[Paradox]

Not a huge problem, sending water to the moon is relatively cheap and simply, ya just lob a big chunk of it (ice) to the moon, and let it crash there.

[Junior]

Meanwhile, the ESA is planning a secret mission to claim the water they told the rest of the world is not there...

Hey, I can create conspiracy theories with the best of them.

[mrsmith]

So, the jury is still out.
The value of the poles for settlement is that there is constant sunlight available for backup solar power.

[american_ranger]

Wow, a supply of water. It supplies oxygen and hydrogen. We can breath the oxygen and burn the hydrogen. Oh, wait a minute. We need energy to seperate the hydrogen and oxygen in water, Then we need oxygen to let hydrogen burn. But we breathed some of the oxygen so it is not available to burn.

This article is pure BS. We need more engineers as reporters.

[Red Badger]

Global warming, no doubt..........

[mikrofon]

Dunno, zooming in at Google Moon shows the following:

[Vaquero]

Ping

[DaGman]

Why is the federal government looking for more ways to waste money. There is no economic benefit in colonizing the moon. If this country had more money than it knew what to do with (i.e. nobody paid any taxes) I couldn't care less. Instead we are looking for more frivilous ways to spend more money.

[itsamelman]

[Moonman62]

It's not like there is any real reason to return to the Moon. It's just a government make work project, anyway.

[Hegemony Cricket]

Which reminds me - it's about time to track down a copy of "The Ice Pirates" to rent/buy...

[RebelBanker]

After the Earth was used up, we found a new solar system and hundreds of new Earths were terraformed and colonized. The central planets formed the Alliance and decided all the planets had to join under their rule. There was some disagreement on that point. After the War, many of the Independents who had fought and lost drifted to the edges of the system, far from Alliance control. Out here, people struggled to get by with the most basic technologies; a ship would bring you work, a gun would help you keep it. A captain's goal was simple: find a crew, find a job, keep flying.

[Vaquero]

Apu: Ooh, a head bag! Those are choc-full of... heady goodness!

[Leo Carpathian]

Easiest way to make ICE is to take the RICE and take away R and you end up with ICE. Add some algore global warmint and you get water. Add some surplus CO2 and you get club soda. Add some Scotch and civilization is fully suported.

[exile]

"Ice store at Moon's South Pole is a myth: study"

D@mn. We were this (holding two fingers really close together) close to getting Ted Kennedy to build a rocket for his fat @ss and a case of scotch.

[KevinDavis]

[free_at_jsl.com]

[Dominick]

Water? Its between the moonbase and the larger than safe nuclear waste dump...

[boris]

Two percent by mass is really quite good. I was part of a study that looked at 0.1, 1, and 10% by mass, and 1% is a pretty rich strike. The problem is all the mass you have to emplace on the moon to utilize the water. You need "lunar" earthmoving equipment suited to high vacuum and dusty regolith, spares, mechanics, a big power source (a reactor would be best), lots of food, medicine, a complete infirmary, etc, etc,...if you intend for people to be part of the process. Trying to do it robotically has its own problems but sending a human crew adds cost and mass.

What's the water for? Well, for life support, or for electrolyzing into propellants--you need LOTS of power for that--and then you have to lift the propellants back into orbit. Any payoff comes from the more modest gravity well of the Moon.

The payoff--if there is one--is S-L-O-W.

--Boris

[N. Theknow]

Ice store at Moon's South Pole is a myth: study

You mean there's no ozone hole on the moon?