Nestor_Kelebay
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The Google web page just changed it's "Google Doodle" or homepage image to commemorate the discovery of H2O on the Moon.
Last month, NASA sent the spent third stage of a rocket crashing into a crater near the south pole of the moon. 4 minutes later a spectrograph crashed into the same crater and sent back chemical analyses of the dust kicked up by the first crash. At the time, the mission was a PR dud because the large plume of dust expected to be kicked up just didn't materialize.
The information sent back from that mission has been analyzed, and NASA announced just a few hours ago that the dust ejected by the first crash contained H2O in the form of both ice crystals and water vapour.
Also, they didn't find just a bit of water, they found lots of it. So, they now know that there's plenty of water near the south pole of the Moon, at least.
That means that any human habitation on the Moon could use the existing water that's already there for both sustinance and to make rocket fuel. And, that in turn, means that the Moon can serve as a jumping off point for future manned missions deeper into space. Carrying water from Earth to the Moon would be prohibitively expensive, and would effectively limit exploration of the solar system to robotic missions. Finding water on the Moon makes human exploration and possible habitation of other planets and moons possible.
The Associated Press: Splash! NASA moon crash struck lots of water
Last month, NASA sent the spent third stage of a rocket crashing into a crater near the south pole of the moon. 4 minutes later a spectrograph crashed into the same crater and sent back chemical analyses of the dust kicked up by the first crash. At the time, the mission was a PR dud because the large plume of dust expected to be kicked up just didn't materialize.
The information sent back from that mission has been analyzed, and NASA announced just a few hours ago that the dust ejected by the first crash contained H2O in the form of both ice crystals and water vapour.
Also, they didn't find just a bit of water, they found lots of it. So, they now know that there's plenty of water near the south pole of the Moon, at least.
That means that any human habitation on the Moon could use the existing water that's already there for both sustinance and to make rocket fuel. And, that in turn, means that the Moon can serve as a jumping off point for future manned missions deeper into space. Carrying water from Earth to the Moon would be prohibitively expensive, and would effectively limit exploration of the solar system to robotic missions. Finding water on the Moon makes human exploration and possible habitation of other planets and moons possible.
The Associated Press: Splash! NASA moon crash struck lots of water
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