India's space agency is aiming to land a spacecraft on the moon's south pole to advance its space ambitions and study lunar water ice.
The presence of frozen water on the moon is of significant interest to space agencies and private companies due to its potential for moon colonization, mining, and Mars missions.
India's space agency is aiming to land a spacecraft on the moon's south pole to advance its space ambitions and study lunar water ice.
The presence of frozen water on the moon is of significant interest to space agencies and private companies due to its potential for moon colonization, mining, and Mars missions.
Water on the moon was speculated as far back as the 1960s, but early Apollo samples appeared dry.
In 2008, researchers found hydrogen inside volcanic glass beads from lunar samples, and in 2009, NASA's Chandrayaan-1 detected water on the moon's surface.
Subsequent probes found water ice below the moon's surface and identified concentrations in the south pole's shadowed craters.
Water ice is valuable for understanding lunar history, providing drinking water, cooling equipment, producing hydrogen fuel and oxygen, and supporting space missions.