China. Experimentally, analyzing samples brought back to Earth by the Chinese Chang’e-5 mission, it has been confirmed that typical lunar ULM-1 crystals contain a lot of water. They were collected in 2020 from a mid-latitude part of the Moon, at 43 degrees latitude—an area normally unstable for molecular water. Ammonium was found in the samples, which acted as a stabilizer for the water molecules. Evidence of the probable presence of water ice had previously been found in the permanently shadowed parts of the lunar poles. And the Apollo missions had found traces of water, at parts per million levels, buried within rare minerals and glass beads. The current evidence of the existence of water molecules in the sunlit regions of the Moon in the form of hydrated salts offers interesting prospects for the use and exploration of lunar resources. ULM-1: This is a “transparent, prismatic, plate-like crystal” – about the width of a human hair – which is actually an “Unknown Lunar Mineral” ULM-1. The study was published on July 16 in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy. ULM-1 crystals, chemical formula [(NH4)0.87 Na0.009 K0.021 Cs0.012][Mg0.97 Ca0.023 Al0.007] Cl3 6H2O, are made up of 41% water, with fragments of ammonia that keep the water molecules stable despite the temperature fluctuations on the Moon.
