India's lunar mission finds evidence of water on the Moon

India's lunar mission finds evidence of water on the Moon

www.timesonline.co.uk

Dreams of establishing a manned Moon base could become reality within two decades after India’s first lunar mission found evidence of large quantities of water on its surface.

Data from Chandrayaan-1 also suggests that water is still being formed on the Moon. Scientists said the breakthrough — to be announced by Nasa at a press conference today — would change the face of lunar exploration.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Amazing confirmation if that is the case; however, I'm very interested to know why is it former NASA missions never found water (or the basis for water).

How is it all of a sudden someone found "evidence of large quantities of water on its surface? Also, I wonder how one determines what is "large quantities".

www.timesonline.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

That is awesome news. Here is some more info from Nasa.

Nasa To Reveal New Scientific Findings About The Moon

WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a media briefing at 2 p.m. EDT on Thursday, Sept. 24, to discuss new science data from the moon collected during national and international space missions. NASA Television and the agency's Web site will provide live coverage of the briefing from the James E. Webb Memorial Auditorium at NASA Headquarters, 300 E St. SW, in Washington.

The briefing participants are:
- Jim Green, director, Planetary Science Division, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington
- Carle Pieters, principal investigator, Moon Mineralogy Mapper, Brown University
- Rob Green, project instrument scientist, Moon Mineralogy Mapper, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
- Roger Clark, team member, Cassini spacecraft Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer and co-investigator, Moon Mineralogy Mapper, U.S. Geological Survey in Denver
- Jessica Sunshine, deputy principal investigator for NASA’s Deep Impact extended mission and co-investigator for Moon Mineralogy Mapper, Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland

Reporters unable to attend the briefing may ask questions by telephone. To reserve a telephone line, journalists should e-mail their name, media affiliation and telephone number to Steve Cole at:

[email protected]


Papers supporting the briefing will be published online by the journal Science at its Science Express Web site. Science will lift its embargo at 2 p.m. EDT, Sept. 24.

For more information about NASA TV downlinks and streaming video, visit:

www.nasa.gov...

www.nasa.gov...

Wow, you would think this news would have more of a response on here. Only a few comments? Weird. Nobody else thinks finding large quantities of water on the moon is pretty big news?

reply to post by tk1967


This is very interesting.

We all know that we were not being told everything. Now NASA is being forced to reveal what they have known.

One point is proven by all of this : India's space agency is obviously not fully cooperative with NASA's.

Star and a Flag. Really can't wait to see where this goes. If there is water there, then what else could there be? How did we miss that the first time we went to the moon?

I find it odd that none of our astronauts managed to find any water while we were there....curious. Perhaps it just took another 40 years to form. Buzz Aldrin: "Wow I cant believe we just missed the moon making water, Kinda wish I could go back"!

I, too, am totally impressed with this. I think this is a huge development.

Does anyone know if there have been conspiracy theories about water on the moon before? I would be curious to know if someone has leaked this information before.

reply to post by tk1967

Previous missions found "hints" that there could be water ice in the polar regions of the Moon but they did not have the instrumentation to confirm it. I'm interested to learn more about what Chandrayaan-1 found. I don't trust the Times to get the details right.

science.nasa.gov...

[edit on 9/23/2009 by Phage]

I wonder why NASA has never tried to put anything on the moon to find this out, they must be really redfaced with another country finding this and giving disclosure. Of course they will be even more embarassed when someone asks "Hey! Didn't your guys leave a flag up here? Where is it at?"

My $0.02...

Nothing surprises me about most "new" scientific discoveries.
I don't think that Most of what is released as "new", is new at all.

I've always thought more was known about our moon than what we are
privy to.

For instance:
Volcanic glass beads, brought back from Earths moon, were found to have
water inside of them. Just like what happens here on Earth when magma
becomes solid.
I don't know when the bead samples were tested but I never heard or read anything about this untill more than 35 years after the stuff was brought to Earth.

What's the big secret
It's not like most of us can run out and hop a ship to Luna for The Great Moon Land Rush.

I believe "they" have known about the water on the moon for a long time.

reply to post by YEAHHA

The instrument on Chandrayaan-1, the one which apparently found water (in some form), came from NASA.


[edit on 9/23/2009 by Phage]

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by YEAHHA

 

The instrument on Chandrayaan-1, the one which apparently found water (in some form), came from NASA.


[edit on 9/23/2009 by Phage]

Oh, nice catch there, don't let that fact fade away in this thread, before people start bashing NASA too hard.

this is massive news
also raises many questions

dont you need oxygen for water?
if theres water, then there is likely plants and life
how long have they known this?

will be interesting to see what nasa says

This is news, how new.. well here's a NASA press release from 1998 that talks about it:

"On 5 March 1998 it was announced that data returned by the Lunar Prospector spacecraft indicated that water ice might be present at both the north and south lunar poles, in agreement with Clementine results for the south pole reported in November 1996.

In a Science magazine article (5) on 29 November 1996, it was announced that interpretation of data from a Clementine spacecraft experiment suggested the possibility of ice on the surface of the Moon."

NASA 1998 Article

Related......

Too bad they recently aborted the mission after losing contact. Apparently not before they were able to gather significant data.

Aug. 31 (Bloomberg) -- India’s space agency ended an $82 million mission to map the surface of the moon after failing to restore contact with its unmanned Chandrayaan I craft.....Contact was lost with the probe two days ago and scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation were unable to restore communications,

We are disappointed with the development, but have managed to get a large volume of data,” including 70,000 images of the moon

www.bloomberg.com...

Where there's water, there's life, right? Isn't that what everybody says? Let's see if this holds true.

reply to post by they see ALL

Where there is liquid water the possibility of life is greatly increased.

i would love to go swimming on the moon

Here's a thought. Water on Mars, water on the moon, polar ice caps on earth melting. I'm starting to see a connection.