Moon likely has water: Experts

Three major studies and a new NASA expedition are all pointing to a strong chance that the moon has surface water, a finding that could make a "tremendous difference" to further space exploration.

Nearly 40 years after scientists examined rocks and dismissed the moon as a dry body, the studies of Indian satellite data are saying otherwise.

Moon water would be a "huge" boost to space exploration, experts said Wednesday.

Richard Herd, a Geological Survey of Canada scientist who serves on the Canadian Space Exploration Advisory Committee, likens it to finding an oasis in the desert.

Instead of hauling all their water along with them, space explorers could depend on moon water, he said.

"All this relates to a much bigger topic. . . . Resources where you are going mean you don’t have to take them with you and, indeed, may ensure your ability to survive and return from wherever it is you want to go," said Herd. "Deposits of water throughout the solar system may make a tremendous difference to the effectiveness and longevity of any space missions."

The satellite in the new study analyzes sunlight reflected from the moon. The pattern of wavelengths indicates this light is bouncing off rocks that contain hydrogen and oxygen bound together, likely as water.

Astrophysicist Paul Lucey of the University of Hawaii’s Institute of Geophysics and Planetology wrote in an article to be published Thursday in the journal Science that the discovery shows "a proven source of water on the surface of the Moon."

"Perhaps the most valuable result of these new observations is that they prompt a critical re-examination of the notion that the moon is dry. It is not," he wrote.

Meanwhile, NASA is preparing to blast two projectiles into the moon’s surface on Oct. 9 to analyze the debris the impacts will kick up. The space agency is hoping – and now expecting – to find ice crystals or water vapour.

The frozen water is believed to exist in deep craters near the moon’s poles, which are in permanent shadow that protects the water from evaporation.

Next month, NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite mission will take the hunt for water a step further.

It will use the same method as its Deep Impact probe, which smashed a projectile into comet Tempel 1 in July 2005, and analyzed the innards of a comet for the first time.