No evidence for thick deposits of ice at the lunar south pole

Donald B. Campbell (), Bruce A. Campbell, Lynn M. Carter, Jean-Luc Margot and Nicholas J. S. Stacy
Additional contact information
Donald B. Campbell: Cornell University
Bruce A. Campbell: Smithsonian Institution
Lynn M. Carter: Smithsonian Institution
Jean-Luc Margot: Cornell University
Nicholas J. S. Stacy: Defence Science and Technology Organization

Nature, 2006, vol. 443, issue 7113, 835-837

Abstract: Lunar ice on the rocks The rim of the Shackleton crater at the lunar south pole is a candidate crash site for NASA's LCROSS probe (Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite), due to launch in 2008. The plume of debris kicked up by the crash is to be analysed in the hope that it will reveal the water thought to be there. Suggestions of lunar ice date from 1996 when data from the Clementine spacecraft gave some indications of the presence of ice on crater walls at the south pole. Now using high-resolution radar imagery, the radar scattering parameter thought indicative of thick ice deposits has been found also to match radar echoes from the rock-strewn walls and ejecta of young impact craters at all lunar latitudes. There is no evidence for thick ice, though there could be grains of water ice spread more thinly through the lunar soil.

Date: 2006
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DOI: 10.1038/nature05167

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