the joke?

Presumably this would be done with a small nuclear reactor powering an electrolysis system, in which case it’s feasible. Your savings are in complexity and weight because containing a mass of water is trivial, and naturally dense compared to H or O. As an extra feature you need water anyway, it can be used as a coolant, and you need oxygen which you’re now generating as a byproduct. Presumably for cruising you’d use the nuclear reactor to power an ion drive and only use the Water splitter as needed for maneuvering, launches, and landing.

Re: Ice confirmed at the Moon’s poles

#56
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

data:image/jpeg;base64,/9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAQAAAQABAAD/2wCEAAkGBxMSEhMTExMVFhMVFRUWFRcYFRUVGhkXFRUWFxUXFxgYHSggGR0lGxUVITEhJSkrLi8uFx8zODMtNygtLisBCgoKDg0OGxAQGy0mICUtLTUrLS0tLS4tLS02LS0tLTAtLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0uLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLf/AABEIAOoA2AMBIgACEQEDEQH/xAAcAAEAAQUBAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAABQMEBgcIAgH/xABJEAABAwIDBAcFBAUICwEAAAABAAIDBBEFITESQVFhBgcTIjJxgRQjQpGxUmKhwTNygtHwCBUkQ3OSk6IWU1Rjg7KzwsPh8UT/xAAaAQEAAwEBAQAAAAAAAAAAA…

$ base64 -d ~/tmp/wtf.txt uZbase64: invalid input Edit: I suck and forgot to remove the leading stuff. I love the internet today. If anyone is wondering it is SFW.

For those wondering, it's a picture of this thing : http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Snark

Re: Ice confirmed at the Moon’s poles

#58
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Don't you need an energy source to turn the water into its parts? That's the energy you recoup when you burn the hydrogen. Or did I miss the joke?

South pole - perfect place for constant solar power. Just raise it up a little bit.

Re: Ice confirmed at the Moon’s poles

#59

> 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.

Even sand from the moon would sell for a lot of buck, no need to transport that little water from the moon to Earth where it's abundant, but im sure people would buy end drink that for ridiculous amounts of money.

Wrong journey, nobody's contemplated that. The idea is taking water from the Moon to space, rather than earth water to space at vastly greater fuel cost.
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