India’s space agency is seeking to land a spacecraft on the moon’s south pole, a mission that might progress India’s space ambitions while also expanding knowledge of lunar water ice, which could be one of the moon’s most precious resources.
Here’s what we know about the presence of frozen water on the moon, and why space agencies and private enterprises consider it as a key to establishing a moon colony, mining on the moon, and maybe sending expeditions to Mars.
HOW DID SCIENTISTS FIND WATER ON THE MOON?
As early as the 1960s, before the first Apollo landing, scientists had speculated that water could exist on the moon. Samples the Apollo crews returned for analysis in the late 1960s and early 1970s appeared to be dry.
In 2008, Brown University researchers revisited those lunar samples with new technology and found hydrogen inside tiny beads of volcanic glass. In 2009, a NASA instrument aboard the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Chandrayaan-1 probe detected water on the moon’s surface.
In the same year, another NASA probe that hit the south pole found water ice below the moon’s surface. An earlier NASA mission, the 1998 Lunar Prospector, had found evidence that the highest concentration of water ice was in the south pole’s shadowed craters.
WHY IS WATER ON THE MOON IMPORTANT?
Scientists are interested in pockets of ancient water ice because they could reveal evidence of lunar volcanoes, material brought to Earth by comets and asteroids, and the formation of oceans.
If there is enough water ice on the moon, it might serve as a supply of drinking water and help cool equipment.
It may also be broken down to produce hydrogen for fuel and oxygen for breathing, allowing missions to Mars or lunar mining to proceed.
The United Nations Outer Space Treaty of 1967 forbids any country from claiming possession of the moon. There is no clause that would prevent commercial operations from continuing.
The Artemis Accords, a US-led effort to establish a set of principles for moon exploration and resource utilization, has 27 signatories. China and Russia have yet to sign.
WHAT MAKES THE SOUTH POLE ESPECIALLY TRICKY?
Attempts to land on the moon have already failed. Russia’s Luna-25 spacecraft was supposed to arrive on the South Pole this week, but it spun out of control on approach and crashed on Sunday.
The south pole is full of craters and deep pits, far from the equatorial zone targeted by earlier missions, including the crewed Apollo landings.
According to ISRO, the Chandrayaan-3 mission is on schedule for an attempted landing on Wednesday. In 2019, an earlier Indian mission failed to land safely at the area sought by Chandrayaan-3.
Both the United States and China have missions to the South Pole planned.
