The hypothesis: In the shadows of deep craters that pock the
south pole of the Moon there might be ever-frozen water. The
experiment: Guide the final stages of the Lunar Crater
Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) rocket into one of
the craters and crash it into the surface, hopefully sending a
plume of dust into the air that could be analyzed. The event: On
October 9, 2009 the LCROSS Centaur rocket crashed into the
crater Cabeus, followed by the LCROSS package itself, which
recorded (mostly by spectroscopy) information from the impact
plume. The first results: Just one month after impact,
scientists announced that LCROSS did indeed find water.
[SciTechStory: On the Moon or elsewhere: Follow the water] The
published results (some presented October 21, 2010 at a joint
news conference): Yes, there is more water on the Moon than
originally suspected. (Most scientists thought the Moon to be
one of the driest places known to man.) In fact, substantial
frozen water can be found in locations other than the bot