Water will be a crucial ingredient for humans to stay on the lunar surface for extended periods of time, and water is quite heavy, meaning its transportation will be expensive and inefficient. This means researchers will need to look for other methods to produce or find water on the lunar surface.

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A new Report by Reuters According to China’s Chang’e-5 mission, lunar soil samples were brought to Earth in 2020, marking the first time in 44 years that humans have gotten their hands on samples from Earth’s closest neighbor. Using these samples, researchers have conducted many kinds of tests and analyses, and a team from the state-run Chinese Academy of Sciences has discovered that the minerals in the lunar soil samples are rich in hydrogen.

The “brand new method” involves heating the hydrogen, which then reacts with other elements to produce water vapor. According to the team, one ton of lunar soil could produce up to 51 – 76 kg of water, or about a hundred 500 ml bottles of drinking water, or the daily water consumption of 50 people. The development of a new method of producing water on the lunar surface is directly related to China’s plans to build a lunar base by 2035, aimed at permanent human settlement.

“After three years of intensive research and repeated verification, a brand new method of using lunar soil to produce large quantities of water has been discovered, which is expected to provide an important design basis for the construction of future scientific research stations and space stations on the Moon.“, CCTV said

In addition, NASA chief Bill Nelson explained in May that lunar water could be used to build hydrogen rockets that could launch from the lunar surface. This would make transits between the Earth and the Moon significantly cheaper and more frequent.