Free Moonbase Crisis: Star Challengers Book 1 by Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, June Scobee Rodgers Page B

Swiss cheese.”
    “Better than gold or platinum. It’s our most precious resource,” Major Fox said. “Buried in shadows in the darkest part of the crater, the lunar soil contains water ice.”
    “Pfft.” Song-Ye was not impressed. “All that work for ice cubes?”
    “I remember a couple of space probes searching for water ice on the Moon—Clementine in 1994, and LCROSS in 2009,” JJ said. “It was supposed to be really important for the future of the space program.”
    “Why do you say ‘water ice’ like it’s some big deal?” Song-Ye asked. “What else would ice be made of?”
    “I’ve heard of ammonia ice on some of the really cold planets or moons,” King said.
    “And you’ve seen dry ice, haven’t you?” Dyl asked
    “We use it to make creepy fog at Halloween,” JJ added. “Doesn’t even leave a puddle behind.”
    “Hence the term dry,” King said. “When it melts, it doesn’t become liquid like water ice does. It goes right from being solid to being a gas.”
    “Of course I’ve seen dry ice,” Song-Ye said over the suit radio. “My parents’ caviar is shipped to us on dry ice. Isn’t it frozen carbon dioxide or something like that?”
    “Precisely. Then it would seem you already knew the answer to your own question: not all ice is water ice,” Major Fox said. “Water is crucial to many aspects of life on the moonbase.” He checked over the automated machinery in the small refinery complex, studied the control panel and diagnostic readouts.
    “So, is there an ice lake buried down there under the dirt?” Song-Ye asked.
    Fox laughed out loud at this. “A lake? I wish we had that much! Sorry, Cadet, but the water is frozen into the regolith. When we heat the powdery soil, small amounts of water vapor escape, and we reclaim it.
    JJ had a sudden picture in her mind of a scientist with wild hair in a lab filled with glass dishes of dirt heating over Bunsen burners, while curly tubing carried clear liquid to drip into waiting beakers.
    Fox continued. “The H 2 O provides water for the crew to drink, but it has many more uses than that. Through a process called electrolysis, we split the hydrogen from the oxygen, so that we can breathe the oxygen and use the hydrogen in our fuel cells. And, by chemically assembling the hydrogen and oxygen in different combinations, we can make all the rocket fuel we need for the supply lander. The Halley is about to depart from the ISSC on its biannual run. After it delivers supplies to us next week, we’ll refuel the ship so that it can launch again and return to Earth orbit and the space station.”
    JJ listened, intrigued by how many uses the moonbase had for plain old water.
    “In fact, Cadet Wren,” Fox continued, “if those earlier space probes you mentioned hadn’t found water ice here, I doubt the base would ever have been built. We certainly could never survive without it. Chief Ansari, who is also our chemist, monitors the extraction of frozen water and its conversion into oxygen, hydrogen, or rocket fuel. Again, when there are only four crewmembers, the base’s water and oxygen requirements are much reduced. Therefore we’ve been able to stockpile our surplus fuel, in case the moonbase ever expands again.”
    “I hope it does,” King said. “All this work you do is amazing.”
    “Tell that to the people back on Earth, please,” Fox said. “I doubt anyone pays attention to us here anymore. The fact is, if we at Moonbase Magellan didn’t take care of ourselves and meet our own needs, ICSA back on Earth would consider this base too much trouble to maintain. They would probably just recall all personnel and abandon it in place.”
    A collective groan of dismay echoed across the suit radios. “After all the work and investment of building this huge base, how could we just turn our backs on it?” JJ exclaimed. “That’s not possible!”
    “Oh, it’s possible,” Fox assured her. “But believe me, Cadet, no one here wants that