In the 50 years since the first lunar sample return, the investigation of H2O in the Moon has experienced several stages of developments and paradigms. In the early years since Apollo sample return, only bulk soil and bulk rock samples were analyzed for H2O as well as other volatiles. From 1970 to 2007, it was thought that the Moon is essentially devoid of innate H2O, containing probably less than 1 ppb. New technologies gradually enabled the measurements of H2O in lunar glass beads, soil glass, minerals such as apatite and anorthite, and olivine-hosted melt inclusions. The advancements in measurement techniques led to improved data and new insights. Starting from 2008, significant H2O in deep-sourced lunar rocks has been reported, resulting in a paradigm shift from a bone-dry Moon to a fairly wet Moon, although there is still debate about whether the bulk silicate Moon contains similar to 100 ppm of H2O (similar to that in the Earth's MORB mantle) or only a few ppm H2O. The advances on our knowledge of H2O in the Moon is accompanied by increased understanding of other volatiles in the Moon. Gradually, the degrees of depletion of various volatiles in the Moon relative to the Earth were inferred. Using assessed data from available lunar samples, mostly the melt inclusions, and also bulk rock analyses, it is found that the inferred degrees of depletion for volatile elements in the Moon relative to the Earth do not vary much and are independent of the condensation temperature. It is proposed that an early veneer delivered the volatiles to both the Earth and the Moon, but the Moon received proportionally less of the early veneer planetesimals. In addition to H2O in the interior of the Moon, significant surface H2O in the form of ice in lunar polar regions and structural OH in agglutinate glass in lunar regolith originating from solar wind implantation has also been gradually quantified.
