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No touch
As NASA and other space agencies progress toward their goal of settling on the moon, questions remain about how scientists and settlers will actually survive once they get there.
Experts have suggested that the ice on the moon’s poles could be harvested for drinking water. But now NASA is arguing that the scientific potential of polar ice is potentially too great to be jeopardized, Space.com reports, because harvesting some of the ice could contaminate the rest.
Off-limits
Last month, NASA released a new guideline to protect anyone explored by a manned or robotic mission. As Space.com reports, the directive states that regions of polar ice have considerable scientific value and must be protected.
In short: stop, lest you ruin future attempts to analyze the ice.
Delicate balance
The directive only applies to NASA, so other space agencies or private companies like SpaceX could still chip the moon’s ice. But it could also erase the main opportunities to unravel the Moon’s mysterious past – or to search for signs of life.
“Some parts of the moon are very fragile, especially the lunar atmosphere and the colder parts of the lunar poles,” said Paul Lucey, planetary scientist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Space.com. “Intensive human activity can permanently alter these environments, leading to a loss of the science they can provide.”
READ MORE: Cold as ice (lunar): protect the polar regions of the moon from contamination [Space.com]
Learn more about moon ice: Study: There is a lot more water on the Moon than we thought
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