It is well known that Moon has water. I am interested in the chemical quality, and in particular the types of ionic species, pH, specific conductivity and TDS.
Long back it is reported to have water in planet Moon. If water and rock both present and proper residence time than to have water- rock interaction. The disintegration - dissociation and dissolution processes may exits or not. How the chemical kinetic behavior differ from the water body of earth.
Thanks Joachim for giving me series of references mostly described the presence of water in Moon etc.Which is similar to water of earth. My question is not related to isotopic composition also. Water is simply H2O but when it react with soil and mineral etc and also with gases its quality may change. My question is related with the constituents present in that water which was discovered/found.In particular pH, specific conductivity and TDS. However I am thankful to you for your interest in this question.
- In the 1985, I collaborated with Peter Borgesen and W.Moeller at the Max-Plank Institute for Plasma Physics in Garching (Germany), as to use their ion implanter equipped with a on-line mass spectrometer, to estimate the water desorption yield of lunar silicates and glasses, when they are subjected to implantation of solar wind hydrogen. Note that we did use a deuteron (D) beam rather than H, as to avoid contamination by terrestrial H2O. We were amazed about the excellent yield of desorb water of about 10-4 D2O molecule for each incident D . Sure enough we had a new source of exotic water on the Moon (i.e., both solar, by H, and lunar, by O).
- These molecules are ejected in ballistic motions in the ultra-thin lunar atmosphere, with a fraction being collected in the permanently shadowed and frozen regions of the Moon, such as the lunar poles --See: Blandford, Borgesen, Maurette, Moller, Monnart, On-line analysis of simulated solar wind implantation of terrestrial analogues of lunar materials (1986) JGR, 91, 467), and Blandford et al (1985) Hydrogen and water desorption on the Moon: Approximate on-line simulations, in Lunar Bases and Space Activities in the 21st Century, Ed. W.W.Mendel (NASA Book).
- The resulting ice would next react ( in a complex way) with lunar material during micrometeorite impacts. In brief, your problem has still not been solved. Possibly, clays minerals might be present at the lunar poles. And related processes effective on the first wall of fusion reactors might perturb their functioning.
Michel, Thanks for your very kind interest in this subject. Appreciate your valuable information about the moon which is useful for us.
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