Water Found On The Moon And Mars - But Where Does That Leave NASA?

Recent images returned from the Indian lunar mission 'Chandrayaan-1' has proved that large quantities of water exists on the Moons surface, and NASA have just confirmed the findings. This is certainly interesting news and could signal that a Moon base could be built that would support human life. The data also suggests that water is being continuously formed on the lunar surface.

The Indian spacecraft was launched just under a year ago and was fitted with a Moon Mineralogy Mapper, or M3 for short. It was designed to search for water by picking up the electromagnetic radiation that is emitted by hydrogen and oxygen minerals. The machine, which was actually designed by NASA, can detect water on and just a few inches below the surface of the Moon. Scientists believed that water would be found near the poles, but were surprised to find evidence of water on the sunlit portions of the Moon instead.

The Indian Space Authority lost control of Chandrayaan-1 last month, and aborted the mission ahead of schedule. However, the findings were confirmed by a Deep Impact probe that passed by the Moon on its way to a comet in June this year. Instruments on board also showed strong evidence of water over the surface of the moon.

But having looked at the evidence, Cosmic Conspiracies has a few puzzling questions that need to be answered.

Firstly, scientists believe that the water was formed due to the sun emitting a constant stream of charged hydrogen ions, which are bombarding the Moons oxygen-rich surface at one-third the speed of light. They believe that the protons hit the lunar surface with such force that it breaks apart oxygen bonds in the Moon soil. They then form trace amounts of water that could make as much as two pints of water per ton of soil.

But hang on a second... let's rewind a little and read that claim again... 'oxygen-rich surface?' How could the lunar soil contain oxygen if there is no atmosphere on the Moon? With no atmosphere, there are no clouds, and how could water form on the sunlit side of the Moon if temperatures (according to NASA) can reach 123°C? (253°F) That is 100°F higher than any temperature recorded on Earth!

Why hasn't NASA ever reported finding water in the alleged Moon soil samples that were brought back 40 years ago during the Apollo missions? NASA's excuse to this question is that some of the boxes that contained the lunar samples had leaked, which led scientists to assume that traces of water had came from Earth air that had entered the containers. All well and good you may think, but what about the samples that didn't leak? And what about the NASA probes that looked for water on the Moon during the late 1990's? Both the Clementine and the Prospector spacecraft were capable of detecting water, in fact that was part of their mission.

And to top it off - what happens just 24 hours later? NASA announce that water has also been found on Mars! New Mars Orbiter images have revealed that subsurface ice has formed in some craters. The ice appears to be 99 percent pure, instead of the dirty dust and ice mixture some scientists expected to see. "We were able to conclude that this ice is a relic of a previously wetter climate," said research team member Shane Byrne of the University of Arizona in a teleconference. The new observations indicate the presence of vast sheets of ice buried beneath the Martian surface left over from when the planet's ice caps covered more of the planet, researchers said.

The ice averages about a meter thick and contains about the same amount of frozen water as the Greenland ice sheet on Earth. "These buried ice sheets that extend from the poles all the way down to 45 degrees [latitude] or so don't quite cover half of the planet, but come close to covering half the planet," a spokesman said. "So we're talking about maybe about a million cubic kilometres of ice in total."

It seemed rather odd to me a couple of months ago as I watched the press conference for the 40th Anniversary of the first lunar landings, as at the time it appeared that NASA were more interested in talking about a mission to Mars and how they could get funding and political backing, rather than celebrating the Apollo landings. But now it is all crystal clear - If NASA has been sitting on this evidence of 'water on the Moon' for 40 years - what would be a better time to release that information?

The simple fact is, with the Moon just a 3 day trip from Earth, it would be ideal as a waypoint and to resupply oxygen and water, and refuel as you head towards Mars, which is a 6 month journey! Then, once again, when you get to Mars you have an abundance of water at your disposal too.

Does any of this new evidence surprise me? No, not really. If NASA has the balls to announce during the 40th Apollo Anniversary that they are releasing new high definition photographs taken during the original Apollo 11 mission and also that the 698 boxes of original Apollo films that were supposedly missing since the 1960's had more than likely been taped over with satellite data during the mid 70's-80's, then nothing that NASA announces really surprises me any more. Would NASA have told us that water exists on either the Moon or Mars if the Indian Space Program had not found it? I very much doubt it!

Dave Cosnette
30/9/09