Reason for Establishing first Lunar Outpost:

[beecee]

https://phys.org/news/2018-08-ice-moon-poles.html

Ice confirmed at the Moon's poles

August 21, 2018, Jet Propulsion Laboratory:

In the darkest and coldest parts of its polar regions, a team of scientists has directly observed definitive evidence of water ice on the Moon's surface. These ice deposits are patchily distributed and could possibly be ancient. At the southern pole, most of the ice is concentrated at lunar craters, while the northern pole's ice is more widely, but sparsely spread.
 

A team of scientists, led by Shuai Li of the University of Hawaii and Brown University and including Richard Elphic from NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley, used data from NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) instrument to identify three specific signatures that definitively prove there is water ice at the surface of the Moon.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-08-ice-moon-poles.html#jCp

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http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/08/14/1802345115

Direct evidence of surface exposed water ice in the lunar polar regions:

Significance

We found direct and definitive evidence for surface-exposed water ice in the lunar polar regions. The abundance and distribution of ice on the Moon are distinct from those on other airless bodies in the inner solar system such as Mercury and Ceres, which may be associated with the unique formation and evolution process of our Moon. These ice deposits might be utilized as an in situ resource in future exploration of the Moon.

Abstract

Water ice may be allowed to accumulate in permanently shaded regions on airless bodies in the inner solar system such as Mercury, the Moon, and Ceres [Watson K, et al. (1961) J Geophys Res66:3033–3045]. Unlike Mercury and Ceres, direct evidence for water ice exposed at the lunar surface has remained elusive. We utilize indirect lighting in regions of permanent shadow to report the detection of diagnostic near-infrared absorption features of water ice in reflectance spectra acquired by the Moon Mineralogy Mapper [M (3)] instrument. Several thousand M (3) pixels (∼280 × 280 m) with signatures of water ice at the optical surface (depth of less than a few millimeters) are identified within 20° latitude of both poles, including locations where independent measurements have suggested that water ice may be present. Most ice locations detected in M (3) data also exhibit lunar orbiter laser altimeter reflectance values and Lyman Alpha Mapping Project instrument UV ratio values consistent with the presence of water ice and also exhibit annual maximum temperatures below 110 K. However, only ∼3.5% of cold traps exhibit ice exposures. Spectral modeling shows that some ice-bearing pixels may contain ∼30 wt % ice that is intimately mixed with dry regolith. The patchy distribution and low abundance of lunar surface-exposed water ice might be associated with the true polar wander and impact gardening. The observation of spectral features of H₂O confirms that water ice is trapped and accumulates in permanently shadowed regions of the Moon, and in some locations, it is exposed at the modern optical surface.

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A Lunar outpost although obviously difficult to undertake in the first instance, can have tremendous impetus in facilitating and undertaking  manned planetary landings further afield , obviously  to Mars. An International Lunar outpost would spread the costs, and share many skills and knowledge around that can make this project easier. Asteroid and Lunar mining  would probably be required and desirable.

Thoughts?

 

Also from memory, water has been evidenced on the Moon at least two decades ago when they crashed a probe called Clementine into one of the polar regions, and the resultant ejecting stuff contained traces of water.

[Airbrush]

Very interesting.  Could the Moon be used as a factory for manufacturing breathable oxygen, fuel, and water that can be launched from the Moon to Mars?  We could land robotic digging machines on the Moon to process water ice into these valuable components.  How long would it take to develop the technology to land on the Moon and excavate water ice and process it for delivery of air, water, and fuel to Mars or elsewhere?  Of course these can be used on the Moon for the outpost.

Edited August 22, 2018 by Airbrush