Moon Water: Scientists Consider Solar Wind as Origin

Glass beads within moon rocks suggest that water seen on the lunar surface originates from the solar wind, researchers say.

These findings suggest that other airless bodies in the solar system may also possess water on their surfaces, investigators added.

Arguments raged for years as to whether the moon harboured frozen water or not.

Recent findings confirmed that water does wet the moon, although its surface remains drier than any desert on Earth.

"With the cost of $25,000 for taking one pint of water to the moon, it is essential that we develop processes of producing water from the materials on the moon," said the study's lead author, Yang Liu, at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. "This is paramount to human settlement of the moon in the near future."

"This water would be of most value as rocket fuel — liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen," Liu added.

"Until the recent discovery of water in and on the moon, this was going to be a very energy-intensive endeavor to separate these elements from the lunar rocks and soil."

"Now we have ready sources of water that can be consumed by plants and humans, but also broken up into its constituent elements — oxygen and hydrogen. Thus, we could use the moon as a jump-board for missions to Mars and beyond."