We don’t think this for the lunar poles — the idea is that water is added by some process to the cold traps and the temperatures there are too low for any significant chemical reaction with the surface rocks. Thus, we believe that water exists as some free form of ice or frost.

I hope another thirty years from now there are not people saying, “permanent bases on the Moon might have been established if we had explored those craters and found ice”. How long before we finally go?

In my view the Blue Moon Lander on the SLS is the best path right now. A robot that can roll into a crater and harvest water and roll back to fill tanks on the lander- and that small nuclear reactor to turn some of the water into propellants. Both the Lander and the reactor are in development right now but what is not being considered is a wet workshop. SLS upper stages in Low Lunar Orbit with cosmic ray shields filled with water would establish a long duration human presence in cislunar space. These workshops can be attached to each other with tether systems to provide artificial Earth gravity and also be used as shielded Cyclers to carry astronauts to and from the Moon.

We have the Lander and the reactor and we will be sending upper stages that way- we are so close. Need some robots to roll into those craters.

Gbaikie commented on Dennis Wingo’s blog in response to my comment of water on the Moon:

I think the lunar poles has ice, but problem is the proof. If it were true, that there was billion tonnes of ice at north or south lunar pole – that is useless.

What is useful or proof is that there is 10,000 tonnes within some location and within 1 km radius and it’s within 1/2 meter of the lunar surface.

There is good case to explore the Moon in order to find minable water. NASA or someone should do that. And once that is done, a decision can made regarding whether or when lunar water can be mined. NASA shouldn’t make such a decision – it should a commercial decision.

–end quote–

The Moon librates in latitude about 6 degrees every month, so we can look beyond the polar limb about 150-200 km, depending on topography. We took bistatic data at the most favorable southern libration.

Just wondering about the geometry, how was the Arecibo antenna able to “look into” the far north Cabeus crater?

Phil

I was very excited about Dr. Spudis’ proposal to hard land sensors: http://spudislunarresources.nss.org/blog/another-way-to-land-on-the-moon/

And commented that it would be an excellent first mission for the SLS. Those comments from November of 2015 also have me and Marcel arguing about going cheap.

Would ten or twenty tons of those sensors at the poles improve the data?

Well, the New Shepard propulsion module is flying and in my view that qualifies as serious funding. I never ever thought I would be cheering on a billionaire’s suborbital tourist hobby rocket. But as the Blue Moon lander it will fit right on top of the SLS and away we go Marcel. I am drawn to what exists and what will work. I know the SLS will work because it is essentially a space shuttle and Apollo capsule. I know wet workshops will work because of Skylab. I know frozen Low Lunar Orbits (LLO) and Lunar Cyclers will work because the orbital mechanics are mathematically proven. I know cosmic radiation shielding will have to be massive because Eugene Parker says so and I know artificial gravity will be required because of the condition of astronauts returning from the ISS. I know Nuclear Pulse Propulsion is the only practical system for propelling such true spaceships with shields and tethers to remedy dosing and debilitation.
And I know the Moon is the only enabler to any of it.

But there are of course unknowns such as storing and transferring hydrogen in space. Harvesting lunar ice is an unknown. And down the line there are increasing technical challenges and obstacles to the various economic engines to enable human space exploration and colonization. GEO telecom platforms, spaceships carrying the nuclear deterrent, and space solar power all are entail unknowns. But “serious funding” must come from somewhere and in my view going cheap is not the path. There is no cheap. Rather, abandoning LEO and other pursuits and redirecting funding toward building a cislunar infrastructure based on lunar resources must become “the horizon goal” and fantasies like Mars have to go on the shelf indefinitely.