so in june of this year 2010 they found out that the moon has water underneath its surface and tons of it ! i just read about this and found about this yesterday …this is interesting news…maybe it would make an interesting game then? : the earth is a desert or nearly all desert and how would we get that water off the moon ?
this post is mainly about that news and maybe now you know as i did not know that there is water on the moon … i thought it was all rock and that was it …but now its different and wierd to know there is tons of water on the moon !
Not so much surprising if you consider that after the colliding theory the earth and the moon once shared their matter. Secondly they only found a thin layer but due to moon’s size it results into tons. I once was surprised that mercury, although it’s quite close to the sun, also contains some water on the poles. Mercury btw is a special planet as the sun wasn’t able to fully synchronise mercury’s rotation yet, but there are theories for explaining this as well. :O)
First off, the earth is covered more by water than by land. We aren’t exactly destitute when it comes to water. The real issue is that if we did bring a lot of water from the moon (which I still wonder why we would want to) it would evaportate and go to where 98% of the water is anyway, the oceans. So why go to the moon to get water when we can just desaluate it from the oceans here?
But it is cool that there is water on the moon nonetheless. Think astro farming! …But then we would have the ship the food back here, and then after centuries earth would have more mass from all the food consumed, and then we would need more water, and then… Lets just blow it up instead.
We only surmise there is water on Mercury; mostly from radar imaging by telescopes 20 years ago. Ice reflects radar more-so than most things, but it is not the only thing that could account for the high reflective patches on the images. We, actually, know very little about the planet. It is incredibly hard to observe; both from Earth and via probes.
As to the Moon having water, we have always kind of thought it did; but more in the form of bound water. We thought there was a chance of free water, too, but not as likely as it being bound in the regolith and the like.
Earth may, eventually, run out of free water, but not any time in the near future (think 40 million years or so). We lose a little bit to atmospheric venting, constantly. All planets do, really. There are a thousand other things that could wipe out life on the planet before that ever becomes a problem, though.
As an alternative, though, if there was no Earth at all… say, the worst had come to pass and the Earth was destroyed… then objects such as the Moon would have to serve as our only means of collecting oxygen and water. That does pose itself as an interesting back-drop for a game.
Whatever lifeform(s) will be around in 40 million years, i’m sure mankind won’t need this long for screwing up free drinkable water resources.
The moon is a nice place for placing instrument on and doing research but it’s nothing you want to place mankind on, more as whilst iwas typing this, he drifted away for another 0,2 µm. On the other side the film Moon was quite entertaining,
Never seen “Moon”, even though it is one of the movies suggested for me by Netflix. I have had an interest in watching it… just never find the time to commit to it.
We might use the Moon as a staging point, sometime in the future… a place to refuel on oxygen/water; especially if it has a ready supply. I do not really foresee us claiming it as a permanent home, though.
Maybe the presence of water on the moon would make a permanent research base there more practical? It might be cheaper to extract water from the lunar surface than to transport it up there on rockets, and you could also presumably make oxygen from the water by electrolysis. I’m not sure that would make a very interesting game, though
The earth has plenty of water. A few of the problems just are its unbalanced share around the globe (some regions have plenty of it, others don’t) same with the ongoing pollution of it or beeing available in a drinkable form or having the resources to filter for instance drinkable water out of salt water, …
It might sound boring and oh not again but as long as we life on this planet the way we have been up to now and keep on dealing with global issues in a shortsighted local perspective, things won’t improve and countries will react once again only when it’s far too late, a lot of busines will be made with clean water by companies and the general public will pay the high price for it. Many people will die or suffer from polluted water, most probably those living in countries which don’t access such forums. I could go on and on here, anyway…
Trying to get water from the moon for earth is a ridiculous idea which sounds like digging a hole with a spoon whilst a digger is available as well. If you’re in need to get water for the earth from outside then, a) you’re in serious trouble in many many ways for example how our climate works, the foodchain and b) there are better suited plantes and moons in our solar system. And if you’re in such a need to import water, establishing a longer deliver route should be worth the effort as well.
If your’re after generating water it would be tasty getting a pipeline to the element which is most common in the universe, hydrogen, like in our sun. If China’s exploding car market would only use hydrogen driven cars they could also produce some water but i guess they will continue to stupidly burn limited ressources instead like we do. ;O) What i’ve never quite understood is that science doesn’t more concentrates on our energy delivery #1, the sun, and making the best out of all this energy we get for free.
All this is a very interesting discussion but there are so many aspects and other interesting fields this touches that it’s badly suited for a thread form.
I don’t get why people are talking about bringing water from the moon. One poster brought it up and everyone seems fixated on the idea.
The exciting point is that if water already exists on the moon, it means it’s easier to colonise. The water might even contain microbes, which would have interesting implications regarding extra-terrestrial life.
My professor was the primary researcher in the LCROSS mission that found that water. The water was found at the bottom of the craters on the south pole where the water doesn’t ever see light so it never gets evaporated. it’s also a very cold environment, colder than most of our equipment that can go down there so getting the water is not a trivial problem. As for where the water came from no one knows for sure. The belief is that the comets either through directly impacting in the craters or on the surface released the water getting the molecules trapped in the very thin atmosphere and slowly over time landing inside the craters where they never see light again! The amount of water I forget exactly how much it was but it was about as dry as the Mohave I think was his analogy and that’s not the driest place on earth. If you guys have any questions about it let me know and I’ll be glad to go ask him about it!
Wait…we’re going to be gone in 40 million years? Why? The sun provides enough energy to last us billions(?) of years, it’s been half a century since any weapon of mass destruction has been detonated offensively…
But srsly guys, when are we going to mars?
EDIT: 0/10 for reading comprehension on my part, thought he said we wouldn’t be around this long
I’ve read that the main use for water on Luna would be in fueling and supplying missions to Mars and beyond, and also it would be invaluable to constructing facilities and ships in orbit, which will end up being far cheaper and productive than launching materials and platforms on rockets, from Earth. Greater than water, helium3 is a resource in great demand and great plentitude on the Moon. It enables low radiation nuclear fusion, which makes fusion reactors on Earth a real possibility. With the looming energy crisis this might be a reason why governments are scrambling to get up there. The helium3 isotope is very unique, and is very rare on Earth, but it is literally everywhere on the Moon at 0.01 to 0.05 parts per million.
Lets just blow it up instead. 
