THE DETECTION AND ANALYSIS OF WATER ON THE MOON
Volatiles on the Moon has long been a hotspot of lunar science and explorations. Studying volatiles could help us understand not only the lunar evolutionary history, but also the Earth and even the entire Solar System. Among different kinds of volatile species (e.g. CO2, Ar, He, etc.), water arouses major attention. The main reason is that water could possibly be used as an in-situ resource for further exploration of the Moon and beyond. Different methods have been used to find evidence of lunar water and measure their contents. The methods include remote sensing observation, sample analysis, neutron detection, impact test and so on.
In recent years, to study the water (H2O/OH) content on the lunar surface has been set as a key scientific goal for several recent and upcoming lunar exploration missions. These missions include the China’s Chang’e-5 and Chang’e-6 missions. Chang’e-5 landed in the northern part of Oceanus Procellarum in 2020, and Chang’e-6 mission landed in the Apollo basin of South Pole-Aitken basin in 2024. Both missions carried a Lunar Mineralogical Spectrometer on the landers.
This spectrometer was used to perform in-situ spectral observation (0.48-3.2 μm) at the two landing sites for around an hour (lunar local time), which cover the absorption feature of H2O/OH and provide unprecedented opportunities to study lunar water based on in situ, remote sensing observations and returned lunar samples, which HKU has the access to. In this talk, I will go through the history of lunar water exploration, different methods of lunar water detection, and then focus on discussing the thermal correction methods of the near infrared spectral data. I will share my current research progress on the Chang’e-5 and Chang’e-6 spectra, and highlight the outstanding remaining questions.
Additional information: Miss TIAN Mingyu, mytian101@connect.hku.hk