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File:LEND Looks for Water at the South Pole.jpg

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English: Water on the Moon.
  • Looking down on the Moon’s South Pole, you notice there are areas that never see the Sun. These permanently shadowed areas have some of the coldest surfaces in our solar system, and it is believed that they harbor resources to sustain human exploration— including water ice. Under NASA’s Artemis program, the agency is eager to learn all it can about the presence of water on the Moon in advance of sending the first woman and first person of color to the lunar surface in 2024 and establishing a sustainable human presence there by the end of the decade. The Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector (LEND) aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has found signs of water (seen here in blues) in places that have surprised scientists, suggesting that the distribution of water is not limited to areas that are very cold and never see the Sun. Indeed, other instruments have observed the Moon and have found water in varying abundances across nearly the entire lunar surface. In advance of the next human mission to the lunar surface, NASA will send several small satellites on Artemis I, including Lunar Flashlight, Lunar IceCube, and Lunar Polar Hydrogen Mapper (LunaH-Map), that are dedicated to investigating these water ice–bearing regions from lunar orbit. NASA will also send the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) to search for surface water ice near the lunar South Pole, which will help scientists understand the water’s origin, how it is distributed, and if it can be harvested to sustain humans during future crewed Artemis missions.
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Author Ernie Wright, NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio

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Public domain This file is in the public domain in the United States because it was solely created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted". (See Template:PD-USGov, NASA copyright policy page or JPL Image Use Policy.)
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current18:20, 8 February 2022Thumbnail for version as of 18:20, 8 February 20224,200 × 4,400 (5.86 MB)Ras67 (talk | contribs)== {{int:filedesc}} == {{Information |Description = {{en|1=Water on the Moon. * Looking down on the Moon’s South Pole, you notice there are areas that never see the Sun. These permanently shadowed areas have some of the coldest surfaces in our solar system, and it is believed that they harbor resources to sustain human exploration— including water ice. Under NASA’s Artemis program, the agency is eager to learn all it can about the presence of water on the Moon in advance of sending the first...

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