NASA plans to attack on Moon in quest of water

NASA launched a space mission from Cape Canaveral carrying two lunar satellites and a missile that will fire a deep hole in the surface of the Moon. The satellites lifted off together on top of an Atlas V rocket. The aim is to see whether any traces of water will be revealed by the disruption caused to the planet's surface.

A satellite will fly through the 30 to 40 mile high dust plume looking for evidence of water ice left by comets that slammed into the moon billion years ago. The crash vehicle, an impactor and observational instruments will be added to NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The unmanned Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite mission (LCROSS) will fire a Centaur rocket into the surface at twice the speed of a bullet.

Scientists expect that the impact will result in blasting out a huge cloud of dust, gas and vaporized water ice at least six miles high. If successful, it can provide essential supplies for a moon base.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will spend a year creating a highly detailed map of the moon's surface. This is the first American spacecraft to make a lunar trip since 1999. In the past few years, at least two American spacecraft reported the presence of water around both the north and south lunar poles.