Bi-static radar search for lunar water fails

Over at Universe Today, Nancy Atkinson is reporting that an experiment looking for water ice under the lunar surface has failed.

I wrote about this observation a little while ago: using radar, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Indian probe Chandrayaan-1 were going to sweep the crater Erlanger to look for a signal reflection indication the presence of ice. However, Chandrayaan-1 was already well on its way to its final malfunction, and the observations didn’t work. Go to UT for the details.

Bummer. But not all is lost: soon, the LCROSS mission will slam a massive weight into the Moon which will hopefully dislodge any of the ice that’s there, and maybe we’ll get our answer. Unless the Moon doesn’t want us too, of course.

Full story at http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/09/13/bi-static-radar-search-for-lunar-water-fails/