•The sources and chemical forms of water on the Moon are two: water carried by comets and other bodies that impact the Moon, and in situ production. The latter is theorized to be produced in small amounts by the chemical combination of hydrogen ions (protons) in the solar wind with oxygen atoms in the Moon’s minerals (oxides, silicates, etc.), forming water or its possible precursors, hydroxyl groups, trapped in a crystal lattice. Water (H2O) and the hydroxyl group (-OH), which is chemically related to it, exist as compounds (instead of free water) in the form of hydrates and hydroxides of Moon minerals. There is strong evidence that these compounds are present in large parts of the Moon’s surface at low concentrations. In fact, the presence of adsorbed water has been calculated in concentrations of parts per million to parts per thousand. The mineral-bound water or hydroxylated mineral surface should not be confused with water ice.
Uncertain evidence of the presence of liquid water on the Moon has been found in various models that assume the presence of bound hydrogen. Moon scientists have been debating the possibility of water deposits for decades. Now, they write in a report that they are “confident that the decades-long debate is over.” “There is water on the Moon everywhere, not just in minerals, but in fragmented form on the surface and probably in the form of ice blocks or slabs deep down.” In 1961, Caltech researchers Kenneth Watson, Bruce C. Murray and Harrison Brown first suggested that there might be ice in the bottoms of polar lunar craters. In 1978, it was reported that the samples returned by the Soviet Luna 24 probe contained 0.1% water by mass. In 1998, the Lunar Prospector spacecraft measured the amount of hydrogen in the regolith near the poles. This instrument is a neutron spectrometer that can detect the amount and location of hydrogen in up to 50 parts per million. In 2009, the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M³) instrument on the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft detected absorption features on the Moon’s surface at around 2.8-3.0 micrometers. On November 13, 2009, NASA announced that the spectral presence of water had been confirmed in the debris cloud created by the impact of the LCROSS spacecraft on the Cabeus crater. However, what was detected was the hydroxyl group (·OH). The principal mission scientist, Anthony Colaprete, stated that the ejecta appeared to contain ice with a crystalline structure that resembled water ice. Subsequent analysis determined that the concentration of water was “5.6% ± 2.9% by mass.”
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