“‘It’s really wet,’ said Anthony Colaprete, co-author of one of the Science papers and a space scientist at NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. He and his colleagues estimate that 5.6% of the total mass of the targeted lunar crater’s soil consists of water ice. In other words, 2,200 pounds of moon dirt would yield a dozen gallons of water.“
In keeping with recent studies, NASA is set to announce that there appears to be quite a lot of water on the moon, which would greatly facilitate setting up shop there. Alas, “the U.S. likely won’t be involved in manned voyages to the moon anytime soon…But other countries are gearing up. China has pledged to land astronauts on the moon by 2025, and India has plans to do the same by 2020. Japan wants to establish an unmanned moon base in a decade.” And, hey, why go to the moon when you can spend a decade in Afghanistan?
Sorry, this is ranty-er than I wanted…
“The US likely won’t be involved in manned voyages to the moon anytime soon”
This is watered down version of a Republican talking point to discredit Obama’s more fiscally conservative and market-driven strategy for near-term space exploitation/exploration.
Reasons for not wanting the US _government_ to go to the moon:
– Insanely expensive pay-out for uncertain gains. Point about Afghanistan/Iraq well taken, but as much as we could learn by going back to the moon, I just think the money is better spent elsewhere in the NASA budget. It was definitely worth doing once, but until we have a fundamentally more efficient way of getting mass into orbit, it just doesn’t balance.
– If China or India actually meet their questionable goals, it does not equal a moon base. They will have demonstrated that they can do ten years from now what we did 30-odd years ago. I don’t believe the Japanese will do it either, they’ve got bigger problems.
– It was Bush’s idea, and I’m still convinced he only threw it out there to distract us.
– Richard Garriot’s got our backs…
http://www.space.com/news/soviet-moon-rover-space-law-100322.html
I’m with Joad on this one