First water, then vapour, now ice. India's Chandrayaan-1, in its most recent lunar mark, has discovered ice in the Moon's craters -- a finding that indicates the presence of as much as 600 million metric tonnes of water ice on the Moon's north pole. The announcement on the breakthrough, with far-reaching consequences for space travel, was made late Monday at the 41st Lunar and Planetary Science Congress organized by the Houston-based Lunar and Planetary Institute. The discovery was made by a Nasa payload on board Chandrayaan-1 called Mini-Sar (miniature synthetic aperture radar), a lightweight instrument that weighs 10 kg. It found more than 40 craters with water ice, the size of the craters ranging between two and 15 kilometres in diameter. Scientists say the discovery of water ice anywhere on the Moon is extremely important because it can serve as a natural resource for astronauts on future lunar landing missions. The ice could be melted into drinking water or be separated into its components of oxygen a d hydrogen to provide breathing air and rocket fuel for launching interplanetary missions from the moon. In September 2009, Isro's moon impact probe and the hyper spectral imaging camera (Hysi) along with Nasa's moon minerology mapper announced the discovery of water molecules on the moon. But these were not large deposits. In contrast, the Mini-Sar is stated to found huge quantities of water ice. "These results certainly open new vistas towards establishing human colonies on the moon. More interesting results are awaited which will throw fresh light on geological features of the moon," said S Satish, Isro's chief spokesperson.For further: timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Chandrayaan-finds-ice-on-moon/articleshow/5635005.cms
