NASA scientists have found more vast deposits of water in a new part of the Moon, they revealed this week. They reckon there is at least 600 million tons of ice in craters around the north pole.

It comes just five months after the space agency sent a probe crashing into the Moon’s south pole and revealed substantial reservoirs there too.

The latest discovery was made with a NASA radar instrument called Mini-SAR aboard an Indian probe, Chandrayaan-1, which was put in orbit around the Moon.

Its beam found more than 40 small craters, between one and nine miles across, contained water ice. Experts say it stays trapped in the shadows of craters which never see sunlight and so it does not evaporate into space.

Generally the Moon is still drier than anny desert on Earth. Some scientists predicted water would be found around the poles, dumped by comets over billions of years, but the amount found is surprising. It is thought that water molecules are being produced from rock across the Moon’s surface and naturally migrates towards the poles.

In October a two-ton Centaur rocket stage collided at 5,600mph with a 60-mile wide crater called Cabeus near the lunar south pole. Though the impact was not spectacular for hopeful observers back on Earth, scientists observed water in the plume of debris released.

The presence of abundant water would greatly aid the establishment of lunar colonies, as it could be turned into fuel as well as keep astronauts alive. However, last month President Obama cancelled plans for NASA to return men to the Moon.

Private companies might take up the challenge instead and China is also believed to be keen to land astronauts on the lunar surface.

Crater expert Dr Emily Baldwin, deputy editor of the UK’s Astronomy Now magazine, told Skymania News: “The amount of water in these polar regions is amazing and we really need to get back to the Moon to find out more about it and how it got there.”

You can read Skymania’s own guide to craters and other features on the Moon here.

Picture: An image from Mini-SAR aboard the Chandrayaan-1 probe shows the craters containing water ice circled in green. The black areas are regions not scanned by the radar. (Credit: NASA).

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