Is there enough water on the moon for future cities?
Is there enough water on the moon for future cities? New estimates say there could be enough for smaller villages or towns, but not larger metropolises. The post Is there enough water on the moon for future cities? first appeared on EarthSky .
Is there enough water on the Moon for future cities? A new study suggests the answer is likely no for larger cities. While smaller villages could potentially exist for centuries, a city housing up to a million people would likely run out of water within a century, according to scientists Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell. The researchers based their conclusion on calculations of lunar water sources, primarily ice locked in permanently shadowed craters at the Moon's poles.
Though estimates vary, the study suggests there could be up to a billion tons of ice in these cold traps, enough to sustain a small settlement for decades with 98% water recycling. However, improving recycling efficiency by a factor of 10 or discovering more water would be necessary to support a large, permanent human settlement.
The findings, published in Frontiers in Space Technologies, emphasize the need for more comprehensive surveys of lunar ice deposits to determine the feasibility of long-term Moon colonization.
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