Water on Mars. Image: NASA, 28 September 2015.

Earth has a water problem; we are slowly depleting one of our essential resources. But space may be the answer. There is water, for example, on Mars; NASA confirmed the presence of the liquid in 2015. There is water on the Moon; lunar deposits were identified in 2009. There is water on asteroids; commercial enterprises, such as Planetary Resources whose Arkyd 6 will use infrared imaging sensors, are developing ways to find, mine, and refine the liquid for uses including rocket fuel. As earth considers the future of water, should we look up?

Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License