NASA radar on Chandrayaan-I detects ice deposits on moon

Lalit K Jha
Washington, Mar 2 (PTI) A NASA radar that flew aboard
India's maiden unmanned lunar mission Chandrayaan-I has
detected more than 40 ice-filled craters in the moon's North
Pole reinforcing findings of water on the moon.
The small craters with water ice ranging in size from 2
to 15 km in diameter were found by NASA's Mini-SAR
instrument, a lightweight, synthetic aperture radar.
The finding would give future missions a new target to
further explore and exploit, a NASA statement said, adding it
is estimated that there could be at least 600 million metric
tons of water ice in the craters.
The new discoveries show that the moon is an even more
interesting and attractive scientific, exploration and
operational destination than previously thought, Paul Spudis,
principal investigator of the Mini-SAR experiment at the Lunar
and Planetary Institute said Monday.
"The emerging picture from the multiple measurements and
resulting data of the instruments on lunar missions indicates
that water creation, migration, deposition and retention are
occurring on the moon," he said.
Aboard Chandrayaan-I, the Mini-SAR mapped the moon's
permanently-shadowed polar craters that are not visible from
the earth. The radar uses the polarisation properties of
reflected radio waves to characterise surface properties.
According to the findings which are being published in
the latest issue of the Geophysical Research Letters journal,
results from the mapping showed deposits having radar
characteristics similar to ice.
The space agency said these results are consistent with
recent findings of other NASA instruments and adds to growing
scientific understanding of the multiple forms of water found
on the moon.
Mini-SAR and Moon Mineralogy Mapper are two of 11
instruments on India's first unmanned mission to the moon --
Chandrayaan-I. PTI LKJ
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