Preprint Review Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Is There Water Ice in the Lunar Polar Craters?

Version 1 : Received: 30 May 2020 / Approved: 31 May 2020 / Online: 31 May 2020 (21:58:06 CEST)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Sun, T. Hydrogen Ice within Lunar Polar Craters. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 2022, 47, 34825–34830, doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2022.08.071. Sun, T. Hydrogen Ice within Lunar Polar Craters. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 2022, 47, 34825–34830, doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2022.08.071.

Abstract

This literature review found that it is doubtful that there is water ice in the polar craters on the Moon. In the course of this review, the following findings were found: (1) The absorption strength of hydroxyl radicals and hydroxyl groups are all 2.9μm, so it is easy to confuse hydroxyl radicals and hydroxyl groups when interpreting M3 spectra data. I do not doubt the ability of LCROSS to detect OH from water, but only suspect that LCROSS is unable to distinguish between hydroxyl radicals from water ice and hydroxyl groups from Moon's methanol due to ignore their spectral identity; (2) The water brought by comets and asteroids and the one caused by solar wind has been exhausted by reacts with the widespread methanol on the Moon in the presence of Pt/α-MoC or Pt/C catalysts. These reacts form large amount of hydrogen, thus clarifying a question NASA raised that "Scientists have long speculated about the source of vast quantities of hydrogen that have been observed at the lunar poles"; (3) The vast quantities of hydrogen in lunar polar craters at extremely low temperatures might be in liquid or solid state now, easy to confuse with water ice. It seems that all our previous misconceptions about water ice in the lunar polar craters might be due to the neglect of the widespread chemical role of lunar methanol. It is necessary to conduct in-depth research in this field in the future.

Keywords

water ice; hydroxyl radicals; methanol; hydroxyl groups; spectral identity; confusion

Subject

Physical Sciences, Astronomy and Astrophysics

Comments (0)

We encourage comments and feedback from a broad range of readers. See criteria for comments and our Diversity statement.

Leave a public comment
Send a private comment to the author(s)
* All users must log in before leaving a comment
Views 0
Downloads 0
Comments 0
Metrics 0


×
Alerts
Notify me about updates to this article or when a peer-reviewed version is published.
We use cookies on our website to ensure you get the best experience.
Read more about our cookies here.