Water Found on the Moon

Man went to the moon in 1969 and ... forty years later, we find water.

For some, this is a big discovery. For others, not so much.

Today, jubilant NASA scientists announced that they had found the tell-tale signs of significant quantities of water, in the form of ice and vapor, lurking in a shadowed crater at the moon's south pole.

The big discovery came from the double-whammy impact of a rocket and a trailing spacecraft slamming into the Cabeus crater four minutes apart on October 9th and kicking up a plume of material.

This material was analyzed by instruments aboard the spacecraft, and it appears to be about 26 galloons worth of water, primarily in the form of vapor.

How much water there may be across the rest of the moon is unclear.

But scientists are excited to learn more.

"After the Apollo program ended, we concluded that the moon was dead," said Peter Schultz, a Brown University planetary scientist and team member for a mission called LCROSS, for Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite.

"Now what we're seeing is a place with a reservoir of ices that have been collected over billions of years," said Schultz.

Scientists say water on the moon could prove to be a valuable resource for space exploration. Not only could it provide drinking water for astronauts, it could be used to create rocket fuel. NASA's long-term strategy for exploration officially includes a return of astronauts to the moon, but plans are up in the air as the Obama Administration examines alternatives that might include bypassing the moon in the near term.

But not everyone is so excited.

Just read what Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist, had to say.
No trip to Mars.
No construction of space stations for ordinary Earthlings.
No science-fiction like ending, with humans traipsing around the solar system.
Instead, it's 2009 -- 40 years after "Man walks on moon" -- and scientists are giddy about finding a few gallons of water?
I understand there are all kinds of important scientific implications with this finding. And I don't brush off as insignificant the many space missions that have occurred in the 1990s and this decade.
But let's not get carried away. Sorry, but "water found on moon" does not appear to be a true breakthrough that will change lives down here on Earth anytime soon. Or even in the coming decades.