Jul 31 1999
From The Space Library
NASA's Lunar Prospector crashed into a frozen crater on the Moon, but detected no water upon impact. Scientists, believing that the crater held frozen water, had hoped that the "fire and violence of the collision would vaporize ice," sending a "wet plume, detectable by special instruments, spiraling into the lunar sky." Telescopes equipped with ultraviolet detectors recorded hours of data after the impact, searching for the "chemical signature" of water. The Prospector mission, which had lasted 18 months following its 6 January 1998 launch, had used five instruments to "map the magnetic, chemical and gravitational character of the [M]oon.”
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