Water ice makes up about 5.6 percent of the total mass on the floor of Cabeus — making the crater about twice as wet as Sahara Desert soil, boosting hopes for future lunar bases.

That’s the picture painted by six new studies that analyzed the intentional moon crash of a NASA spacecraft on Oct. 9, 2009.

Cabeus harbors many other compounds, including elemental hydrogen, carbon monoxide, ammonia, methane, mercury, calcium, magnesium and silver. And these materials made up a surprisingly large chunk of the crater floor.