Exospheric transport restrictions on water ice in lunar polar traps

Details Exospheric transport restrictions on water ice in lunar polar traps Exospheric transport restrictions on water ice in lunar polar traps

Nov 1991

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1991georl..18.2113h&link_type=abstract

Geophysical Research Letters (ISSN 0094-8276), vol. 18, Nov. 1991, p. 2113-2116.

Physics

15

Lunar Resources, Selenology, Water, Argon, Lunar Rocks, Lunar Surface

Scientific paper

There is little doubt that at least 10 exp 17 g of water has accreted on the moon as a result of the reduction of ferric iron at the regolith surface by solar wind protons, the vaporization of chondrites, and perhaps comet impacts. Lacking an efficient escape mechanism, most of this water (or its progeny) is probably on the moon now. If the water were to have migrated to permanently shaded cold traps near the lunar poles, ice deposits with densities greater than 1000 g/sq cm would cover the traps, providing accessible resources. However, exospheric transport considerations suggest that the actual amount of water ice in the cold traps is probably too small to be of practical interest. The alternative is global assimilation of most of the water into the regolith, a process that must account for about 30 micromoles of water per gram of soil.

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