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A Discovery class proposal from Alan Stern to provide water to lunar explorers, Space.com article
At lunar impact speeds, virtually all of the ice will come to rest less than 5 feet (1.5 meters) below the surface if properly pre-fractured. Also, work done on the concept indicates that a majority of the water ice that is slammed into the Moon is retained, with only 15 percent vaporized.
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I don't know if I buy that. Sounds like more Rube Goldberg nonsense to undermine greater lift capability in LVs.
What do you expect from the white-coats and pointy-heads? I'll take a soft landing for my water supplies, thank you very much.
Let me shut off his running water and have him gather hailstones to drink and see how he likes it. And imagine how hard he will huff and puff without a suit. Or how much oxygen he would burn in the attempt.
Please...
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Why do we need to bother with water? We have all the oxygen we need on the Moon, we just need hydrogen to make it into water and that weighs 1/8th what water does.
Infact, the present means of making oxygen from Lunar soil is to react oxygen-bearing minerals with hydrogen to form water, then crack that water into hydrogen and oxygen again. Recycle the hydrogen and repeat.
[i]"The power of accurate observation is often called cynicism by those that do not have it." - George Bernard Shaw[/i]
[i]The glass is at 50% of capacity[/i]
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That is good for the future--but for starters, I'd rather re-use water and just keep sending more per mission to build up something of a stockpile. I see LUNOX propellant schemes--maybe even LSAMS at a later date, but I would settle for a nice large soft-landed tank to keep water in and build my water supplies over time--preferably in segmented H2O tanks to cut down on micrometeoroid loss. The water will freeze the opening shut, where hydrogen by itself is a lot harder to contain. Water is dense and rather inert.
With water and tankage delivered to the moon, you can make the most of the water for heating, cooling, etc. Bulk hydrogen can come later. As other missions land nearby. I want to see the tanks on the landers filled with H2O over time. As the ascent stage leaves, the stump of the base can be turned into some sort of still as you suggest. I want to see the stumps of the landers used as roofs with inflatable antennas and habitats place on or about them.
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