After interpreting data and pictures taken during the Clementine spacecraft mission, a joint Department of Defense and NASA program, scientists reveal that deposits of ice could exist in permanently dark regions near the south pole of the Moon. Originally sponsored by The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization the Clementine mission was designed to test new technology that would track and intercept hostile missiles, using celestial bodies such as the Moon. Several advanced lightweight cameras onboard Clementine recorded approximately 1.5 million images of over 99.9 percent of the Moon's surface, including laser radar measurements which produced a topographical map of the lunar surface. The discovery of ice on the Moon has enormous implications for a permanent human return to the Moon.
Water ice is made up of hydrogen and oxygen, two elements vital to human life and space operations.
Lunar ice could be mined and disassociated into hydrogen and oxygen by electric power provided by solar panels or a nuclear generator. Additionally, the water from lunar polar ice and oxygen generated from the ice could support a permanent facility or outpost on the Moon. The discovery of this material, rare on the Moon but so vital to human life and operations in space, will make human expansion into the Solar System easier and reaffirms the immense value of the Earth's Moon as the stepping stone into the universe. The satellite was designed and integrated by the Naval Research Laboratory and the sensor instruments were integrated by the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. The science team was sponsored by NASA who also provided the Deep Space Network of antennas to receive Clementine's image transmissions to the Earth.