story by Jessica Loudis
Last year, NASA became the butt of many jokes after announcing plans to “attack” the moon with back-to-back rocket and satellite strikes. Now, they get the last laugh. After analyzing debris that was kicked up between impacts, scientists have discovered that the surface of the moon holds water, and lots of it. Anthony Colaprete, a top scientist for the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission, says that water makes up 5.6 percent of the lunar soil near the moon’s south pole—a percentage much higher than anybody expected. “For comparison, that’s about twice as wet as the Sahara desert,” Colaprete noted. “For the moon, that is an oasis.” The discovery could prompt NASA to set up manned space stations on the moon, an option that was ruled out because of the prohibitively high cost of transporting water, which is needed for rocket fuel. “On the moon, a bottle of water would run about $50,000”.
Story Compliments Of Slate.com / The Wall Street Journal
