A series of bursts of water vapor ions were observed by the instrument mass spectrometer at the lunar surface near the Apollo 14 landing site. The first direct evidence of water vapor near the Moon was obtained by the Apollo 14 ALSEP Suprathermal Ion Detector Experiment, SIDE, on March 7, 1971. However, a 2008 study of lunar rock samples revealed evidence of water molecules trapped in volcanic glass beads. Although trace amounts of water were found in lunar rock samples collected by Apollo astronauts, this was assumed to be a result of contamination, and the majority of the lunar surface was generally assumed to be completely dry. The possibility of ice in the floors of polar lunar craters was first suggested in 1961 by Caltech researchers Kenneth Watson, Bruce C. History of observations 20th century Apollo Program The search for the presence of lunar water has attracted considerable attention and motivated several recent lunar missions, largely because of water's usefulness in rendering long-term lunar habitation feasible. Water may have been delivered to the Moon over geological timescales by the regular bombardment of water-bearing comets, asteroids, and meteoroids or continuously produced in situ by the hydrogen ions ( protons) of the solar wind impacting oxygen-bearing minerals. Water was confirmed to be on the sunlit surface of the Moon by NASA on October 26, 2020. In August 2018, NASA confirmed that M 3 showed water ice is present on the surface at the Moon poles. For silicate bodies, such features are typically attributed to hydroxyl- and/or water-bearing materials. On 14 November 2008, India released the Moon Impact Probe onboard Chandrayaan-1 orbiter to impact into the Shackleton crater which helped confirm the presence of water ice. On 24 September 2009, it was reported that the NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M 3) spectrometer onboard India's Chandrayaan-1 probe had detected absorption features near 2.8–3.0 μm on the surface of the Moon. Spectral measurements shown minima near 3, 5, and 6 µm, distinctive valence-vibration bands for water molecules, with intensities two or three times larger than the noise level. In February 1978, it was published that laboratory analysis of these samples shown they contained 0.1% water by mass. On 18 August 1976, the Soviet Luna 24 probe landed at Mare Crisium, took samples from the depths of 118, 143, and 184 cm of the lunar regolith, and then took them to Earth. Inconclusive evidence of free water ice at the lunar poles had accumulated during the second half of the 20th century from a variety of observations suggesting the presence of bound hydrogen. In fact, of surface matter, adsorbed water is calculated to exist at trace concentrations of 10 to 1000 parts per million. ![]() Water (H 2O), and the chemicals related hydroxyl group (-OH), exist in forms chemically bounded as hydrates and hydroxides to lunar minerals (rather than free water), and evidence strongly suggests that this is the case in low concentrations as for much of the Moon's surface. Water molecules are also present in the extremely thin lunar atmosphere. Scientists have found water ice in the cold, permanently shadowed craters at the Moon's poles. ![]() Gradually water vapor is decomposed by sunlight, leaving hydrogen and oxygen lost to outer space. ![]() Diffuse water molecules can persist at the Moon's sunlit surface, as discovered by NASA's SOFIA observatory in 2020. Lunar water is water that is present on the Moon. The image shows the distribution of surface ice at the Moon's south pole (left) and north pole (right) as viewed by NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M 3) spectrometer onboard India's Chandrayaan-1 orbiter
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