China: A new study has found that tiny glass beads strewn across the moon’s surface contain potentially billions of tonnes of water that could be extracted and used by astronauts on future lunar missions.

The discovery is thought to be one of the most important breakthroughs yet for space agencies that have set their sights on building bases on the moon, as it means there could be a highly accessible source of not only water but also hydrogen and oxygen.

“This is one of the most exciting discoveries we’ve made. With this finding, the potential for exploring the moon in a sustainable manner is higher than it’s ever been,” Mr. Mahesh Anand, a professor of planetary science and exploration at the Open University, commented.

Mr. Anand and a team of Chinese scientists analysed fine glass beads from lunar soil samples returned to Earth in December 2020 by the Chinese Chang’e-5 mission.

The beads, which measure less than a millimetre across, form when meteoroids slam into the moon and send up showers of molten droplets. These then solidify and become mixed into the moon dust.

Tests on the glass particles revealed that together they contain substantial quantities of water, amounting to between 300 million and 270 tonnes across the entire moon’s surface.

“This is going to open up new avenues which many of us have been thinking about. If you can extract the water and concentrate it in significant quantities, it’s up to you how you utilise it,” Mr. Anand added.

The latest research, published in Nature Geoscience, points to fine glass beads as the source of that surface water. Unlike frozen water lurking in permanently shaded craters, this should be far easier to extract by humans or robots working on the moon.

According to Prof. Sen Hu, a senior co-author of the study at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, such impact glasses could store and release water on other airless rocks in the solar system.

“This work adds to the growing consensus that the moon is more water-rich than previously thought,” Mr. Ian Crawford, professor of planetary science and astrobiology at Birkbeck, University of London, commented.

“This additional reservoir of lunar water could prove a useful resource in areas that are distant from the presumed polar ice deposits, but we should not overestimate the amount of water present, which is at most 130 ml per cubic metre of lunar soil,” Mr. Crawford added.

Further tests on the material showed the water diffuses in and out of the beads over a few years, confirming an active water cycle on the moon.

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