Space scientists would dearly like to find water on the moon.  Such a discovery would pave the way towards a lunar colony and a permanent maned presence on the moon.  Water is essential for life.  At present, it is simply too expensive to import water from Earth.  Once found the water could be broken down into oxygen and hydrogen which could be used a rocket fuel.

Scientists think that water may have formed on the moon, not from bombardment by water laden comets, but through the gentle exposure of the moon to the solar wind.  The solar wind contains hydrogen particles that combines with oxygen in the lunar rocks to form water.

For some time scientists have suspected that the water ice could be present deep within craters in the north and south polar regions.  These craters are sufficiently deep that some parts are in permanent shadow.

Image of the Moon taken by the Moon Mineralogy Mapper. Blue indicates the possible presence of water. Source: Wikipedia 

In November 14, 2008, the Indian spacecraft Chandrayan-1 fired a probe at the Shackleton Crater which lies close to the south pole.  The high velocity impact threw debris into the air which was analysed to contain water.  On September 25, 2009 NASA announced that it had processed data from Chandrayaan-1 and confirmed the existence of water in low concentrations across much of the lunar surface.  The water is chemically bound to the rocks as a hydroxyl group.

On 9 October 2009 NASA repeated the experiment by firing the disused upper stage of an Atlas V rock at the Cabeus crater.  In this case, there was no debris plume.  The question is why?

Scientists from the NASA mission will need to analyse their results for the presence of water and will need to explain why there was no debris plume.

If you have enjoyed this article you might also enjoy a companion article

Landscape of the Moon