Why is water on the moon such a big deal?
So there's lots of water on the Moon after all.
Scientists have been cockahoop this week after the news that India's ill-fated Chandrayaan-1 lunar probe found the wet stuff before it want kaputt.
Hoorah! But you could be asking yourselves, 'so what?'
Well, it will make living on the moon a lot easier.
A ready-made reservoir of the liquid can be used for drinking or to make into hydrogen and oxygen which could be used for rocket fuel, and of course oxygen to breath.
And self-sufficient moon bases would be the perfect jumping-off point for missions to Mars and beyond.
The watery evidence also begs another question. NASA's mantra for finding life is 'follow the water', so could there be, or have been, life on the moon?
Probably not, but researchers are rubbing their hands at the prospect of finding out for sure.
In an interesting side note, the great Sir Patrick Moore was adamant there would be no water on the moon when I interviewed him earlier this year.
Now this is not to disparage Sir Patrick - I mean science is often more about being wrong than right - but it did remind me of a quote from Arthur C Clarke.
"If an elderly but distinguished scientist says that something is possible, he is almost certainly right; but if he says that it is impossible, he is very probably wrong."
Weird Science Factoid: More than 10,000 birds a year die from smashing into windows. Ouch...
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Daniel Smith - a long time ago, in a galaxy far away just north of Watford, Daniel fancied himself as a scientist but turned out to be the worst scientist since that bloke who mapped out all those canals on Mars that turned out to be scratches on his telescope's lens. Luckily, he is now not working on the Large Hadron Collider inadvertently creating a black hole that would swallow the world but is safely behind a desk writing this blog, bringing you the fantastical underbelly of nature... weird science.
One small drop for a man! haha.
Living on the moon... surely you jest!
Water on the moon all of a sudden, a likely story, and even then just one of the many obstacles we need to overcome to occupy this little rock of ours!
Firstly despite the presence of water, the gravity of the moon itself (1.63 m/s2 / 16.7% Earths gravity) would mean any attempt at living on the moon would cause greatly reduced bone and muscle structure causing any attempt to renter the Earth's orbit to result in unbearable pressure and inevitably death.
Also due to such gravity the dust that covers the moons surface would very easily enter the body through the skin or respiratory system and cause immense discomfort and reduction in the lungs usage.
Another point, because of the moons orbit around the Earth any fauna growing on the moon would be exposed to the sun (and thus able to photosynthesise) less than two weeks out of the average month and would have to survive on artificial (if any) light for the remainder of the month and indeed, the organisms life span.
Even if water was discovered on the moon it is no BIG deal in my and many others opinion and I am willing to debate my opinion! Real significance would be research into the releasing and harnessing the water on Mars, as with the gravity on the planet and the already existent atmosphere, Mars would be a much more likely candidate for terraforming and the future presence of man.
dude.... you are such a noob.
you cant have dust come through your skin. thats just stupid. and plants can easily grow on the moon. moss would do fine. or cactuses. n e ways, mars is full of aliens do ur research
I said IâÂÂd happily debate my opinion and IâÂÂm happy to extend on my points!
As to dust penetrating the skin I have done further research on this and confess it may have been a misquote, what I meant to cross is that dust could indeed penetrate the seals of space suits and current ideas on 'biomes' and cause the same affects as I mentioned above.
Also I have checked several sources and found no evidence to suggest that moss/cacti could survive on the moon due to photosynthetic cycles. Not posed as a challenge, but if you could find any documentation to say otherwise IâÂÂd be interested to read it.
Another thing; I know well that Mars is full of signs of aliens but none of those yet have been anywhere close to complexity of human beings, and that I feel, is the real interest to mankind at the present. The further development of the planet and (hopefully) the eventual terraforming of Mars is something I have researched and, although unlikely, would be definitely something IâÂÂd like to see in the future!
There will no doubt be many difficulties from living on the moon to overcome, but I think I can address your concerns.
Gravity on the moon is not much to write home about, but it's a lot more than zero-G orbiting the Earth and cosmonaut Valeri Vladimirovich Polyakov managed to live on Mir for over 14 months without any serious side effects.
You'll have to do some exercise to stay in shape, though, as would anyone visiting Mars (which only has 38 per cent the gravity of Earth) who would sure to be staying even longer as it's a lot further away.
The lack of sunlight on the moon is not as a big of a problem as you might think. One solution is to simply use a mirror to direct the light to where you want it! The Russians found that peas will happily grow in the two weeks on/two weeks off routine, while our skills with genetics will surely give us a bumper lunar harvest.
We've even got plants now that would happily grow in the Moon's soil if some bacteria was added.
Terraforming Mars is a fascinating prospect and the discovery of water on the moon (whether to use for fuel or life-support) only increases our chances of actually making it to the Red Planet.