A team of scientists of the University of Hawaii under the leadership of Shuai Li and colleagues from brown University says that they discovered conclusive evidence of water ice at both lunar poles. Using data from NASA’s instrument M3 – moon Mineralogy mapper, installed aboard the Indian lunar research unit “Chandrayaan-1”, they found that the water is not only near surface but also on the surface of our natural satellite.
Participants in future missions will have to develop lunar resources, the main of which is definitely water, as the source that provides their livelihoods and as a raw material for the production of fuel for space ships.
For the first time about the existence of lunar water scientists talking after the series of manned flights to the moon in the early 70-ies. Flashes of light from deep craters would be expected to be caused by accumulations of ice. In the spectroscopic analyses also indicated the presence of water molecules or hydrates in the composition of minerals. In addition, water could be at a great depth below the surface of the moon.
The data obtained from M3, irrefutable evidence of the presence of water at the lunar poles. And at the South pole the ice is mainly concentrated in the craters on the shadow side, in that time, as at the North pole it is scattered over large areas, but in small quantities. This conclusion was based on the results of three special spectral signature obtained by using light reflected from the surface. Moreover, they showed that it is frozen, not liquid water or steam.
According to NASA, the ice is in the shaded craters at a temperature of -157 °C, where sunlight never penetrates. Besides, he is on the surface or at a depth of no more than a few millimeters, which makes it completely available for future use.
Source — NASA