Large Amount of Water Found at Lunar North Pole

A recent investigation into datasets collected by a small NASA radar instrument revealed that existence of more than 40 craters at the north pole of the Moon that could be holding water-ice. The finding is of epic proportions, especially when considering that the LCROSS impactor made similar discoveries for water-ice at the south pole region. Additionally, other data collected from various spacecrafts proved the existence of significant amounts of water particles in other areas of the lunar surface as well. According to early results, it could be that more than 600 million metric tons of water ice exist at the lunar north pole, Space Fellowship reports.

The new data was collected by the NASA Mini-SAR instrument, which was mounted aboard the Indian space agency's (ISRO) Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft. The lightweight, synthetic aperture apparatus found roughly 40 small craters containing the stuff. The discovery is of significant importance, given the fact that future missions to the Moon would undoubtedly need to be able to procure their drinking water on-site. Carrying tons of water from Earth would be too expensive, and completely unpractical. The ice could also be used to produce oxygen for life support systems, as well as hydrogen for rocket fuel, that astronauts would use to return home.

“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. The new discoveries show the moon is an even more interesting and attractive scientific, exploration and operational destination than people had previously thought,” says the Mini-SAR experiment principal investigator, Paul Spudis. He is an expert at the Houston, Texas-based Lunar and Planetary Institute. He adds that the craters found by the Mini-SAR instrument are between 2 and 15 kilometers (1 to 9 miles) in diameter.

“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,” adds Mini-RF Program program executive Jason Crusan, from the NASA Space Operations Mission Directoratem in Washington, DC. Full details of the discoveries made using the small synthetic-aperture radar are published in the latest issue of the respected scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters.