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Water on Moon: Nasa thanks India

== CHANDRAYAAN-I’S FINDINGS MAY OPEN THE DOOR TO WATER HARVESTING ON LUNAR SURFACE Agencies WASHINGTON ==

INDIA’S maiden lunar mission Chandrayaan has been successful in finding traces of water on the lunar surface, the US space agency Nasa said here on Thursday, and thanked the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for the partnership. A National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) official said that traces of water and hydroxyl, a molecule consisting of one oxygen atom and one hydrogen atom, was also found in the lunar soil. Nasa also thanked ISRO for the partnership. The Nasa’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) instrument was one of the instruments aboard the Chandrayaan-I, which was launched on October 22, 2008. However, the mission had to be aborted on August 30, after Chandrayaan lost radio contact with the earth. The analysis of the huge volume of M3 data was carried out by a joint team of scientists from the US and India. The scientific team was led by M3 principal investigator Carle Pieters, a planetary geologist at Brown University in Rhode Island, and JN Goswami, principal scientist of Chandrayaan-1 from Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) of the Indian Department of Space. The team had concluded that there were traces of hydroxyl (OH) and water (H2O) molecules on the surface of the moon closer to the polar region. The experts also concluded that traces of OH and H20 were in the form of a thin layer embedded in rocks and chemical compounds on the surface of the moon and the quantity were extremely small — of the order of about 700 parts per million (ppm). “Water ice on the moon has been something of a holy grail for lunar scientists for a very long time,” said Jim Green, director of the Planetary Science Division at Nasa Headquarters in Washington. “This surprising finding has come about through the ingenuity, perseverance and international cooperation between Nasa and the India Space Research Organisation,” he said. When the M3 science team analysed data from the instrument, they found the wavelengths of light being absorbed were consistent with the absorption patterns for water molecules and hydroxyl. “For silicate bodies, such features are typically attributed to water and hydroxyl-bearing materials,” Carle Pieters said. Nasa said the M3 team found water molecules and hydroxyl at diverse areas of the sunlit region of the moon’s surface, but the water signature appeared stronger at the moon’s higher latitudes. Data from the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer, or VIMS, on Nasa’s Cassini spacecraft and the High-Resolution Infrared Imaging Spectrometer on Nasa’s EPOXI spacecraft contributed to confirmation of the finding. CLINCHING EVIDENCE Indications are that water formation on the lunar soil may be a continuous process Nasa’s interest mainly lies in setting up a permanent base on the moon, which requires presence of water, howsoever little it may be

Times OF India-Sept 25 2009