NASA moon crash struck lots of water

“We found water. And we didn’t find just a little bit. We found a significant amount,” Anthony Colaprete,lead scientist for the mission,told reporters as he held up a white water bucket for emphasis.

He said the 25 gallons of water the lunar crash kicked up was only what scientists could see from the plumes of the impact.

Some space policy experts say that makes the moon attractive for exploration again. Having an abundance of water would make it easier to set up a base camp for astronauts,supplying drinking water and a key ingredient for rocket fuel.

“Having definitive evidence that there is substantial water is a significant step forward in making the moon an interesting place to go,” said George Washington University space policy scholar John Logsdon.

The October mission involved two strikes into a permanently shadowed crater near the south pole. First,an empty rocket hull slammed into the Cabeus crater. Then,a trailing spacecraft recorded the drama live before it also crashed into the same spot four minutes later.