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Preliminary reports that Chandrayaan-1, using its Mineralogy Mapper instrument, has found “a lot of water on the Moon” has aerospace circles buzzing. There will be a news conference at NASA headquarters this Thursday at 2 PM eastern by Dr. Carle Pieters of Brown University, the principle investigator for the Mineralogy Mapper on the Chandrayaan-1 mission.
Professor Pieters is a Principal Investigator for the NASA Lunar Science Institute and has been on the Brown faculty since 1980. Her principle area of research has been remote sensing of the Earth and other planets. Her press conference will concern a paper she is publishing in the next issue of the journal Science concerning the findings of Chandrayaan-1, including lunar ice.
Chandrayaan-1 recently finished its mission prematurely when all communication with the Indian lunar probe was loss. Chandrayaan-1 spent nearly a year in lunar orbit, mapping the lunar surface and studying its properties with a variety of instruments.
Indications of water ice in the permanently shaded areas craters at the lunar poles have been found by previous lunar probes, most recently the Lunar Reconnaissance Prospector, an American lunar probe now in lunar orbit.
Confirmation of lunar ice, if it comes, will have profound implications for the future of space exploration. It would make the lunar poles among the most valuable real estate in the Solar System. Ice would constitute a source of water and of rocket fuel for future lunar settlers.
Posted by: Soderman/NLSI staff
Source:http://www.examiner.com/x-21670-Houston-Space-News-Examiner~y2009m9d22-Did-Chandrayaan1-confirm-ice-on-the-Moon
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Author/Curator: Greg Schmidt NASA Official: David Morrison Last Updated: November 24, 2009 + Contact NASA + Site Map |
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