Water ice detected at lunar north pole

[Sam Fraser]

Using data from a NASA radar that flew aboard India's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, scientists have detected ice deposits near the moon's north pole. Although the total amount of ice depends on its thickness in each crater, it's estimated there could be at least 1.3 trillion pounds (600 million metric tons) of water ice.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/Mini-RF/multimedia/feature_ice_like_deposits.html

There could be a lot more:

The ice must be relatively pure and at least a couple of meters thick to give this signature......at least some of the polar ice is mixed with lunar soil and thus, invisible to our radar.

[Rhyshaelkan]

Certainly good news. The less that has to be brought from Earth for industrial and habitation concerns the better.

More water will mean more hydrogen. More hydrogen will mean less hydrogen imported for the hydrogen reduction process for refining lunar materials.

More water will mean great boost to hydroponics without costly importation from Earth.

With proper funding there is already no lack of launches I would like to purchase from SpaceX. With cutting out water/hydrogen importation, other volatiles can make the manifest.