(1/3)FILE PHOTO: A view of the moon as seen by the Chandrayaan-3 lander during lunar orbit insertion on August 5, 2023 in this screenshot from a video released on August 6, 2023. ISRO/Handout via REUTERS/File photo Purchase license rights
BENGALURU/WASHINGTON, Aug 22 (Reuters) – India’s space agency is attempting to land a spacecraft at the moon’s south pole, a mission that could advance India’s space ambitions and expand knowledge of lunar water ice, potentially one of the most important on the moon valuable resources.
This is what is known about the presence of frozen water on the moon, and why space agencies and private companies see it as a key to a lunar colony, lunar mining, and possible missions to Mars.
HOW DID SCIENTISTS FIND WATER ON THE MOON?
As early as the 1960s, before the first Apollo moon landing, scientists had speculated that water might exist on the moon. The samples that the Apollo teams returned for analysis in the late 1960s and early 1970s appeared to be dry.
In 2008, Brown University researchers checked those lunar samples with new technology and found hydrogen inside tiny droplets of volcanic glass. In 2009, a NASA instrument aboard the Indian Space Research Organization’s Chandrayaan-1 probe detected water on the moon’s surface.
In the same year, another NASA probe that struck the south pole found water ice below the moon’s surface. An earlier NASA mission, the 1998 Lunar Prospector, found evidence that the highest concentration of water ice was in the shadowed craters of the south pole.
WHY IS WATER ON THE MOON IMPORTANT?
Scientists are interested in pockets of ancient water ice because they could provide a record of lunar volcanoes, material sent to Earth by comets and asteroids, and the origin of the oceans.
If water ice exists in sufficient quantities, it could be a source of drinking water for lunar exploration and could help cool equipment.
It could also be broken down to produce hydrogen for fuel and oxygen for breathing, supporting missions to Mars or lunar mining.
The 1967 United Nations Outer Space Treaty prohibits any nation from claiming ownership of the moon. There is no provision that would stop business operations.
A US-led effort to establish a set of principles for lunar exploration and use of its resources, the Artemis Accords, has 27 signatories. China and Russia have not signed.
WHAT MAKES THE SOUTH POLE ESPECIALLY COMPLICATED?
Moon landing attempts have failed before. The Russian spacecraft Luna-25 was scheduled to land at the South Pole this week, but it went out of control on approach and crashed on sunday.
The south pole, far from the equatorial region targeted by previous missions, including the Apollo crewed landings, is pockmarked with craters and deep trenches.
ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 mission is on track for a landing attempt on Wednesday, the space agency said. A previous Indian mission failed in 2019 by landing safely near the Chandrayaan-3 target area.
Both the United States and China have planned missions to the South Pole.
Reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee in Bengaluru and Joey Roulette in Washington; Edited by Kevin Krolicki and Gerry Doyle
Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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