As they say, the third time is the charm. Three different missions to the moon have relayed back evidence of water. There were traces of water in the moon rocks brought back by Apollo, but that was attributed to contamination. Three more recent examinations have found evidence of water: India’s Chandrayaan-1 probe detected water by mapping wavelengths of light from the moon’s surface, the Cassini probe found evidence of global distribution of the water signal, and the Deep Impact spacecraft found evidence by infrared detection.
The amount of water on the moon is miniscule by Earth standards, with one ton of lunar surface holding about 32 ounces. Link -via Digg
"The Deep Impact observations of the Moon not only unequivocally confirm the presence of [water/hydroxyl] on the lunar surface, but also reveal that the entire lunar surface is hydrated during at least some portion of the lunar day," the authors wrote in their study.
The findings of all three spacecraft "provide unambiguous evidence for the presence of hydroxyl or water," said Paul Lucey of the University of Hawaii in an opinion essay accompanying the three studies. Lucey was not involved in any of the missions.
The new data "prompt a critical reexamination of the notion that the moon is dry. It is not," Lucey wrote.
The amount of water on the moon is miniscule by Earth standards, with one ton of lunar surface holding about 32 ounces. Link -via Digg
And so they say that is far less than even in the driest desertplace anywhere on Earth.
So that is like far worse than looking for the proverbial needle in the haystack- That is like looking for the broken pinhead... So on Earth if you measure that kind of amount of almost any substance, you have to triple or even more often chack if you by accident did not slightly contaminate your measuring equipment.
It is even said that with current state of technology it is about near to impossible to win that water from the Moon-soil. Ooky, it is there. but most of our current equipment is far too cumbersome and not refined to get it.
And yet it is important and there will be use for it some day, because even that tiny amount of water would cost a Fat Bundle if we would have to haul it up from Earth all the way to Moon-surface.
There are lots of scenario's to put lots of polluting industries outside our planet on the moon. This would benefit the ecology on our own planet greatly, since we are still developing more and more toxic needs to do the things we want to in our drive to get more and more technically developed.
So the word "seems" is the defining one, because in fact it is not.