Host Dave Schlom is joined by Dr. Bethany Ehlmann, Director of Caltech's Keck Institute for Space Studies and Principal Investigator for the upcoming Lunar Trailblazer mission. The small satellite has big ambitions, to map and characterize the amount of water (mostly in the form of ice but also bound to minerals) on the Moon. The story of water on the Moon is a fascinating detective story.
Back in the days of the Apollo missions from 1968-1972, most scientists thought that our natural satellite was a waterless world. But since the 1990s, it has become clear that water does exist on the Moon, mostly in deep craters that are "cold traps" which never see sunlight at their bottoms in the polar region. It's important to map and determine how much water their actually is since those ices could be used in the future to make rocket fuel to allow easier access to exploring the solar system!
