Making a bigger splash than expected, the crash of an empty
rocket stage in a permanently shadowed crater near the moon's
south pole last month kicked up a surprising amount of water ice
and vapor, confirming the presence of a potentially valuable
resource for future space travelers. "I'm here today to tell you
that indeed, yes, we found water," said Anthony Colaprete, the
project scientist and principal investigator for the Lunar
Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite. "And we didn't find
just a little bit, we found a significant amount." Holding up
water jugs to make the point, he said "if you remember, a month
ago we were talking about teaspoons going into glasses over
football fields. Well, now I can say today that in the 20- to
30-meter (65- to 100-foot-wide) crater LCROSS made, we found
maybe about a dozen of these two-gallon buckets worth of water."
And more than water. Data from the LCROSS instruments show signs
of other compounds that may shed light on the moon's evolution.
"It's a whole lot more b