Recent Study Assesses Strategies to Bring Back Water from the Moon

WASHINGTON and HOUSTON, Jan. 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- In a recent study, researchers from the University of New Mexico and Universities Space Research Association's Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) examined the shadowed regions near the Moon's south pole to assess strategies for returning water ice and other volatiles from the Moon. They examined how sampling methods might impact the scientific interpretations of materials returned by Artemis and other future missions. The science team aimed to identify strategies to preserve the maximum amount of information from these valuable samples.

Parts of the Moon's shadowy polar regions experience extreme temperatures reaching as low as 25 to 50 Kelvin (-400°F), with many areas never receiving direct sunlight. Thus, permanently shadowed regions can act as cold traps, preserving volatiles including water, carbon dioxide, and other chemical species. Volatile materials are crucial to study in detail to determine the sources and timing of their delivery to the Moon's surface. The findings were published in a special issue of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Universities Space Research Association's Senior Scientist Dr. Julie Stopar at the LPI analyzed orbital data and provided information about the permanently shadowed regions in terms of temperatures and volatile stability along generalized routes within surface exploration zones.

"The orbital data provide a reliable framework from which to plan surface exploration for missions like those of the Artemis program. However, we haven't yet been to visit these areas, so we don't really know for sure exactly how much water ice there is, or what form it's in… and what else we might find with it," Stopar said.

The Artemis missions will collect many lunar samples in sealed containers and return them to Earth for detailed analysis. Once disturbed or sampled, these materials are no longer in exactly the same state as they would have been on the Moon. This includes changes to the pressure or temperature they are exposed to. Volatile materials are sensitive to temperature and pressure changes and can change states if they are no longer stable under different conditions. Some samples would be best preserved at very low temperatures, but replicating the Moon's environment is very challenging. The questions addressed in this study are what types of information can be gained from these samples and, equally important, what information will be lost by allowing them to warm to some degree after sampling.

Bringing samples containing volatiles back to Earth requires careful planning. Low-temperature sample preservation, or "cold storage," can be used to reduce the chemical changes in sampled volatiles during transit, improving the overall science outcomes later. However, cold storage is technically challenging to achieve. By visiting the south polar regions and studying the materials there, we will certainly gain invaluable insight into what's at the Moon's poles, but sampling and studying volatiles requires aligning science and exploration goals with sampling and curation approaches.

For more information, visit https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2321071121.

About USRA

Founded in 1969, under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences at the request of the U.S. Government, the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) is a nonprofit corporation chartered to advance space-related science, technology, and engineering. USRA operates scientific institutes and facilities and conducts other major research and educational programs. It is an association with 121 university members. It engages the broader university community, employs in-house scientific talent, and offers innovative research, development, and project management expertise. More information about USRA is available at www.usra.edu.

About LPI
The Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI), operated by Universities Space Research Association, was established during the Apollo program in 1968 to foster international collaboration and to serve as a repository for information gathered during the early years of the space program. Today, the LPI is an intellectual leader in lunar and planetary science. The Institute serves as a scientific forum attracting world-class visiting scientists, postdoctoral fellows, students, and resident experts; supports and serves the research community through newsletters, meetings, and other activities; collects and disseminates planetary data while facilitating the community's access to NASA astromaterials samples and facilities; engages and excites the public about space science and invests in the development of future generations of scientists. The research carried out at the LPI supports NASA's efforts to explore the solar system. More information about LPI is available at www.lpi.usra.edu.

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SOURCE Universities Space Research Association