CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Recent soil and rock samples from the moon’s far side suggest drier conditions compared to the side facing Earth, Chinese scientists reported on Wednesday. This discovery offers new insight into the moon’s composition, but the researchers have emphasized that further samples are necessary to paint a clearer picture of the lunar environment.
The findings, published in the journal Nature, come from soil collected by China’s Chang’e 6 spacecraft, which became the first to land on the moon’s far side last year. The spacecraft retrieved volcanic rock and dirt from the South Pole-Aitken basin, one of the solar system’s largest impact craters.
Sen Hu, a scientist from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, led the research and explained that his team received 5 grams of soil samples, from which 578 particles were selected for electron microscope analysis. The results indicated that the water abundance in the lunar samples was less than 1.5 micrograms per gram, a figure on the drier end compared to the 1 to 200 micrograms per gram typically found in samples from the moon’s Earth-facing side.
“We estimate the water abundance at less than 1.5 micrograms per gram,” Hu said. “This places it on the dry end of what’s been found in samples gathered from the moon’s near side over past decades.”
However, Hu noted that with only a small sample size, it remains uncertain how widespread this dry condition might be. “More far side samples are required for testing and further unraveling” the extent of water on the far side, he said in an email.
The researchers have proposed several possible explanations for this discrepancy. One theory suggests that the impact that created the South Pole-Aitken basin could have blasted water elements to the near side of the moon, leaving the far side drier. Alternatively, the vertical distribution of water may differ between the two hemispheres of the moon.
Despite the initial findings, the dryness of the far side is not expected to alter current lunar exploration plans. NASA’s Artemis program, aimed at sending astronauts to the moon’s south pole, is still on track. The south pole is believed to contain permanently shadowed craters filled with large amounts of ice, which could potentially be used for drinking, cooking, and even rocket fuel.
NASA plans to send four astronauts around the moon in 2024, with a lunar landing near the south pole expected no earlier than 2027. China, meanwhile, is also working towards its astronaut moon landing by 2030.
As scientists continue to explore the moon’s far side, these early findings contribute to the growing understanding of our closest celestial neighbor and its potential for future human exploration.
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