Nasa Found Water On The Mooonnnnnn!

[Garland]

I doubt the ordinary colonising the moon would alter the course of the moon's orbit. All orbiting bodies wobble and shimmy a little bit and change course (a tiny bit) over thousands of years. The real threat would probably come from mass drivers. Shooting ships and cargo into space using a giant electro-magnetic gun might, in the course of a hundred years or so, alter the moon's course enough that it begins affecting the tides.



And I know someone will mention the scene from the The Time Traveler when an accident during mining blows the moon apart. I would like to point out that it's impossible to blow up a planet*, short of using a massive anti-matter bomb. No matter how much force is used, the gravity well where the planet was will just suck all the pieces back in and coalesce back into a planet again. And that's considering that you had several (hundred) million (or billion) Tsar Bomba's inserted directly into the core.



*Yes, I called the moon a planet in this example. I am referring to the way it was formed and the structure it had. A lot of planets would be called moons if they were orbiting around bigger planets. You could even say the earth is one of the sun's moons.



Enough rambling off-track, several bucketfuls of water doesn't excite me. For all the effort to get up there, two people have drinking water for a week or two. Big deal. It's gonna take a lot more than that if anybody expects the colony to live off of moon water. That's not even enough hydrogen to get a return vehicle back into orbit (NASA was hoping that moon water could be used to create hydrogen fuel for ships returning home).

 

[Arithen]

yes, I realize it is not a large quantity of water at all. but the fact is it IS water and we've always just thought of and pictured the moon as some strange gray desert. It is unlikely that those few bucketfuls are the only bucketfuls on the moon and it is an incredible find none the less. Personally speaking, it shouldnt just be shoved over as another "meh" of a discovery.

 

[Chevysrule]

According to Popular Science, My link, there is more than a few bucketfuls of water on the moon. I mean, 24 gallons (and more yet to be found) is really significant, and there could very well be a somewhat large quantity of water hiding below the surface.