Is there frozen water on the lunar surface? Scientists have debated this question for years. NASA is planning to launch two probes this week to try and find out.
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the LCROSS impactor are intended to discover if any ice is present in places like deep craters at the moon's poles. These craters have received no direct sunlight for at least 2 billion years.
LCROSS will crash two probes into the moon, hoping to produce evidence of hydrogen locked away in the moon's North Pole. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will map the moon from orbit and work with other ground and space-based assets to scan the LCROSS impacts.
Science fiction fans have been rooting for the possibility of ice right along with scientists. In Robert Heinlein's 1966 novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, ice mining is a perfectly respectable trade.
One shy little fellow with the bloodshot eyes of an old-time drillman stood up. "I'm an ice miner," he said. "Learned my trade doing time for Warden like most of you. I've been on my own thirty years and done okay... I should say I did do okay... because today you have to listen farther out or deeper down to find ice."
"That's okay, still ice in the Rock and a miner expects to sound for it. But Authority pays same price for ice now as thirty years ago. And that's not okay..."
Still, finding water ice on the moon is far preferable to shipping it from Earth. Anthony Colaprete, principal investigator on NASA's LCROSS, short for the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, estimates the cost of shipping a gallon of water merely to Low Earth Orbit at about $100,000.
SpaceX Wants A Moonbase Alpha
'And he had been sent with troops, supplies and bombs to command Russia's most trusted post, the Moonbase.' - L. Ron Hubbard, 1948.
Can A Human Land A SpaceX Rocket On Its Tail?
'If she starts to roll sideways — blooey! The underjets only hold you up when they’re pointing down, you know.' - Stanley G. Weinbaum, 1936.
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Gaia - Why Stop With Just The Earth?
'But the stars are only atoms in larger space, and in that larger space the star-atoms could combine to form living matter, thinking matter, couldn't they?'
Microsoft VASA-1 Creates Personal Video From A Photo
'...to build up a video picture would require, say, ten million decisions every second. Mike, you're so fast I can't even think about it. But you aren't that fast.'