Water will be a critical ingredient needed for humans have to prolonged stays on the surface of the moon, and water is quite heavy, which means transporting it will prove by expensive and inefficient. This means researchers need to look to other methods of producing or finding water on the surface of the moon.
A new report from Reuters states lunar soil samples acquired by China's Chang'e-5 mission and delivered to Earth in 2020 marked the first time in 44 years since humans got their hands on samples from Earth's closest neighbor. With these samples, researchers have been performing many forms of testing and analysis, and one team out of the state-run Chinese Academy of Sciences discovered the minerals within 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 tonne of lunar soil could produce as much as 51 - 76 kg of water, or about a hundred 500ml bottles of drinkable water, or the daily consumption of water by 50 people. The creation of a new method of producing water on the surface of the moon ties directly into China's plans to construct a lunar base by 2035, which will have the goal of permanent human residence.
"After three years of in-depth research and repeated verification, a brand-new method of using lunar soil to produce large amounts of water was discovered, which is expected to provide important design basis for the construction of future lunar scientific research stations and space stations," said CCTV
Moreover, it was NASA's head Bill Nelson that said back in May that lunar water could be used to create hydrogen rockets that would launch from the surface of the moon, making transit between Earth and the moon much less expensive and much more frequent.