Sunlight and Moon dust are all it takes—solar hydrogen reacts with lunar soil's oxygen to form water, offering a potential resource for future lunar missions.
Solar wind bombards the Moon with hydrogen protons that collide with lunar minerals, releasing oxygen atoms and forming water—a process successfully replicated in the lab by NASA scientist Li Hsia Yeo.
After removing Earth's moisture from lunar samples, scientists bombarded them with solar-like particles, revealing fresh water signals—an experimental first.
Using Apollo 17 dust, NASA simulated 80,000 years of solar exposure in days, showing that water can form molecule by molecule in the vacuum of space.
This discovery could extend to asteroids and Mercury, hinting at solar wind–driven water formation across other rocky bodies in our solar system.
Jason McLain called their setup a “lab-sized Moon.” It recreated lunar vacuum conditions, isolating Earth's effects to study water formation with precision.
Solar wind–created water could fuel Artemis missions. NASA aims to tap this lunar resource—even in sunlit regions beyond the Moon's poles.