NASA is considering its findings that enough water and other elements may exist on the moon to use it as a base point for missions to further space destinations
A little over a year ago, NASA sent up not one, but two rockets crashing into the moon and kicking up several hundred pounds of water, silver and mercury. Other chemicals were also released such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and ammonia.
Several reports in the Journal of Science show the amount of water that they discovered might just be enough to set up a space fueling station. NASA directed one of the rockets into a crater. It kicked up about two tons of material and it was estimated that it contained 5.6 percent water. That is more water than in the Sahara desert.
They can separate the water into it’s components, like hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen can be used for rocket fuel. If that would become possible then they could potentially use the moon as a launching point for other destinations. They could have missions to the moon of Saturn or Jupiter.
The silver that was found might just be tiny particles and not be in a form that can be mined, researchers were reporting. The mercury was an unpleasant find because there seems to be too much of it.
According to Kurt Retherford of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, “It’s toxicity could present a challenge for human exploration.”
Whether or not NASA does intend to send astronauts to the moon is still in question. The Obama administration proposed that NASA stop the plans for another mission to the moon and instead focus on sending humans to Mars.
In March, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, began to fight this proposal by introducing a bill for NASA to continue with the moon mission.
