Latest Lunar ice Stories

NASA is conducting a nine-day field test starting Tuesday outside Hilo, Hawaii, to evaluate new exploration techniques for the surface of the moon. These mission simulations, known as analog missions, are performed at extreme and often remote Earth locations to prepare for robotic and human missions to extraterrestrial destinations. The In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) analog mission is a collaboration of NASA partners, primarily the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), with help from the...

WASHINGTON, June 20, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft has returned data that indicate ice may make up as much as 22 percent of the surface material in a crater located on the moon's south pole. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The team of NASA and university scientists using laser light from LRO's laser altimeter examined the floor of Shackleton crater. They found the crater's floor is brighter than...

Space scientists from the University of New Hampshire and multi-institutional colleagues report they have quantified levels of radiation on the moon's surface from galactic cosmic ray (GCR) bombardment that over time causes chemical changes in water ice and can create complex carbon chains similar to those that help form the foundations of biological structures. In addition, the radiation process causes the lunar soil, or regolith, to darken over time, which is important in understanding the...

SILICON VALLEY, Calif., June 30, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Moon Express, Inc. today announced a successful flight test of a prototype lunar lander system being developed in partnership with NASA. Controlled flight tests of the Lander Test Vehicle (LTV) allow Moon Express to assess lunar vehicle design, including guidance, navigation and control software and new landing leg concepts designed by Moon Express engineers. The company signed a Reimbursable Space Act Agreement with NASA last year to...

A team of NASA-funded researchers has measured water from the moon that shows some parts of the lunar mantle have as much water as the Earth's upper mantle. The research, from Case Western Reserve University, Carnegie Institution for Science, and Brown University, shows 100 times more water than measured before. Scientists discovered water along with volatile elements in lunar magma trapped inside of crystals that are themselves trapped inside tiny volcanic glass beads. The team of...

The water on the Moon's surface predominantly originated from comets, which would have bombarded its surface early in its existence, claims a new study published in the journal Nature Geoscience.As part of the study, astrophysicist James Greenwood from Connecticut's Wesleyan University and colleagues analyzed rock samples collected by NASA astronauts during the Apollo missions.According to AFP reports, they were specifically looking "at variations in hydrogen isotopes in a water-loving...

The recent discovery of water on the Moon may have a serious impact on future plans for lunar based astronomy.  Space scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have calculated that the scattering caused by molecules vaporized in sunlight could heavily distort observations from telescopes mounted on the Moon."Last year, scientists discovered a fine dew of water covering the Moon. This water vaporizes in sunlight and is then broken down by ultraviolet radiation, forming hydrogen...

Russia and India are battling China in a modern-day space race to land an unmanned probe on the moon. Russian and Indian engineers have started working together on a robotic mission to land on the moon in 2013. China's Chang'e-3 spacecraft is also racing to get to Earth's celestial neighbor during the same time frame. Whichever rover lands first would be the first human hardware to function on the lunar surface since the Soviet Luna-24 spacecraft returned to Earth with Moon soil samples in...

While scientists have long searched for water on the Moon, a new study asserts that the Earth's satellite is actually quite dry--too dry, in fact, to sustain life.The paper, entitled "The Chlorine Isotope Composition of the Moon and Implications for an Anhydrous Mantle," was published Thursday in Science Express. It is the work of scientists from the University of New Mexico (UNM), the University of Texas at Austin, the University of California-Los Angeles, and Los Alamos National...

That dry, dusty moon overhead? Seems it isn't quite as dry as it's long been thought to be. Although you won't find oceans, lakes, or even a shallow puddle on its surface, a team of geologists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), working with colleagues at the University of Tennessee, has found structurally bound hydroxyl groups (i.e., water) in a mineral in a lunar rock returned to Earth by the Apollo program.Their findings are detailed in this week's issue of the journal...