Moon – University of New Mexico And Other Institutions Are Studying Volatile Materials From The South Pole Of The Moon – Part 2 of 3 Parts

Part 2 of 3 Parts
     Zachary Sharp is the director of the Center for Stable Isotopes at UNM. The Center specializes in the examination of stable isotopes of hydrogen, oxygen, and a wide range of other elements that can determine and provide a print of where those volatiles came from.
     Sharp stated that “No human has been to the south region that is permanently shadowed, so we really don’t know yet what’s actually in there. We have good ideas, but in detail, we don’t know the quantities of water, CO2, other gases, methane, or sulfur. It’s just not completely known.”
     This Artemis mission will place samples from the lunar surface in sealed containers and return them to Earth for further analysis. During the initial Artemis missions, the samples that are taken will be kept at higher temperatures than the extreme cold of the lunar cold traps. The questions addressed in this study focus on what information can be gained from these samples. It will be equally important to find out what information will be lost by allowing them to warm to some degree.
     One of the main problems with sampling this particular region of the moon is the extreme temperatures. The permanently shadowed regions of the southern pole on the Moon can reach temperatures of minus four hundred and fifty-three degrees Fahrenheit and that will make it very difficult for humans to explore.
     Bringing these samples back to Earth at higher temperatures than the extreme cold of the lunar south pole where they were collected will result in changes of these elements from solids to liquids or gases, which could result in the loss of important information and data.
     Sharp said, “One of the main efforts of our work was to say how we are going to return these samples at different temperatures and what information will be lost for these different storage conditions and which storage conditions will showcase the conditions closest to the moon”.
     Shearer and Sharp were able to review different scenarios with different temperature ranges to investigate what information might be lost. Their research also provided step by step procedures for how to eventually collect these samples to represent how they are where they were collected on the Moon.
     Another major concern in collecting these samples is that when the gases are sealed in containers and warmed, they could vaporize and reach extremely high pressures, potentially becoming toxic for human transportation. In addition, the appropriate portion size of the samples needs to be determined.
     Shearer said, “There needs to be portions. Whether going to the moon, Mars, or sampling from comets, you need to have the proper engineering, the proper tools to sample and preserve those volatiles. And if you don’t preserve them correctly, you lose information.”
     The UNM research laid out the fundamental questions that need to be addressed by the science teams for future lunar missions.
     NASA has decided to focus on the south pole region for a variety of reasons, from engineering to scientific. One reason is that humans have never been to that type of terrain. The south pole of the Moon contains shadowed regions along with some of the oldest crust on the Moon and one of the largest impact basins to be found in the solar system.UNM Center for Stable Isotopes
Please read Part 3 next