One of the big science stories in the news now is that Earth’s Moon has more water than scientists expected. Here is a link to just one of the hundreds of stories flooding news feeds.
The Moon Has More Water Than Originally Thought (Scripps News, YouTube)
This round of stories has been inspired by this article.
A story about unexpected amounts of water on our Moon is certainly noteworthy, but it’s not the first time that a slew of news stories have heralded an unexpected abundance of water on the moon. In fact, it’a almost becoming a yearly ritual during the Northern Hemisphere’s late spring to mid-summer sluggish news season (probably not coincidentally, also highly correlated with summer vacation season).
For example, this article from Science Magazine about water in volcanic materials on the Moon made the rounds of news media throughout the first half of summer of 2011.
Then this MIT News press release in 2012 and similar stories about water in Shackleton Crater made the rounds that summer.
Mapping the Moon’s Shackleton Crater (MIT News Office, YouTube)
NASA’s Goddard Space Center posted this video about the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter’s (NASA) findings regarding water on the Moon in June, 2013. Predictably, the story made the rounds that summer.
NASA Goddard (YouTube Channel)
NASA Goddard (Official Website)
The list goes on, but point made.
Of course, “scientific knowledge for the sake of knowledge” is wonderful stuff, but the real kicker to all of the stories is that unexpectedly high amounts of water on the Moon means that humans are much more likely to be able to establish viable bases there, and so plans for Colonization of the Moon are rendered far more realistic.
So walking on the Moon “may” become less the stuff of hypothetical dreams than it has been since the Apollo 17 astronauts were last there back in 1972. Something to look forward to, right? Well, at least it is if you happen to be an astronaut or have mega bucks, but that’s another story…
In the meantime, us Earth-bound folk are going to have to continue to make do with a combination of real recordings and simulated experiences. Here’s a link to a great two minute 360° video that does a fine job of combining both types of experiences.
VR Walk on the Moon with Gene Cernan (USA Today, YouTube)
Enjoy & Dream!
Finally, if you want to learn more about space and space travel, explore Space Depot!
Touch the 360° image to begin exploring, touch the objects and doors to enter virtual 360° experiences, and touch “i”s to learn about the experiences.
You can also see it directly on Kuula.
Find out more about Good Old Luna …
