Water, Water Everywhere … on the Moon

Water, Water Everywhere … on the Moon

A NASA radar that orbited the Moon on India’s Chandrayaan-1 lunar probe has provided more evidence that there is water at the lunar poles. NASA’s Mini-SAR instrument (also known as Mini-RF), a lighweight synthetic aperture radar, found more than 40 small craters at the Moon’s north pole that have water ice, according to NASA.

The data are in addition to readings made at the Moon’s south pole in 2009 by NASA’s LCROSS probe, and data from another NASA instrument on Chandrayaan-1, the Moon Mineraology Mapper, that showed that there are trace amounts of water all over the lunar surface.

India’s Chandrayaan-1 probe carried 11 scientific instruments from India and several other countries including the United States. The probe entered lunar orbit in November 2008 and was intended to send back data for two years. However, India lost contact with it in August 2009. Fortunately it had already had collected and transmitted back a substantial amount of data.

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