Visible Camera Images from NASA LCROSS Sheperding spacecraft show ice in one of the lunar impact craters made by Centaur rocket collision with the moon earlier this year.
Experts believe this path the way for human travels to Mars within a decade or so.
NASA has discovered water on the moon.
On June 18th the satellite Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) was sent from the earth.
On October 9th LCROSS sent the rocket part called Centaur targeted to crash at the dark side of the moon. LCROSS followed shortly after and did observations during 4 minutes before it also crashed into the moon.
The measurements made by LCROSS shows evidence of ice on the moon. This ice has the potential to be melted into water.
This ice is believed to come from astronomic collisions, probably the same way as water on earth became to exist on the earth.
Some experts speculate that this will enable humans to build bases on the moon and will ease the exploration of the space.
From man’s blood-sodden heart are sprung
Those branches of the night and day
Where the gaudy moon is hung.
What’s the meaning of all song?
“Let all things pass away.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
Friday November 13th it was announced by NASA that large quantities of ice had been discovered on the moon. The satellite LCROSS that had made an impact with the moon had proved ice in the gas cloud created as a result of the impact.
This can prove to be a significant break through for space research as it will expand human ability to make humans travel further into space. It will maybe be possible to build bases in space, further out than the existing International Space Station, beyond the moon actually.
The reasoning behind this argument is that today it is very demanding and expensive to freight water from the earth to the moon. The possibility to build bases will expand human potential for deep space travels.
Mars can be reached within a decade as travels from the Moon to Mars will take weeks instead of three years roundtrip from the earth.
The reason for this difference in travel time is the modest gravity on the Moon versus gravity on Earth.
If a space rocket is to be launched from the Earth, it demands large amounts of fuel to leave the atmosphere. If the rockets could be sent from the Moon, all this power can be used to increase the speed instead.
In order to achieve this, someone will need to take the first step – the massive amount of money it will take to create enough large bases on the Moon to construct spapce crafts on the moon itself.
All I have to do
is hear his name
and every hair on my body
just bristles with desire.
When I see
the moon of his face,
this frame of mine
oozes sweat like a moonstone.
When that man
as dear to me as breath
steps close enough to me
to stroke my neck,
the thought of jealousy
is shattered in my heart
that’s hard as diamond
sometimes.
—Amaru (c. seventh century A. D.)
This will demand large amount of resources, but can be a reality.
The results presented by NASA are preliminary and NASA underlines lots of work remain to create a complete overview of the research material collected by LCROSS satellite during its 4 minutes flight.
Experts believe the initial results are promising and constitute independent and solid evidence, and it supports previous research results made by Space researchers.
NASA has promised more exiting results from the LCROSS satellite in the near future.
They are yet not at the finish line and only announce that more promising discoveries have been made but not yet published.
Stig-Arne Kristoffersen has a background as civil engineer and geoscientist. He has worked mainly within the oil and gas industry from the mid 1980s. He has written a few fictional novels as well as being the author of some professional litterature within oil and gas sector, he act as a writer to various web sites.