For the first time water detected on the Moon by a rover located directly on the surface

Information that there is water on the Earth’s satellite has been received from scientists for a long time. For example, just two years ago, NASA researchers climbed in a mobile laboratory aboard a Boeing 747 into the planet’s stratosphere, after which they confirmed the presence of water on the lunar surface using infrared radiation. But these were all theoretical conclusions obtained by orbiting spacecraft using remote sensing, while now an international group of scientists led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences has received practical evidence of the existence of water on the surface of the earth’s satellite – they were provided by the Chinese spacecraft “Chang’e-5” directly from the surface The moon.

Actually, the Chinese spacecraft consisted of three components – a lander, an orbiter, and a reentry vehicle. This entire system, under the guidance of scientists from all over the world, made it possible to deliver lunar surface samples to Earth on December 17, 2020 – this happened for the first time since the delivery of lunar rock samples by the Soviet Luna-24 apparatus in 1976. The resulting samples of the satellite’s surface were actively studied, and on January 7 in the scientific journal Science Advances, a publication appeared that scientists were able to detect traces of the presence of water in the rocks and regolith of the Moon. It is present in the form of hydroxyl molecules Hâ‚‚O or OH, and the samples themselves were collected in the Ocean of Storms – close enough to the satellite’s equator.

The information received is extremely important for future space missions – for example, NASA said that information about the presence of water and its location on the lunar surface is necessary for a plan to land a man on a satellite of the Earth, which is to take place in 2024. But the device “Chang’e-5” has already worked out – although the delivery of samples was successful, the lander did not survive the moonlit nights, froze and can no longer perform the tasks assigned to it.

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