To find water, NASA 'bombs' the moon Photo Credits-

Photo Credits- The US space agency, NASA, has crashed a rocket into a crater on the south pole of the moon in hopes of detecting water. This is the first mission of the Constellation program, which aims to take Americans back to the moon by 2020.

Photo Credits- Two NASA spacecraft are barreling toward the moon. An empty Centaur rocket that weighs 2.2 tons should hit the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS). LCROSS cost $79 million and was an add-on to a bigger NASA satellite now circling the moon.

This is the first image of the Moon taken from the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite ( LCROSS) on its approach. Photo Credits-

Photo Credits- Just four minutes after the rocket stage hits the moon, the LCROSS spacecraft completed its own fatal plunge. Data sent back before LCROSS' crash was analyzed for signs of water ice. NASA scientists hope water in the form of ice.

NASA launches rocket on moon

As the Moon is mostly a dry airless desert, they believe ice could be trapped in crater shadows near the south pole which never receive any sunlight. Large amounts of frozen water available is necessary for future missions to the Moon, as water is so heavy and expensive to life into space from Earth. Photo credits-

Photo credits-

LCROSS and its bigger rocket stage launched together on June 17, 2009 and only separated on October 8,2009 the last major milestone before the big crash. Scientists hoped to find evidence of ice at the bottom of dark craters at the Moon's poles, where temperatures are lower than minus 170C.

But live pictures relayed back from the Moon showed no sign of an impact- even though both craft dived into a darkened crater as planned.

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