Moon Flight to Seek Life-Supporting Water

Moon dust and its potential to support life are at the heart of the 2008 mission for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, NASA officials said Monday in California.

Officials with the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the 2008 flight over the moon’s north and south poles would take pictures to create detailed maps for potential manned landings and bases in the distant future.

The highlight of the flight will be a two-part craft, called the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, that will slam into the moon’s south pole.

The first impact is expected to send some 2.2 million tons of pulverized rock and dust 30-40 miles above the surface. A second, smaller crater also will be created.

The resulting analysis is aimed at determining whether the moon has life-supporting water and hydrogen, said Anthony Colaprete of the Ames Research Center, Mountain View, Calif.

We still don’t know what form the hydrogen exists in, and we don’t really know whether there’s water at all, Colaprete told the San Francisco Chronicle.