Moon is the closest celestial body from Earth. It became the first step in our spacefaring endeavours. As the attempts to send Astronauts to other planets in our solar system gain pace, scientists and space agencies are charting plans for a permanent human base on the Moon. There are also plans of using Earth's only satellite as a launchpad for future space missions.
Among the main impediments to this effort is dearth of water on the lunar surface. To be sure, Moon does have water in its soil. But its concentration is extremely low, about 0.0001% to 0.02%.
But a new breakthrough may just mean that we may be able to 'make' water on the lunar surface. Scientists at Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering (NIMTE) of Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed a new technique of producing considerable amount of water from lunar soil.
The team of scientists was led by Prof Junqiang Wang.
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“We used lunar regolith samples brought back by the Chang’E-5 mission in our study, trying to find a way to produce water on the Moon,” Wang said, as quoted by SciTechDaily.
The study carried out by the team revealed that if lunar soil is heated above 1200 K (about 1000 degrees Celsius) with concave mirrors, one gram of the soil would yield 51-76 mg of water.
This means that if 1 tonne of lunar soil is heated this way, we'll be able to obtain more than 50 kg of water. This is enough to fill about a hundred bottles of 500 ml each. This water is enough to sustain 50 people for one day.
The scientists have also found that solar wind implanted hydrogen in lunar soil can come in handy to produce water. This water in turn, can be used for drinking and also for production of oxygen after its decomposition.
The study carried out by the scientists has been published in scientific journal The Innovation.
