All plans of space exploration and settlements on planets go through solving the problem of lLack of basic resources and how to obtain them without having to transport themNow, after years of speculation and gathering clues, China has made a historic discovery regarding the natural resources available on the Moon. Among the rock samples collected by the probe Chang’e 5 in 2020 and brought back to Earth, its scientists They have found water moleculesaccording to a study published in Nature. These minerals, described as ‘plate-shaped prismatic transparent crystal’ and named ULM-1could provide a source of water for a lunar base, as well as offering new clues about the history of the Moon.
For a long time it was thought that the Moon was completely dry, but in recent decades new ones have been found signs of small amounts of water buried beneath the surfaceIn 2008, researchers claimed to have found water in volcanic glass spheres in lunar rock samples collected by the Apollo missions. However, What that study and subsequent ones had detected was hydroxyl —oxygen and hydrogen bonded together— instead of H2O molecules. To extract water from these rocks, they would have to be heated to around 1,000 °C.
Xiaolong Chen of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and his team have analyzed around 1,000 grains of lunar soil micrometer-sized particles brought back by Chang’e 5. Using X-ray diffraction, they found a mineral composed by about 40 percent by H2Oalong with ammonia, magnesium and chlorine. ‘This is a new form of water stored on the Moon,’ Chen says.
ULM-1 glass is composed of approximately 41% water whose molecules remain stable, despite the sudden changes in temperature on the Moon, due to ammoniaaccording to the study. This type of water could be a potential ‘resource for the lunar room’scientists say.
Its chemical structure is remarkably similar to that of a mineral called novograblenovita which was discovered by geologists near a Russian volcano in 2019. It was formed from hot gases emitted by the volcano affecting basaltic rock and a similar process could have created the lunar mineral as well, Chen says. This also means that it can be inferred that gases containing ammonia or chlorine could have been present in early lunar volcanoes.
Although the amount of this mineral in lunar soil is small, It would be much easier to extract water from this than from other potential sources on the Moon.assures Shifeng Jina team member at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Because the new material the researchers have found contains complete water molecules, would only need to be heated to around 100°CIf the mineral can be found in significant quantities near an ancient lunar volcano, it could be a good source of water for future astronauts, Jin said.
The most accepted hypothesis about how the Moon was formed is that it is the product of a collision between Earth and another planet. When this happened, the Moon should have lost most of its volatile material, such as the oxygen needed for water, he says. Sara Russell from the Natural History Museum in London. Because of this, many scientists think the Moon acquired most of its water from asteroid impacts.
But if more lunar soil turns out to be rich in compounds like ammonia and chlorine, like the Chang’e 5 samples, then it could imply that asteroids did not supply the Moon’s water and that the Moon instead came from the satellite itselfAccording to Russell, this would represent a major shift in understanding lunar history, but more evidence is needed to establish this.