The Chinese mission Chang’e-5 He has come home with a surprising gift: glass beads which certify that in the Moon there are some 300,000 million tons of water. establish a colony on the moon It is, from today, a little easier.
Less than a decade ago, the Moon was of no interest to anyone. Was “an uninteresting rock“, as some NASA scientist once said. But in recent years the possibility of traveling to Mars has become a reality, and the Moon could serve with a kind of “pilot program”, before traveling to Mars.
New astronauts from NASA they will step on the moon in 2025, and both NASA and the International Space Agency plan to build a colony on the Moon within the next decade. Russia and China also have their plans, but they do not tell them.
to secure a colony on the moonThree things are needed: water, food, and fuel. They cannot be transported from Earth, because it would be unfeasible. Food can be grown, raised, and harvested on the Moon, but water and the fuel it will have to be obtained on the moon itself.
It has been known for years that there is ice at the poles of the Moon, in craters where sunlight does not reach. But it is difficult to get it out of there. Luckily, it seems we have found a better source.
The Chinese mission finds a lunar treasure: water
Two years ago, China sent several rovers to the far side of the Moon. He Chang’e 5 returned to Earth with rock and soil samples from the Moon. Subsequent analysis has discovered something surprising.
according to account Guardianresearchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing have found tiny glass beads scattered by the lunar surfacethat contain water. They measure less than a millimeter in diameter, and are formed when meteorites collide with the Moon and release showers of molten droplets. These solidify and mix with lunar dust.
Are glass beads are scattered over the entire surface of the Moon, so extrapolating, they calculate that in the Moon there is 300,000 million tons of water which is not only concentrated in the poles, but in its entire surface.
For get the water of this glass beads all you have to do is… warm them up.
This water could be used for to drinkbut hydrogen which contains serves as fuel for spacecraftand the oxygenfor breathe. build a colony on the moon it would be much easier.
Even so, it is not necessary to launch the bells on the fly. As Professor Ian Crawford of the University of London explains, these glass beads containing water they are tiny, less than a millimeter, and they are widespread. you could only get a few 0.1 liters of water for every cubic meter of lunar soil. Tons of earth would have to be processed to extract a liter of water.
It is a problem to be solved, but it is a smaller problem than the fact that there is no water. The glass beads which add up 300,000 million tons of water in the Mooncould be key to building the long-awaited cologne on our satellite.
