The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, after two-months of site surveillance and measurements, was put into a 31 mile high mapping orbit by the NASA engineers. The $504 million spacecraft’s instruments are analyzing the possibilities of iced water present on the moon.

NASA’s chief lunar scientist, Michael Wargo made a statement saying that, “The moon is starting to reveal her secrets, but some of those secrets are tantalizingly complex”.

The NASA engineers and the scientists expect the spacecraft to find traces of hydrogen, which is the biggest indicator to point out the possibility of some water presence. They are scanning the shadowed crater of the south –pole and also craters which were struck by craters years ago by comets billions of years ago. There is a probability of ice formation in these craters.

To the delight of the scientists, the spacecraft detected certain areas of the moons surface that does not rise above 33Kelvin, and also some traces of hydrogen were confirmed. Although the Hydrogen was not present on all the shadowed south–pole craters it also varied in concentration. Water ice cannot exist in the presence of direct sunlight but it can exist below the lunar surface even if the surface is warm. So the possibility of water is possible along with other hydrogen based compounds like ammonia or methane. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is equipped with seven extremely powerful cameras and other instruments. The LRO’s mission was to do site- surveillance for suitable landing sites for future manned missions, do a surface topology, mineralogy, and chemical composition. It will also measure the cosmic and solar radiation that future lunar explorers might encounter while on the moon.
This information is very impotent to scientists who dream of commissioning a space station on the moon, by using solar energy to break down the water ice to provide oxygen, water and rocket fuel.

To end on a better note, one of the scientists confirmed that all the LRO’s instruments are functioning properly and will proceed much deeper into the mission.

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