Nasa finds water on moon?

Nasa's plans to put US astronauts back on the moon
by 2020 have been hindered by a lack of funds [AFP]

A "significant amount" of frozen water has been found on the moon, Nasa, the US space agency, has said.

The findings boosted hopes of manning a permanent lunar base on the moon which had previously been thought to be uninhabitable, for further exploration to Mars.

"Yes indeed we found water and we did not find only a little bit but a significant amount," Anthony Colaprete, project scientist and principal investigator for the LCROSS mission, said on Friday.

"The discovery opens a new chapter in our understanding of the moon," Nasa said.

The data was found after Nasa sent two spacecraft crashing into the lunar surface last month in a dramatic experiment to probe Earth's nearest neighbour for water.

Successful experiment

"In the 20 to 30 metre crater we found maybe about a dozen, at least, two-gallon buckets of water," Colaprete said.

"Multiple lines of evidence show water was present in both the high angle vapour plume and the ejecta curtain created by the LCROSS Centaur impact.

"Along with the water in [the] Cabeus [crater], there are hints of other intriguing substances," he said.

"We are ecstatic".

Having an abundance of water would make it easier to set up a base camp for astronauts, supplying drinking water and a key ingredient for rocket fuel.

But an insufficient budget has meant that Nasa's plans to put US astronauts back on the moon by 2020 are increasingly in doubt.

A key review panel appointed by Barack Obama, the US president, said existing budgets are not large enough to fund a return mission before 2020.