Possibly 20% of water at Shackleton crater

[kamaz]

Once more, LRO delivers:

"Water ice in amounts of up to 20 percent is a viable possibility," study lead author Maria Zuber, a geophysicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told SPACE.com.

Don't get your hopes up, though. The amount of ice in Shackleton Crater "can also be much less, conceivably as little as zero," Zuber cautioned.

This uncertainty is due in part to what the researchers saw in the rest of the crater. Bizarrely, while the crater's floor was relatively bright, Zuber and her colleagues observed that its walls were even more reflective.

Scientists had thought that if highly reflective ice were anywhere in a crater, it would be on the floor, which live in nearly permanent darkness. In comparison, the walls of Shackleton Crater occasionally see daylight, which should evaporate any ice that accumulates.

http://www.space.com/16222-moon-wate...on-crater.html

See also: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news...un_shackleton/

Nature paper: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal...ture11216.html

[djellison]

"Conceivably as little as zero"

So the signal they're attributing to ice, is stronger on the walls where they should be no ice at all. To me - this almost doesn't count as evidence for ice at all.

I find it astonishing that it's this hard to get a handle on this. We need in-situ study and sample return.

[Anthrage]

I agree. I am not as bullish on the moon as a destination as some, but if we as a species had not let this particular ability of ours - human travel to our natural satellite - atrophy and fall away, this absurd exercise would not be necessary. It's rather sad.