NASA’s Water-Hunting Tool Will Help Scout Moon’s South Pole

NASA is joining international partners to hunt for ice on the Moon in support of future human exploration. The agency is providing a water-detecting instrument, the Neutron Spectrometer System (NSS), to the Lunar Polar Exploration (LUPEX) mission led by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation).

The instrument, which detects ice under the lunar surface, will be installed on LUPEX's lunar rover planned to arrive at the Moon no earlier than 2028. NASA's support of LUPEX is part of an ongoing effort to identify and characterize lunar water and other materials that easily evaporate near the Moon's South Pole.

Water is a critical material for NASA's plans to develop an enduring presence on the Moon. Instead of relying solely on resources carried from Earth, astronauts could use the Moon's water for breathable air, rocket fuel, and more. The first step is to find deposits of meaningful quantities of water close to the surface to mark potential landing areas for future astronauts.