Don't count on it

On Jan 21, 2007, at 10:46 UTC, Henry Stafford wrote:

> Using the highest resolution radar-signal images ever made of the
> moon - images from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Arecibo
> Telescope in Arecibo, P.R., and the NSF's Robert C. Byrd Telescope in
> Green Bank, W.Va. - planetary astronomers have found no evidence for
> ice in craters at the lunar south pole.

So don't count on what? Hydrogen on the Moon? These results don't
have much to do with that. All they speak to is big slabs of ice that
would be visible from Earth (and therefore, also visible to the Sun).
Nobody thought that was likely even before this study; far more likely
is fine grains of ice mixed in with the regolith (which, happily, is
probably easier to extract than big slabs, which would be as hard as
rock at these temperatures). And if it's not that, then it's something
else -- the hydrogen signals are pretty incontrovertible (and with
hydrogen, plus the abundant oxygen in lunar regolith, you could make
your own water if necessary).

Best,
- Joe

Joe Strout -- joe@...