American Space Agency NASA has been in the process of launching various missions with an aim to return people to the Moon. But finding water under the lunar surface continues to be the biggest stumbling block in launching missions that ensure long-term presence of humans. In good news, the space agency has said that there may be reservoirs of water ice there that could be purified as drinking water, converted into breathable oxygen and used as fuel by astronauts.
It is known to scientists that water ice exists below the Moon but it is not clear whether surface ice frost covers the floors inside these cold craters. To discover more on this, NASA is planning to launch a satellite that will use a "torch" or a "flashlight" to fince the water. The mission will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket this month and will be a small, briefcase-sized satellite.
John Baker, the mission's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a release, said, "This launch will put the satellite on a trajectory that will take about three months to reach its science orbit,"
After the launch of the satellite, the mission navigators will guide the spacecraft way past the Moon. It will be slowly pulled back by gravity from Earth and the Sun before it settles into a wide, looping orbit. The orbit will take 70,000 kilometres from the Moon at its most distant point and at its closest approach, the satellite will graze the surface of the Moon within 15 kilometers, according to the space agency.
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"This is an exciting time for lunar exploration. The launch of Lunar Flashlight, along with the many small satellite missions aboard Artemis I, may form the foundations for science discoveries as well as support future missions to the Moon's surface," said Roger Hunter, Small Spacecraft Technology Program Manager at NASA's Ames Research Centre.
