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Project Progress

Ice may exist in permanently shaded areas near the lunar poles, and would be an essential resource for human missions. High space weathering rates may have destroyed all the ice that accumulates by coldtrapping of water delivered to the Moon from space. The study of Schorghofer and Taylor (2006) investigates migration of H₂O into the regolith; in the subsurface the water is protected from space weathering. We identified two pathways for accumulation of subsurface H₂O. Figure 2 shows quantitative predictions for one of the pathways, that produces an adsorbed layer of H₂O at temperatures typical for permanently shaded areas receiving reflected sunlight.

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