Billions Of Tons Of Water Successfully Found In Moon Samples Carried By China's Chang'e 5 Mission

JAKARTA - Billions of tons of water were found by researchers in glass beads buried in the ground of the Moon, where the meteorite collision occurred. This new water source can be useful for future rover missions.

It is known that the glass beads are samples collected with soil and returned from the Moon by Chinese missions in December 2020, riding Chang'e 5.

According to the researchers, this water source is so abundant that it stores up to 330 billion tons of water across the lunar surface.

"The size of these glass beads ranges from one strand of hair to several strands of hair, the water content is only a small part of that," said researcher Hejiu Hui from the University of Nanjing, who took part in the study.

The findings published Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience are based on 32 randomly selected glass beads from lunar soil samples.

Glass beads, also known as impact glass or microtechtes, form when meteorites hit the Moon at speeds of tens to hundreds of thousands of miles per hour, blowing up chunks of crust above the lunar surface.

In this puff, silicate minerals that are heated to liquid temperatures by the impact strength join to form small glass beads sprinkled like the shades of the surrounding landscape.

Launching Live Science, Saturday, April 1, the lunar soil contains oxygen, meaning glass beads too. When hit with ionized hydrogen atoms (protons) from the solar wind, oxygen in a liquid ball will continue to react to form water sucked into a silicate capsule.

Some of these beads can release water into the lunar atmosphere and to its surface, thanks to the right temperature, and act as new water reservoirs on Earth's natural satellite.

But over time, some beads will be buried under lunar dust particles, known as regoliths, and trapped underground with water still in them.

If available continuously, it could be an ideal source of water, as well as hydrogen and oxygen, for space agencies like NASA whose mission will run in 2025 with astronauts.

China National Space Administration (CNSA) also wants to build a base on the Moon, with projects claimed to be completed by 2029 at the earliest.