A Nasa spacecraft has identified thick deposits of ice near the Moon’s north pole, which makes a manned base on our satellite ever more possible, according to scientists.
The frozen deposits were found inside 40 small craters by a Nasa radar instrument on board India’s Chandrayaan-1. The craters range from one to nine miles and scientists estimate they could contain at least 1.3 trillion pounds (600 million metric tonnes) of water ice. “After analysing the data, our science team determined a strong indication of water ice, a finding which will give future missions a new target to further explore and exploit,” said Jason
Crusan, programme executive for the Nasa radar.
Water ice is essential to a manned Moon base, because drinking water is incredibly heavy and requires huge amounts of fuel to launch it into space. The Nasa radar instrument, known as a Mini-SAR, has captured many of the permanently shadowed regions that exist at both poles of the Moons.
“The new discoveries show the moon is an even more interesting and attractive scientific, exploration and operational destination than people had previously thought.”
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