![]() She was contributing writer for for 10 years before joining full-time, freelancing since 2012. Indian Space Research Organization: Chandrayaan-1Įlizabeth Howell (she/her), Ph.D., is a staff writer in the spaceflight channel since 2022 covering diversity, education and gaming as well.NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive: Chandrayaan-1 Lunar Orbiter.The team found the spacecraft using radar from NASA's Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex, with some follow-up work from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. The spacecraft's orbit was about 180 degrees or half a cycle from orbital estimates in 2009. In March 2017, researchers located Chandrayaan-1 in a polar orbit that was about 200 kilometers (125 miles) above the lunar surface. This and other observations of water ice by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) in the years since have led some engineers to speculate that future explorers could use the reservoirs for lunar colonies, depending on how much water is available. Deep Impact/EPOXI found the signal while making several flybys of the moon and Earth on its way to comet 103P/Hartley 2.įollow-up observations by NASA's LCROSS (Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite) found more water at the moon's south pole, NASA announced in November 2009. ![]() And the Deep Impact spacecraft's extended EPOXI mission examined the moon in infrared wavelengths (after a request from the M3 team). The Cassini spacecraft spotted the water/hydroxyl signal in 1999 while passing by the moon on its way to Saturn. The water signal was confirmed by other spacecraft observations. After NASA's announcement, ISRO said its Moon Impact Probe had also detected the signature of water on the moon, just before it impacted the surface. ![]() The signal of water appeared to be stronger at the poles. The agency's Moon Mineralogy Mapper detected evidence of a hydrogen-oxygen chemical bond (hinting at water or hydroxyl) when looking at the top area of the moon's regolith (soil). Notably, Chandrayaan-1's data helped determine the presence of water ice on the moon, which NASA announced in September 2009.
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