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Accurate knowledge of the distribution and depth of water ice occurrence in the lunar poles can help plan future lunar exploration missions and their landing sites accordingly Story highlights
As humanity looks to establish a long-term presence on the moon, several attempts are being made to explore the Lunar South polar region, which is believed to hold vast reserves of water ice. Water ice is crucial - for sustaining life and for use as cryogenic rocket fuel (a combination of supercooled liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen). This is why India's Chandrayaan-3 and the American private lander Odysseus landed in the south polar region. Several upcoming missions are also aimed at exploring this mysterious south-polar region, which could offer insights into the origins of the moon. However, the latest international study says that "the extent of water ice in the northern polar region is twice that in the southern polar region".
Conducted by the scientists of Space Applications Centre (SAC), ISRO, in collaboration with researchers at IIT Kanpur, University of Southern California, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and IIT (ISM) Dhanbad, the study reveals evidence for enhanced possibility of water ice occurrence in the polar craters of the Moon. It suggests that the amount of subsurface ice in the first couple of metres is about five to eight times more than the that on the surface at both poles. Therefore, extracting lunar water ice would require considerable drilling, as the ice is likely to be buried beneath the lunar surface.
Regarding the possible origin of this lunar water ice, the study shared by ISRO said, "It confirms the hypothesis that the primary source of subsurface water ice in the lunar poles is outgassing (gases coming from deep within the moon) during volcanism in the Imbrian period (3,800 to 3,850 million years ago)".
As part of this study, the research team used seven instruments comprising radar, laser, optical, neutron spectrometer, ultra-violet spectrometer, and thermal radiometer onboard the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to understand the origin and distribution of water ice on the Moon. Accurate knowledge of the distribution and depth of water ice occurrence in the lunar poles can help plan future lunar exploration missions and their lading sites accordingly.
ISRO says that the latest international study also supports a previous study of SAC, ISRO pointing out the possibility of the presence of water ice in some of the polar craters, utilising polarimetric radar data from the Chandrayaan-2 Dual-frequency Synthetic Aperture Radar instrument.
Based on the success of the Indian Chandrayaan-3 Lunar soft-landing, in-situ exploration and the Japanese Lunar soft-landing mission 'SLIM', the space agencies of both nations are working on a Lunar polar exploration mission (LUPEX), which is aimed at studying the lunar poles. Even the planned series of American Artemis crewed lunar missions and Chinese crewed lunar missions are hoping to make breakthroughs that enable a long-term human presence on the moon. Situated around 4 lakh kilometres away from the earth, as humanity's nearest celestial neighbour, the moon could potentially serve as an outpost in space from where mankind could undertake exploration missions into the further reaches of space.
The author is Chennai-based reporter with Wion
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