Article published November 21, 2009
Moon river?
FORTY years after the Apollo 11 landing and 37 years after the last American shook moon dust from his boots, our lunar neighbor is again looming large in the imagination.
This time, the world's scientists are excited by a mile-high dust cloud kicked up when a NASA probe slammed into the moon's surface at 5,600 miles per hour on Oct. 9.
NASA commanded its Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite to crash in a predetermined spot near the South Pole. Although it was a suicide mission, it had a purpose. Following the same trajectory five minutes later was a second probe. It flew through the plume of moon dust and debris kicked up by the first probe and beamed the data back to Earth.
After studying the results, NASA announced what everyone had been waiting to hear: There's water on the moon. What was once considered just a desolate rock is now seen as a potential source of rocket fuel and thirst-quenching water for a colony. Our "dead moon" may have enough of the Right Stuff to make possible a leap to the stars.
The discovery of water is the first step to justifying humanity's return to the moon, still at least a decade away. How much can ultimately be found and refined there will determine the practicality of moon bases too.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote: "Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink." But with a little chemistry, astronauts not only may be able to drink this water, but use it to fly to Mars and beyond.
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