From Reuters: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A decade after NASA sent a rocket crashing into the moon鈥檚 south pole, spewing a plume of debris that revealed vast reserves of ice beneath the barren lunar surface, the space agency is racing to pick up where its little-remembered project left off.
The so-called LCROSS mission was hastily carried out 10 years ago Wednesday in a complex orbital dance of two 鈥渟uicide鈥� spacecraft and one mapping satellite. It proved a milestone in the discovery of a natural lunar resource that could be key to NASA鈥檚 plans for renewed human exploration of the moon and ultimately visits to Mars and beyond. 听听
鈥淭he LCROSS mission was a game changer,鈥� NASA鈥檚 chief Jim Bridenstine told Reuters, adding that once water had been found the United States 鈥渟hould have immediately as a nation changed our direction to the moon so we could figure out how to use it.鈥�
The agency now has the chance to follow up on the pioneering mission, after Vice President Mike Pence in March ordered NASA to land humans on the lunar surface by 2024, accelerating a goal to colonize the moon as a staging ground for eventual missions to Mars.