Water on the Moon could be more abundant

Water on the Moon has been the subject of systematic searches for decades, and evidence has been accumulating progressively. Data from the LCROSS orbiter in 2009 confirmed the presence of ice in the permanently shadowed craters at the lunar poles. What the samples from China's Chang'e-5 mission, returned to Earth in 2020 and analysed in subsequent years, added is an additional and potentially more accessible mechanism: water trapped in volcanic glass beads distributed across the lunar surface.

These glass beads form when meteorite impacts or ancient volcanic eruptions melted lunar material that then cooled rapidly. During that process, solar water, deposited by the solar wind as protons that combine with oxygen on the surface, becomes trapped in the glass structure. Unlike polar ice, this type of water is distributed more uniformly and might be extractable with heat.

For missions with permanent human presence on the Moon, which NASA and other agencies plan for the 2030s, water is a critical resource: for drinking, for producing breathable oxygen through electrolysis and for manufacturing hydrogen as rocket fuel. Each newly identified source expands the options for where to establish a base and reduces dependence on supplies sent from Earth.