nasa thinks there could be enough water
on the moon to create a lunar base
and support humans living there
we already knew that there was water ice
hidden
on the moon's desert-like surface but
now the thinking is these pockets of
water some no bigger than a penny
could be much more common and accessible
than we previously thought
tens of billions of potential ice
reservoirs
on the moon and so this expands greatly
the potential
reservoirs of water that could be
accessed for both scientific and
exploration purposes
scientists say that one day humans could
be drinking this water
using it to grow food or splitting its
molecules to make
rocket fuel to help us travel deeper
into space
the moon is a lot smaller than here on
earth the gravity is a lot less so it's
actually
more economical for us to launch
missions from the surface of the moon
than it would be
from earth and this could be happening
before the end of the century
but what does the surface of the moon
look like right now mountains
valleys dormant volcanoes and planes of
solidified lava
you can't step on the moon without
treading on a crater
that's because it's constantly being
bombarded by things like asteroids and
meteoroids and comets
and they've been hitting the moon for
billions of years
and because the moon has no atmosphere
once a mark is made
almost nothing can remove it and then
let's not forget about all the things
humans have left behind over the years
we are explorers we're looking to go
live on the moon and
and and do a lot of science there that
we couldn't achieve on the shorter
missions of say the apollo era
and then hopefully use use the moon as a
launch pad to take us onwards
deeper into the solar system to say mars