Water ice on the Moon – simulated detection in the LUNA facility

It is very likely that there is water ice on the Moon, for example in its south pole region where some craters never see sunlight. Water ice may have been hidden in these ‘cold traps’ for billions of years, but can humans use this water when they return to the Moon? Is the water frozen solid in the lunar dust? Is it chemically bound? Or are there perhaps even layers of ice in the permanently shadowed craters, either on the surface or underground?

To address these and other unanswered questions, the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) has teamed up with several universities to test how water could be detected on the Moon. Tests took place at the DLR–ESA LUNA Analog Facility in Cologne, where robotic and crewed lunar missions can be prepared in a realistic environment.

More on: DLR.de/en