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TThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is no longer a stranger when it comes to shooting laser beams at the moon for scientific purposes. And, according to the Fox News report, once again, the space agency will send a laser to Earth’s celestial satellite to search for water on its surface.
(Photo: screenshot from @Space_Station’s Twitter post)
NASA’s gigantic laser will shoot the Moon to find water: experts created a new green fuel to power the huge lantern
The agency developed a small satellite (Cubesat) known as the “Lunar Lantern” to search for surface ice that may be located at the bottom of the Moon’s craters, which is believed to have never been touched by sunlight.
“Although we have a pretty good idea that there is ice inside the moon’s cooler, darker craters, the previous measurements have been a bit ambiguous,” said Barbara Cohen, mission principal investigator at the Goddard Space Flight Center in The NASA.
“Scientifically, that’s fine, but if we plan to send astronauts there to dig up the ice and drink it, we need to make sure it exists.”
NASA researchers already knew about the existence of water on the moon due to the water vapor that was discovered as early as 1971.
The study was followed by the first evidence of frozen water on the Moon’s surface discovered in 2009.
In recent years, different studies were conducted in which experts learned more about water ice on the moon, including its age, the discovery in the polar regions, and the fact that it can exist on the entire surface of the Moon.
NASA’s gigantic laser will shoot the Moon to find water: experts created a new green fuel to power the huge lantern
According to Fox News, NASA’s JPL, which will manage the Moon Lantern, will use a new “green” fuel that is considered safer to store and transport, to power the gigantic lantern.
“A technology demonstration mission like the Lunar Flashlight, which is lower in cost and fills a specific gap in our knowledge, can help us better prepare for a widespread NASA presence on the Moon, as well as test key technologies that can be used in future missions. ” said John Baker, the manager of the Lunar Flashlight project at JPL.
(Photo: Pixabay)
NASA’s gigantic laser will shoot the Moon to find water: experts created a new green fuel to power the huge lantern
NASA’s previous report explained that a non-toxic liquid fuel could be used for future space missions to venture to the Moon and other celestial bodies.
The new fuel was developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) at Edwards Air Force Base in California, which demonstrated the exceptional characteristics of the new green fuel.
According to the latest NASA report, the new NASA JPL mission will hover over the Moon’s South Pole to search for ice on the surface of the largely hidden craters. This will last two months.
The mission was proposed in advance before NASA’s Artemis program, which is expected to bring American astronauts to the moon by 2024.
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