It might be easier for us to explore and live on the Moon than we previously thought, scientists say.
Ice may be present just below the lunar surface in more parts of the Moon’s polar regions than we realised, according to a new study.
Using that ice and turning it into water is likely to be central to our exploration or even habitation of the Moon. But it has been unclear exactly how much of it there might be.
The likelihood of finding ice is related to the surface temperature on the Moon.
But our measurements of the lunar surface temperature were taken during the Apollo missions in the 1970s – which landed close to the equator, far from where we intend to land when we go back to the Moon. What’s more, on those parts of the Moon, the slope of the surface does not affect the temperature very much.
Now, researchers have used measurements from ChaSTE — a temperature probe experiment on Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram lander. In 2023, that lander arrived at the edge of the south polar region of the Moon.
They were able to look at both sloped and flat parts of the surface, and found that those bits that are sloped and face away from the Sun might be cool enough to gather ice near the surface. Such places can be found on the Moon – including where Nasa’s upcoming crewed Artemis missions plan to land on the lunar surface.
The findings are reported in a new study, Higher surface temperatures near south polar region of the Moon measured by ChaSTE experiment on-board Chandrayaan-3’, published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.
