Scientists from the Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), presenting their latest findings from the Lunar Prospector mission at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, Texas, say Lunar Prospector data has revolutionized our view of the Moon -- but no one realized how much.

Los Alamos scientists built three of the five instruments that were aboard the Lunar Prospector spacecraft, and their studies include data on Moonquake activity, further confirmation of the presence of water-ice on the moon, and mapping of iron and titanium using gamma-rays emitted when cosmic rays slam into the lunar surface.

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The data analyzed from Prospector also provided the first global elemental lunar study to date. "You can't take samples of just a few locations on the Moon, like the Apollo missions did, and say you know the composition of the whole Moon. It would be like taking a rock from Paris and Los Angeles and a snap shot of Tokyo and saying you know everything about Earth's composition. It's like a detective story -- you have to put all of the pieces of information together to see the whole picture," said David Lawrence, a Los Alamos researcher.

Neutron Spectrometer data, coupled with calculations of sublimation processes, confirmed previous indications that the hydrogen in the permanently shaded regions of the lunar poles is in the form of water ice. Sublimation is the process by which solids are transformed directly to the vapor state without passing through the liquid phase. "Sublimation is the only mechanism that can account for observed differences between the hydrogen content of sunlit and permanently shaded craters near lunar poles," according to scientist WilliamFeldman.

In the partially sunny regions of the poles the water-ice will sublimate, whereas in the permanently shaded regions it will be trapped indefinitely. Hydrogen by itself is not stable at these temperatures and will only remain if it forms bonds -- becomes water-ice for example -- so the hydrogen detected in the permanently shaded regions of the poles must be in the form of water-ice. It is estimated that each pole may contain up to one billion tons of frozen water ice spread throughout the soil.

Feldman said, "These data suggest an exciting scenario for lunar colonization. The polar regions that border the permanently shaded craters are in sunlight 80-85 percent of the time and would make optimal space station sites. The stations would have access to the water-ice and the sunlight would provide solar power. And by being near the poles you see Earth most of the time, which means you can communicate."

Click here for the complete press release about LANL's findings.

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