LUNAR WATER

Lunar ice has been confirmed to exist at meaningful concentrations within permanently shadowed craters at the poles. Other forms of lunar water including surficial H2O/OH monolayers, and water in volcanic glasses, are likely not viable as resources. A synthesis of available data suggest lunar ice is present in a finely disseminated form within the regolith, and that there is a nearly ice-free desiccated layer extending from the surface to as much as a meter deep. But space-based sensors are not able to identify the exact locations and depths of economically viable deposits, so additional surface exploration is necessary before starting a mining operation.

After NASA’s VIPER rover was cancelled in 2024, the only publicly announced ice detection or prospecting missions include a small hopper on China’s Chang’e 7, and a joint Japanese-Indian probe. DARPA’s LASSO program will lead to higher -quality orbital remote sensing, but will not provide the necessary data to prove out a localized reserve. Future ground-based exploration should emphasize deep drilling or trenching, and multiple, complimentary geophysics instruments. A first lunar water mine would likely be solar powered and would require at least 20 tons of payload and 500 kW of power to produce economically meaningful amounts of rocket propellant. The motivation for mining lunar water is not for astronaut life support, but to produce liquid oxygen, hydrogen, and possibly methane for refueling spacecraft to greatly enhance in-space logistics.