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Science/Tech See other Science/Tech Articles Title: Tons of Water Ice Found on the Moon's North Pole Tons of Water Ice Found on the Moon's North Pole Tariq Malik SPACE.com Managing Editor SPACE.com – Mon Mar 1, 7:00 pm ET This story was updated at 6:39 p.m. ET. Vast pockets of water ice numbering in the millions of tons have been discovered at the north pole of the moon, opening up another region of the lunar surface for potential exploration by astronauts and unmanned probes, NASA announced Monday. A NASA radar instrument on an Indian moon probe found evidence of at least 600 million metric tons of water ice spread out on the bottom of craters at the lunar north pole. It is yet another supply of lunar water ice, a vital resource that could be mined to produce oxygen or rocket fuel to support a future moon base, NASA officials said. More than 40 craters ranging from 1 mile (2 km) to 9 miles (15 km) wide were found harboring the water ice, which was detected using NASA's Mini-SAR radar instrument on India's Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter. The instrument is also known as Mini-RF in NASA parlance. "After analyzing the data, our science team determined a strong indication of water ice, a finding which will give future missions a new target to further explore and exploit," said Jason Crusan, program executive for the Mini-RF Program for NASA's space operations program in Washington, D.C., in a statement. Water, water everywhere The ice was discovered in permanently shadowed craters at the moon's north pole. Similar conditions of perpetual night exist at the moon's south pole as well, where water ice was also confirmed to be present last year. Because these regions never see sunlight, water can stay in its frozen form indefinitely. Last September, NASA and other scientists confirmed without a doubt the existence of water ice at the moon's south pole, as well as signals of water molecules across large areas of the lunar surface. Several spacecraft, including India's Chandrayaan-1 probe that carried the radar instrument used for the new findings, found hard evidence of water on the moon. In October, NASA crashed two impactor probes into the lunar south pole in an attempt to kick up clouds of water ice and measure it from an orbiting spacecraft and other space and ground-based observatories. The subsequent analysis turned up significant amounts of water and water vapor in the debris cloud, NASA scientists said. "The emerging picture from the multiple measurements and resulting data of the instruments on lunar missions indicates that water creation, migration, deposition and retention are occurring on the moon," said Paul Spudis, principal investigator of the Mini-SAR experiment at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, in a statement. "The new discoveries show the moon is an even more interesting and attractive scientific, exploration and operational destination than people had previously thought." The research will be detailed in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Will astronauts go? Water ice is a tantalizing find anywhere on the moon because it can serve as a natural resource for astronauts on future lunar landing missions. The ice could be melted into drinking water or be separated into its component oxygen and hydrogen to provide breathing air and rocket fuel, NASA officials have said in the past. NASA had planned to send astronauts on new lunar landing missions by 2020 as part of its Constellation program. The program was building the new Altair moon landers, as well as the Orion spacecraft and Ares rockets needed to launch ferry them to lunar surface, but experts said it was extremely underfunded and behind schedule. Last month, President Barack Obama ordered NASA to cancel the Constellation program and focus on using commercial spacecraft to launch American astronauts to orbit instead. The move is aimed at freeing up NASA to concentrate on more lofty exploration missions, such as returning to the moon or sending astronauts to visit an asteroid, stable regions in space called Lagrange points or the moons of Mars. NASA chief Charles Bolden told members of the U.S. Senate and Congress last week that Mars is expected to be the ultimate destination for astronauts. But the moon, he said, is still a good interim target to serve as a stepping stone for more distant space exploration goals. Chandrayaan-1's Mini-SAR radar was one of two instruments involving NASA on India's Chandrayan-1 spacecraft. The probe also carried the Moon Mineralogy Mapper for NASA. A version of Mini-SAR, called Mini-RF, is riding on NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. India launched Chandrayaan-1 probe in October 2008 and carried 11 instruments to observe the moon from lunar orbit. It was India's first moon probe and carried an impactor probe that it unleashed in November 2008. The spacecraft went offline in late August 2009 after an abrupt malfunction cut off communications with Earth. India is planning a successor to Chandrayaan-1, dubbed Chandrayaan-2. The name Chandrayaan means "moon craft" in Sanskrit. The new Chandrayaan-2 mission is slated to launch in 2013, according to Indian news reports.
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#2. To: gengis gandhi (#0)
That's impossible. I don't think ice can exist long if there is no atmosphere, any ice would evaporate (sublimate) away. Unless............
many reports that the moon does have an atmosphere, along with other things that won't fit into the box. the moon itself is likely artificial....perfectly round, doesn't spin, circular orbit, rings as if hollow when struck by meteors, etc.
lol! Are you drunk man? The moon spins once every 30 days or so.
Edit: Dagnabit! Did it again! Took so long to compose my post that Pinguinite said it first and much more succinctly too... 8=> doesn't spin lol! Are you drunk man? The moon spins once every 30 days or so. I will amplify gg's post in an attempt to clarify: There is orbital motion and there is spin motion. Most planetary bodies exhibit both types of motion, including the earth. Both types of motion can affect the absolute orientation of a mass relative to its axis of rotation, with respect to a galactic or solar system coordinate grid. The moon is fixed in its orientation to the earth so the "spin" you refer to is an artifact of its orbital motion relative to the earth, its rate of rotation locked to its orbital motion by the earth's gravitational field. Contrary to intuition about spin but congruent with orbital mechanics, if the moon were to stay fixed in its orientation relative to the solar system grid thus rotating its orientation (having spin) relative to the earth, that would require an input of energy to break the grip of the earth's gravitational field. The fact that the moon's orientation is locked by the earth's gravitational field, showing only its face to the earth means that it is at a lower energy state than it would be if it were orbiting and remaining in a fixed orientation relative to the solar system grid and rotating from the earth's perspective. Hope that clarifies! 8=>
No clarification is needed. He said the moon doesn't spin. How are you going to clarify that?
Simply speaking the moon does not spin on its axis relative to the earth. Which is a true statement. It always shows the same side which is why there is a "Dark Side of The Moon". For which Pink Floyd is thankful.
Makes sense. Why would it?
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