NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (Sofia) confirmed on Monday the presence of water on the sunlit surface of the moon. The water was detected in the Clavius crater, one of the largest craters visible from Earth, indicating that water is present on the lunar surface and is not restricted to cool, shady places.
This discovery, if water is easily accessible, would aid the US Artemis mission that plans to send humans to the moon again by 2024. No humans have been to the moon since 1972; there were six Apollo missions that sent humans to the moon.
The second lunar exploration race was fueled by India’s first mission to the moon, Chandrayaan-1, which is credited with the discovery of water ice or a relative hydroxyl chemical (OH). Twelve years ago, on November 14, India launched an impactor probe from its satellite in lunar orbit. The probe, which had an onboard spectrometer, detected the presence of oxygen-hydrogen-bonded molecules in the atmosphere, near the surface, and in surface samples that were excavated when the probe crashed on the moon. The crash site is now known as Jawahar Sthal, after the first Prime Minister of India.
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The findings from India’s lunar impact probe were confirmed by another NASA instrument aboard Chandrayaan-1 called the Moon Minerology Mapper.
After the discovery, it was believed that water was most likely available on the moon’s surface in the form of water ice in the shaded regions near the pole. India’s impactor probe had struck the lunar surface near the south pole.
This was the reason why a region near the South Pole was selected for India’s next lunar mission, Chandrayaan-2, which consisted of landing a rover and a lander. The lander crashed into the lunar surface when it was only 2.1 km away. India now plans to send another rover-landing mission to the moon before attempting a sample collection mission.
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