Scientists at NASA say they've figured out a way to extract water from moondust, using the same old ordinary microwave ovens you and I use to extract "lunch" from frozen pizza-bricks:
"We believe we can use microwave heating to cause the water ice in a lunar permafrost layer to sublimate - that is, turn into water vapor. The water vapor can be collected and then condensed into liquid water. "Best of all, microwave extraction can be done on the spot. And it requires no excavation -- no heavy equipment for drilling into the hard-frozen lunar surface."Microwaving Water from Moondust (NASA)
Image: Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean holds up a thermos full of moondust. (courtesy NASA)
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whoah check out the secret russian geodesic dome structures in the visor reflection...
Yes, you can also create an atmosphere there by reducing the aluminum oxide to oxygen and aluminum (a useful byproduct too) - but please keep this on the q.t. it's only been known for decades!
No big deal. Soils lab techs have used microwave ovens as a quickie method for drying out soils for determining their moisture contents for years and years.
It's just the "rocket scientists" thinking of a new way to use an old trick.
C'mon guys, would it kill you to use the water coolers located just beyond the edge of the secret conspiracy soundstage between shoots? What you put our props guys through just to save yourself that 90 seconds...
Got a question here. I'm in South Florida, and the moon is rising from the Atlantic heading West-South West. What would be the orientation of the moon's South Pole from here?
Amazing how a little controversy unveils truth in bits and pieces. Earlier this week a group of concerned individuals made YouTube video spots protesting the NASA project to find water in the lunar surface. Their concern was over the fact that NASA intended on crashing a craft in the lunar surface. The NASA response assured everyone that the moon is constantly pelted with meteors on a daily basis, and this crash would a lesser impact than what the moon already endures. How convenient that the very same topic and explanation was not discussed during any lunar landing missions. It makes me wonder that if a landing site, or craft, or astronaut was 'pelted' by one of the meteoroids back then, would the mission have been a success? By the way, how did NASA know that the landing site wasn't going to be suddenly pelted? On Earth we have nearly 3,000 meteoroids entering out atmosphere a day. Why would the moon be much different?
Check out the visor reflection itself! The visor is reflecting the arm of the astronaut we see, but for the astronaut in the visor reflection to have taken the picture, he would have had to be elevated to get the arm reflection. The astronaut in the pic is casting two shadows, one in front, and one behind. The astronaut we see is casting a shadow in the wrong direction. His shadow is being cast in front of him, but the sun is illuminating the front of his suit and should have cast his shadow behind him. Is it my bad perception or does this pic defy laws of physics as we know them?