An Indian satellite doing a flyover with a NASA radar spotted tons, and tons, and tons of ice — 600 million metric tons worth.

The 1.3 trillion pounds of ice are very interesting to moon scientists and NASA explorers who could potentially use the ice to create water and to eventually create oxygen for future explorers.

“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,” said Paul Spudis, principal investigator of the Mini-SAR experiment at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston.
“The new discoveries show the moon is an even more interesting and attractive scientific, exploration and operational destination than people had previously thought.”

The ice was found mostly on the northern pole in craters likely created by icy asteroids smashing into the moon. NASA has to figure out a good way to collect, purify and split the water into oxygen and hydrogen (which they can then use for fuel) but it’s a good start. Figuring out the problems associated with using the space ice close to home is a great stepping point toward making technology for future missions to Mars.

[Via NASA]

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