Huge amounts of water on the Moon

Overheal

Check google homepage

"Theyre blowing up the Moon!" they said :rolleyes:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g_WHHFPrQjvdnQhVIvx5o9a-v66AD9BV10180 Associated Press.

LOS ANGELES — Suddenly, the moon looks exciting again. It has lots of water, scientists said Friday — a thrilling discovery that sent a ripple of hope for a future astronaut outpost in a place that has always seemed barren and inhospitable.

Experts have long suspected there was water on the moon. Confirmation came from data churned up by two NASA spacecraft that intentionally slammed into a lunar crater last month.

"Indeed, yes, we found water. And we didn't find just a little bit. We found a significant amount," said Anthony Colaprete, lead scientist for the mission, holding up a white water bucket for emphasis.

The lunar crash kicked up at least 25 gallons and that's only what scientists could see from the plumes of the impact, Colaprete said.

Some space policy experts say that makes the moon attractive for exploration again. Having an abundance of water would make it easier to set up a base camp for astronauts, supplying drinking water and a key ingredient for rocket fuel.

"Having definitive evidence that there is substantial water is a significant step forward in making the moon an interesting place to go," said George Washington University space policy scholar John Logsdon.

Even so, members of the blue-ribbon panel reviewing NASA's future plans said it doesn't change their conclusion that the program needs more money to get beyond near-Earth orbit. The panel wants NASA to look at other potential destinations like asteroids and Mars.

"This new and terrific result reassures us about lunar resources, but ... the challenges currently facing the human spaceflight program remain," Chris Chyba, a Princeton astrophysicist who is on the panel, said in an e-mail.

President George W. Bush had proposed a more than $100 billion plan to return astronauts to the moon, then go on to Mars; a test flight of an early version of a new rocket was a success last month. President Barack Obama appointed the special panel to look at the entire moon exploration program. The decision is now up to the White House, and NASA's lunar plans are somewhat on hold until then.

As for unmanned exploration, previous missions had detected the presence of hydrogen in lunar craters near the moon's poles, possible evidence of ice. In September, scientists reported finding tiny amounts of water in the lunar soil all over the moon's surface.

But it was NASA's Oct. 9 mission involving the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, LCROSS, that provided the stunning confirmation announced Friday — water, in the forms of ice and vapor.

"Rather than a dead and unchanging world, it could in fact be a very dynamic and interesting one," said Greg Delory of the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the mission, led by NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif.

The LCROSS spacecraft only hit one spot on the moon and it's unclear how much water there is across the entire moon.

The October mission involved two strikes into a permanently shadowed crater near the south pole. First, an empty rocket hull slammed into the Cabeus crater. Then, a trailing spacecraft recorded the drama live before it also crashed into the same spot four minutes later.

Though scientists were overjoyed with the plethora of data beamed back to Earth, the mission was a public relations dud. Space enthusiasts who stayed up all night to watch the spectacle did not see the promised giant plume of debris.

NASA scientists had predicted the twin impacts would spew six miles of dust into the sunlight. Instead, images revealed only a mile-high plume, and it was not visible to many amateur astronomers peering through telescopes.

Scientists spent a month analyzing data from the spacecraft's spectrometers, instruments that can detect strong signals of water molecules in the plume.

"We've had hints that there is water. This was almost like tasting it," said Peter Schultz, professor of geological sciences at Brown University and a co-investigator on the LCROSS mission.

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who in 1969 made his historic Apollo 11 moonwalk with Neil Armstrong, was pleased to hear the latest discovery, but still believes the U.S. should focus on colonizing Mars.

"People will overreact to this news and say, `Let's have a water rush to the moon,'" Aldrin said. "It doesn't justify that."

Mission scientists said it would take more time to tease out what else was kicked up in the moon dust.

AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

5starpool

Title should be changed to "some water on the moon".

Senna

You mean its not just made of cheese?

dan719

Unless it's beer, not interested.

mayordenis

Senna wrote: »

You mean its not just made of cheese?

There's water in cheese. Crisis averted.

SoupyNorman

Heres my reaction anyway.

Overheal

Ah yeah, we "knew" there was water on the moon, but now we Know, that theres a lot and its very attainable making the prospect of setting up Moonbases in the near future much, much more probable.

edit: perhaps even enough to hope for an indegenous Whale population underneath the surface...

Notorious

Lets hope this damn recession doesn't get in the way of a lunar base too.

jd007

Sure we have enough water here on earth, fcuk the moon!!

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Whoever whore that article needs to look up the word "exciting" in a dictionary.

dan719

Overheal wrote: »

Ah yeah, we "knew" there was water on the moon, but now we Know, that theres a lot and its very attainable making the prospect of setting up Moonbases in the near future much, much more probable.

edit: perhaps even enough to hope for an indegenous Whale population underneath the surface...

Yeah at a cost of maybe 50 billion, or maybe a bit more when you take into account the costs of overruns. Seriously, why should we care? What benefit will camps on the moon be to the average Joe Plumber? The US are simply trying to discourage the Chinese getting involved in the 'Space Race Take 2'. As you said, we already had reasonably conclusive proof that there was water on the moon. This isn't a win for science, it's a win for the US propoganda machine determined to offer a good news story as an alternative to 'Our Young Men Come Home in Bodybags from God Foresaken Desert'.

rizzee

i like water

Midnight_EG

Seeing as Jesus made water into wine, let's send him up there and we can all have a huge Wine and Cheese night

SoupyNorman

Have you ever stared at the moon and you become full sure you can see a face!! I did and I took a pic to prove it...here

Senna

Overheal wrote: »

edit: perhaps even enough to hope for an indegenous Whale population underneath the surface...

If the Japanese hear that they be building a rocket tomorrow:D

jd007

Midnight_EG wrote: »

Seeing as Jesus made water into wine, let's send him up there and we can all have a huge Wine and Cheese night

I thought Jesus lived on the moon??

ScumLord

dan719 wrote: »

Yeah at a cost of maybe 50 billion, or maybe a bit more when you take into account the costs of overruns. Seriously, why should we care? What benefit will camps on the moon be to the average Joe Plumber? The US are simply trying to discourage the Chinese getting involved in the 'Space Race Take 2'. As you said, we already had reasonably conclusive proof that there was water on the moon. This isn't a win for science, it's a win for the US propoganda machine determined to offer a good news story as an alternative to 'Our Young Men Come Home in Bodybags from God Foresaken Desert'.

It's not the water that's valuable it's the helium 3, having water up there just makes it easier for us to live up there as we won't have to ship water and oxegen up there to process that lovely helium 3.

Overheal

dan719 wrote: »

Yeah at a cost of maybe 50 billion, or maybe a bit more when you take into account the costs of overruns. Seriously, why should we care? What benefit will camps on the moon be to the average Joe Plumber? The US are simply trying to discourage the Chinese getting involved in the 'Space Race Take 2'. As you said, we already had reasonably conclusive proof that there was water on the moon. This isn't a win for science, it's a win for the US propoganda machine determined to offer a good news story as an alternative to 'Our Young Men Come Home in Bodybags from God Foresaken Desert'.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/worklife/10/04/nasa.everyday/index.html

And Im sure theres a couple hundred other benefits of space exploration. Like Satellites. etc

Just because Ireland could never afford such a thing is no need to be pissy

Captain Furball

Overheal wrote: »

Check google homepage

"Theyre blowing up the Moon!" they said :rolleyes:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g_WHHFPrQjvdnQhVIvx5o9a-v66AD9BV10180 Associated Press.

SORRY OVERHEAL INDIA GOT THERE FIRST BUD.

KungPao

Sitec wrote: »

ur ma has lots of water on her moon

Seriously man, just go to bed.

Sleep it off.

Captain Furball

Sitec wrote: »

computa says no. sleep the best part of my wages off???? not a hope:pac:

lol

KungPao

Sitec wrote: »

computa says no. sleep the best part of my wages off???? not a hope:pac:

Well then, enjoy the drunk posting!

Captain Furball

AAHAHA your a good laugh when your drunk anyway

Seachmall

Sitec wrote: »

sometimes i poo green on mondays.

Great, now I have 'I poo green on Mondays', to the tune of 'I don't like Mondays', stuck in my head. And it doesn't even fit well :mad:.

Jet Black

Overheal wrote: »

perhaps even enough to hope for an indegenous Whale population underneath the surface...

Thats what that episode of futurama was about.

We're whaler's on the moon.......

CreepingDeath

NASA finds water in the Sea of Tranquility.
Next challenge to find sand in the desert moon of Phobos.

stovelid

I've just gone and pissed my pants here.

Can you put an extreme excitement spoiler on these articles?

Mint Sauce

they might eventully have a manned space mission there to investigate it

omahaid

Is it enough to actually drink? I.e can the tap it?

Mint Sauce

omahaid wrote: »

Is it enough to actually drink? I.e can the tap it?

or even bottle and market it

Agricola

MoonShine TM

dan719

Overheal wrote: »

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/worklife/10/04/nasa.everyday/index.html

And Im sure theres a couple hundred other benefits of space exploration. Like Satellites. etc

Just because Ireland could never afford such a thing is no need to be pissy

http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

Considering no one is even willing to use your country's currency as an international reserve (India and China are currently converting to gold and Euros) these days, I don't think you are in a position to talk about affording anything.

Keogg

Overheal wrote: »

edit: perhaps even enough to hope for an indegenous Whale population underneath the surface...

Willzyx?
He must have found his family after all :pac::pac:

RATM

ScumLord wrote: »

It's not the water that's valuable it's the helium 3, having water up there just makes it easier for us to live up there as we won't have to ship water and oxegen up there to process that lovely helium 3.

ScumLord is right. If we can get our hands on Helium 3 on the moon then it is possible (providing nuclear fusion research goes as planned) that the earths energy and environment problems will be solved in one sweep. All the crap about wind/wave power will be thrown out the window overnight if we can get Helium 3.
But there's another problem- there are now over 12 governments involved in the next space race- to get back to the moon by 2020. Now if Helium 3 has a market value of $1.5million a kilo and there is tons of the stuff up there you can rest assured that this could be the start of WW3.

Theres an excellent C4 documentary on it called 'Moon for Sale'.

Overheal

Captain Furball wrote: »

SORRY OVERHEAL INDIA GOT THERE FIRST BUD.

dan719 wrote: »

http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

Considering no one is even willing to use your country's currency as an international reserve (India and China are currently converting to gold and Euros) these days, I don't think you are in a position to talk about affording anything.

Oh.

Excuse me while I go cry myself to sleep and slam a bottle of painkillers.

Nevermind that politics should not be the first thing you think about when considering this discovery as the next big foothold we as a species will get for exploring beyond of our pale blue dot.

Great to see people are still so petty though.

RATM wrote: »

ScumLord is right. If we can get our hands on Helium 3 on the moon then it is possible (providing nuclear fusion research goes as planned) that the earths energy and environment problems will be solved in one sweep. All the crap about wind/wave power will be thrown out the window overnight if we can get Helium 3.
But there's another problem- there are now over 12 governments involved in the next space race- to get back to the moon by 2020. Now if Helium 3 has a market value of $1.5million a kilo and there is tons of the stuff up there you can rest assured that this could be the start of WW3.

Theres an excellent C4 documentary on it called 'Moon for Sale'.

We'll have to see how that plays out, but we shouldnt let it stop us from trying. The great thing about WWIII is aside from the lunatic fringe, nobody wants it.