Chandrayaan's moon water gift for mankind.

NASA probe on board Indian satellite finds traces of water on lunar surface 

THE " MAGNIFICENT desolation" of the lunar surface has seemingly crackled to life following clear evidence that water molecules are spread along it. Scientists searching for the presence of water on the moon have finally got a definite answer in data collected by an instrument on board India's Chandrayaan- 1 satellite. The long- awaited discovery that throws light on the moon's evolution and leads the way for further moon probes comes from data collected by the Moon Mineralogy Mapper ( M3), a US National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA) instrument on board Chandrayaan- 1.

The study by a team led by Carle Pieters, a planetary geologist at Brown University in the US, and principal investigator of the M3 instrument, is published in the latest issue of the journal Science. The moon was described as " magnificent desolation" by members of the Apollo mission four decades ago. This time around, the excitement following the discovery of water on it is palpable. However, Pieters suggested caution. " When we say ' water on the moon,' we are not talking about lakes, oceans or even puddles.

' Water on the moon' means molecules of water and hydroxyl that interact with molecules of rock and dust specifically in the top millimetres of the moon's surface," she said. A water molecule comprises two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom while hydroxyl has just one atom of each. In her public statement, Pieters said the findings from M3 uncork interesting possibilities and raise new questions like, " Where ( do) the water molecules come from and where they may be going?"

Pieters credited the Indian Space Research Organisation ( ISRO) for her success. " If it weren't for them, we wouldn't have been able to make this discovery," she said.

Does this discovery mean there is enough water to support life on the moon? It is not yet known how abundant water is on the moon. But, the study based on M3 data indicates that large quantities of the moon's surface can yield only a small quantity of water. For instance, harvesting one ton of the top layer of the moon's surface is likely to yield only about a litre of water.

But, as Pieters said in the US about the finding, " There's no question that it ( water)' s there.

It's unequivocal." K. Kasturirangan, former chairman of ISRO said that in the long run if humankind had to go and inhabit the moon, one of the important requirements was to have adequate water for survival.

Two papers that review the findings of two NASA spacecraft -- Cassini that flew by the moon in 1999 on way to Saturn and the Deep Impact probe that whizzed past it in June en route to the distant Comet Tempel -- support the claim.

All three ships used the same type of instrument that looked at the absorption of a specific wavelength of light that is the chemical signature of only two molecules, water and hydroxyl.

The finding from Brown University comes as a shot in the arm for ISRO smarting from criticism on the premature loss of Chan-

drayaan- 1 due to unforeseen solar heat and radiation within 10 months of its two- year life.

Despite criticism, ISRO chairman Madhavan Nair has claimed that Chandrayaan- 1 achieved 90 per cent of its scientific objectives.

" The biggest lessons were scientific, such as the ones about the moon's terrain and mineral composition," he said on Wednesday at the launch of Oceansat- 2.

On Thursday, ISRO acknowledged the M3 finding. " Data obtained from M3 has clearly indicated the presence of water molecules on the lunar surface extending from lunar poles to about 60 deg," said an ISRO spokesperson. " They are in the form of a thin layer embedded in rocks and chemical compounds on the surface of the moon and the quantity ( of water) is also extremely small." These molecules could have come from the impact of comets or radiation from the sun, scientists said. According to them, the most probable source could be low energy hydrogen carried by solar wind impacting on the minerals on lunar surface. M3 had covered nearly 97 per cent of the lunar surface, the scientists added.

Scientists have speculated that water molecules may migrate from non- polar regions of the moon to the poles, where they are stored as ice in ultrafrigid pockets of craters that never receive sunlight.

" If the water molecules are as mobile as we think they are, even a fraction of them, they provide a mechanism for getting water to those permanently shadowed craters," Pieters said. " This opens a whole new avenue, but we have to understand the physics of it to utilise it," she added.

Prof Raghunandan B. N., an expert in space programmes at the aerospace engineering department of the Indian Institute of Science ( IISc) said if there is water on the moon, it means a lot. " There could be a further probe for living organisms there and on the evolution of the moon," he said.

US scientists therefore consider it as one more step forward in setting up manned lunar bases. Brown faculty member John " Jack" Mustard, who contributed to the paper on the discovery of water on the moon, said the finding was " intriguing". Mustard, who has studied waterbearing minerals on Mars, said the M3 instrument can actually only see the uppermost layers of the lunar soil, perhaps a few centimetres below the surface.

" The finding may have implications for other planets, such as Mars, but it is different," he said.

WATER AHOY!

Chandrayaan- 1 has made the astronomical discovery of this millennium -- water on the moon, and large quantities of it

THE DISCOVERY

Chandrayaan- I made the discovery using a NASA instrument called Moon Mineralogy Mapper, or M3 M3 detected the reflection of sunlight off the moon's surface to determine soil composition Reflected light waves indicated a chemical bond between oxygen and hydrogen -- proof of the existence of water As the instrument could detect soil composition only up to a depth of two to three inches, it means water is available in the thin upper layer of the moon's surface

THE ANALYSIS

Scientists are not certain how water could have been formed on the moon, but have offered explanations Water is created in the soil in an interaction with the solar wind, the fast- moving stream of hydrogen particles that constantly blows away from the sun Harsh space radiation triggers a chemical reaction in which oxygen atoms already in the soil acquire hydrogen to make water and hydrogen- oxygen ( OH) molecules The water does not exist as oceans or lakes, as it does on earth. Instead, water and hydrogen molecules lie in traces in the rock and dust on moon's surface and move towards the poles

THE SIGNIFICANCE

Scientists around the world are hailing this as a breakthrough discovery

The amount of water indicated to be available on the lunar surface by Chandrayaan- I -- about a litre in a tonne of lunar soil -- turns scientific theories on the ' dry' moon on their head Astronauts going to the moon can now make use of lunar rock to extract water for drinking, oxygen to breathe and hydrogen as fuel This opens up the possibility of lunar bases -- until now a sci- fi fantasy -- and possibly even lunar colonies

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