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Why do we care about the water on the moon?
The high volume of water ice on the Moon has attracted the attention of space agencies and private companies around the world. They imagine extracting water ice to produce air, drinking water and propellant, fueling the needs of lunar habitats and even entire lunar industries in the future.
For scientists, frozen water and other chemicals in the RDPs offer pristine record of the bombardment of comets and asteroids from the early days of the solar system. By studying water, we can learn more about the origin of the Earth and the Moon and, by extension, how life on Earth originated. Realizing the high value of these RDPs, NASA has designated them as sensitive locations subject to strict contamination protection.
How can we directly explore the Moon’s water ice?
Exploring the RDPs firsthand is no small challenge. The first hurdle is developing the ability to land accurately. While regions near the Moon’s equator have large stretches of flat land, the polar regions are often rocky and sloping.
The lunar poles also require spacecraft that can survive very cold temperatures. While the PSRs are extremely cold, their sunlit crater edges don’t receive much direct sunlight, keeping them cooled to an average of around -50 degrees Celsius (-58 degrees Fahrenheit).
Another challenge is power and communication. A rover that ventures into a PSR will lose its line of sight to Earth, disabling communications, while a lack of sunlight means it will have to pack powerful batteries or rely on nuclear power. One possible solution is to build communications relay stations on the edges of the crater that could also reflect sunlight on the probes inside.
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