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Is there water on the moon?
15/06/2005 15:11 - (SA)
Moscow - Russian scientists plan to send a water detector to the moon onboard a US space probe scheduled for launch in 2008, a member of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences said in Moscow on Wednesday.
The Russian Lend neutron detector, which will search for water on the planet, and five US research instruments are to be sent into orbit around the moon on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter built by the United States space agency Nasa.
Water could theoretically exist as concentrations of ice in craters at the earth satellite's poles, which are not irradiated by sunlight, scientist Igor Mitrofanov told the Itar-Tass news agency.
Ice deposits located at either pole would be the logical site for the eventual construction of a manned lunar station.
Energy could be generated using solar panels on sunlit areas of the moon and used to melt ice to produce hydrogen fuel for space ships, he said.
An earlier design of the Lend device has searched for water on Mars for the past four years.
Meanwhile, Nasa will use the relatively cheap, $90, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission to measure the moon's exact surface area. Surveying equipment will be among the US units on the probe. - Sapa-dpa
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