Despite the recent discovery of water traces on the moon, supplying water for consumption on the moon is still an issue:
Lori M. Feaga, a research scientist at the University of Maryland who is a member of the team that analyzed the Deep Impact data, said this process would work only to about one millimeter into the lunar surface. If correct, that would not give future astronauts much to drink.
“You would have to scrape the area of a baseball field or a football field to get one quart of water,” she said.
Thankfully, NASA has created the Waste Limitation and Management of Resources Design Challenge, recruiting kids from grades 5 through 8 to design and test a water recycling system for the moon. Presumably, some of this eventual waste water would involve urine, which is an abundant resource that has also been proven as a potential source of fuel.
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No doubt fortunately for classroom hygiene, American nippers won’t be required to self-source the “waste stream” as future Moon residents will. According to NASA, they will instead produce a synthetic urine/waste-water mixture. The formula will apparently call for “tap water, household ammonia cleaner, white distilled vinegar, baby shampoo, table salt and baking soda”.
h/t: nytimes.com, the Register, and commenter Peter F
it also can be used to make explosives …
A week from today NASA will crash a probe into the lifeless hunk of rock we call the moon in an attempt to find more water.
If all goes well it will be visible if you have a good telescope. There are also some impact parties being planned for the event.
Information: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS…
Can’t they just wear the Fremen still-suits? Don’t accept any cheap knock-offs, though.
can anyone remind me why NASA’s planning on creating a permanent human presence on the moon? Are we afraid – the USSR – sorry, I mean Russia will start colonizing it first? What are we going to do once we’re there?
A base would only be practical if there are usable amounts of water. NASA should join with Russia and other countries to establish a base there. Such a base could be used to launch probes and people to explore the solar system. IMHO colonizing is not a big priority as much as using the moon as launching venue for exploration.
But what about the moon men, @5?
Are you suggesting they don’t have rights to their own frozen water (ice), just because they don’t use it (it’s poisonous to their cat-like bodies)?
Just think of the moon men …
Former Lockheed Martin CEO Norman Augustine and the rest of the U.S. Human Space Flight Committee is nearly ready to release a report two weeks from now detailing recommendations to Obama on how to overhaul NASA and our manned spaceflight program, which otherwise ends next year…
Their summary report released last month vaguely spelled out a shattershot of options to try to get back into manned spaceflight after admitting that NASA’s current “plan” to reach the moon again was unsustainable and unworkable; here’s hoping the final report is more specific or else a lot more money is going to be wasted on dead ends and US spaceflight is going to be grounded for a long, long time…
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/384767main_SUMMA…
@ #6 I know some people have signed a petition to NASA to stop the LCROSS impact. One astrologer thinks we should ask the moon for permission go there. I suspect most of those who signed the petition are worried about their fellow moon bats.
Obama’s indoctrinating our schoolchildren to drink urine! All part of the radical homosexual communospaceexplorofascist agenda!