India’s ‘Baby’ Discovers Water on the Moon

ABC's Karen Russo reports from New Delhi: India's newspapers are filled with headlines about its first lunar mission's Chandrayan-1 discovering water on the moon. "Water found on Moon's surface; NASA to make announcement" says the Times of India. Indian Express announces the groundbreaking news: "Moon water traces finding by Chandrayaan-1 path-breaking: ISRO." Nicknamed "baby", the mooncraft Chandrayaan-1 was launched last October by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).  “The baby has done its job by helping us find water on the moon,” M. Annadurai, project director of Chandrayaan-1, told IANS. Indians around the country are bursting with pride over the accomplishment. The scientists at the ISRO in Bangalore were excitedly holding meetings all day today to discuss the findings. “There is a feeling that this is bound to build respect for our program,” said S. Satish, ISRO spokesman, on the phone from the southern Indian city of Bangalore. “It’s very good news. We are so excited!” The discovery of water molecules by the "M3" or moon minerology mapper was a combined effort with NASA. When the craft was launched last fall, critics suggested India should focus on its internal problems of hundreds of millions living in poverty and unsanitary conditions before focusing on the moon. But supporters of the mission believed the promising superpower was taking the next natural leap of progress onto the world stage while competing with neighboring future superpower China's space program. The mission was aborted on August 30 when contact was lost with the spacecraft. The unmanned mooncraft was launched in October last year in what was expected to be a two-year mission which would allow India to compete in the space race with other Asian nations. Despite the sooner-than-expected end to the mission, India considers the mission a success. Annadurai said the discovery of the water molecules was a "landmark event in international space cooperation between India and other countries." “It is one of the milestones. We have to quantify it. It was a combined team effort. Finding presence of water or ice has been one of the mission’s scientific objectives apart from terrain mapping and mineral mapping,” Annadurai said. NASA is expected to make an announcement later today.