Water galore on Moon and Mars

[G_j]

http://news.skymania.com/2009/09/water-galore-on-moon-and-mars.html

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Water galore on Moon and Mars

Two major discoveries revealed today may have made it a lot easier for humans to leave Earth and establish new colonies on the Moon and Mars.


In a sensational announcement, NASA announced that there are vast quantities of water on the Moon, which has always been considered an arid world.

A second discovery revealed that water ice exists at mid-latitudes on Mars. This is much further from the poles and closer to the equator than water was previously thought to lie and means there should be supplies for human explorers to drink.

The new martian ice was detected by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter probe which spotted the ice in craters produced by recent meteorite impacts on the red planet.

But the evidence from three space probes shows that as much as a liter (or quart) or water could be extracted from every tonne (ton) of dirt.

That may not sound much. Indeed, water would still be an extremely precious commodity. But processing plants would be able to produce enough water to maintain a colony on the Moon without the far more costly option of delivering water in blocks of ice from Earth.



..more..

[Taverner]

1. Space is beckoning....heed the call

[Ian David]

2. I want a house on the shores of Lake Colbert on The Moon! n/t

[TK421]

3. Mars has water ice? I simply have to get my ass to Mars!

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Blues Heron]

5. Surf's up!!

Waaaaaay up!!

[RedCloud]

6. Debbie Downer here: What about the sun's radiation?

Not too good to leave your protective atmosphere behind.

[charlie]

9. That's what makes polar craters doubly interesting

Possibility of water caches and shelter from direct sun.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

7. Will Perrier set up a bottling plant? Yuppies want to know.

[Skidmore]

8. So we can now go out and mess up an other world besides our own.

Aren't we special?

[G_j]

10. --