LCROSS Discovers Water on the Moon

Water on the surface of the Earth’s moon may be the greatest astrogeological discovery since Neil Armstrong first stepped onto the lunar surface back in 1969. Greg Delory, University of California, Berkeley said of the discovery, “Rather than a dead and unchanging world, it could in fact be a very dynamic and interesting one.” All of a sudden, scientists are excited about the moon again.

Space policy experts say that having an abundance of water for future exploration would provide drinking water and a key ingredient for rocket fuel. Water on the moon changes everything in regard to future space exploration. The ecstatic LCROSS mission team led by NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California said they had hints water existed on the lunar surface. Micahel Wargo, chief lunar scientist at NASA in Washington said, “The moon harbors many secrets, and LCROSS has added a new layer to our understanding.”

LCROSS Mission

The LCROSS mission was launched from Kennedy Space Center on June 18th as a companion mission to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). Just after 7:31 a.m. EST on October 9th, NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) slammed an empty rocket into the surface of the moon at a speed of 5,400 miles per hour. Another spacecraft followed about four minutes behind and recorded the event before crashing into the same spot in the Cabeus crater. The part of the crater where the impact occurred has apparently not seen sunlight for billions of years. Previous unmanned missions to the moon had detected hydrogen in soil near the lunar poles. The LCROSS team, as well as other scientists, had suspected the possibility of water in the forms of ice and ice vapor on the moon.

Space junkies who stayed up late to see the promised impact plumes from the spacecraft were sorely disappointed as a one-mile plume showed the only evidence of both impacts. NASA scientists had predicted a six-mile high plume of moon dust and debris shooting into space.  The event was covered live on BAC’s Good Morning America but turned out to be a public relations disaster when the highly anticipated impact turned out to be a “no-show.” Despite the absence of a live impact on morning television, the stunning news that water is evident in the debris plume was indeed spectacular news. The prospect of water would mean a great deal to the future colonization of Mars, discoveries on other planets, and the exploration of the universe.

Possible Lunar Water Rush?

While it’s not likely that water found on the lunar surface will be bottled and sold at your local market, it might be possible the ice discovered can be melted and put to some use for future space explorers based on the moon. LCROSS mission lead scientist Anthony Colaprete stated at a recent press conference that if the water contained elements such as methanol then it would not be drinkable. Apparently the data from spectrometers is still being assessed as to the exact composition of the ice churned up by the LCROSS impact. The data indicates other emission lines in the spectrographic data that haven’t completely been identified. The LCROSS probe only impacted one small area of the moon so it’s unclear if water exists anywhere else on the surface.

To analyze, understand, and decipher all of the massive amounts of rich data collected by LCROSS will take some time. The data shows traces of other substances as well as providing additional insight into the mechanics of lunar impacts and the resulting craters. The LRO remains in Lunar orbit and moves over the impact site providing more and more data with each pass. In order to gain the most data and understanding from the impact, LCROSS scientists continue to work with LRO scientists. The long-term implications of this discovery will certainly change what we know about Earth’s nearest celestial neighbor.