Drowning in the Sea of Tranquility
There is water on the moon! According to NASA spokesperson, Anthony Colaprete, “Indeed, yes, we found water. And we didn’t find a little bit, we found significant amounts.” You may recall in October NASA drove two rockets into the moon: one to generate dust and one to analyze it. The dust was a bust. Despite fanfare and a $79M investment, very little dust puffed from the impacts. Weeks later NASA’s drowning project now has a life vest. Also according to Colaprete – who happens to be the project’s leader, “the lunar crash kicked up at least 25 gallons.” NASA now believes an ‘abundance’ of water would make it easier to set up a base camp for astronauts.
I truly hate to rain on our space agency’s parade. 25 gallons in a blast site the size of Manhattan is more a drop than an ocean. Also, a sunny day on the moon’s surface will bake our base camp at about 214°F while on sunless days temperatures drop to around -300°F. No doubt the Apollo program yielded technology that helps us, today. What is NASA’s objective? Kicking around moon rocks in the future may not be our best investment. We have oceans and polar caps under environmental attack that need funding and focus or we may eventually be forced to live on the moon. Nice thing is you don’t need a rocket to get there and both have plenty of water.
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