Since the surprise discovery last year of trace amounts of water on the moon, scientists have been redefining their concept of Earth's rocky neighbor. Now researchers say the water on the moon comes in three different flavors.

Until recently the moon was thought to be bone dry. But measurements in the last year from the Mini-SAR and Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3 or "M-cubed") instruments on India's Chandrayaan-1 moon probe and from NASA's recent LCROSS mission have proved that wrong.

It's official: There's water ice on the moon, and lots of it. When melted, the water could potentially be used to drink or to extract hydrogen for rocket fuel.

NASA's LCROSS probe discovered beds of water ice at the lunar south pole when it impacted the moon last month, mission scientists announced today. The findings confirm suspicions announced previously, and in a big way.

Source: 'Significant Amount' of Water Found on Moon

Abu Dhabi : Leading regional and international space industry experts gathered in Abu Dhabi earlier this month, at the region's leading platform for space and satellite technology.

The second edition of the Global Space Technology Forum (GSTF) was officially inaugurated by Saudi Arabia's Prince Sultan Bin Salman Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, President of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities.

The three day event at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, organised by Streamline Marketing Group, came at an exciting time for the region's space industry with many exciting projects on the horizon.

The Canadian Lunar Research Network (CLRN) is a new organization of Canadian scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs from all across Canada. CLRN's goal is to promote lunar research, foster collaboration among Canadian researchers and international partners, and extend our enthusiasm of lunar exploration to the general public.

About CLRN

[newscientist.com] NASA is sure to get an injection of cash to rescue its faltering human space exploration programme, says a well-connected space policy analyst [John Logsdon]

NASA Predicted to Get Budget Boost for Exploration

The Lunar Orbiter Image Recover Project (LOIRP) is a remarkable effort to process lunar images recorded on old archival tapes during the NASA Lunar Orbiter missions that preceded Apollo. Unrelenting research, boot-strapping and creative engineering by project originators Dennis Wingo and Keith Cowing has led to one of the most incredible “techno-archaeology” projects of our time.

A Sustainable Return to the Moon - a presentation by Paul Spudis (LEAG* 2011)

"The Moon has the resources needed to bootstrap a sustained, permanent human presence.  It is the place where we can learn how to live and work prod uctively in space.  The Moon has put out a welcome mat. What are we waiting for?" - Dr. Paul D. Spudis, Odyssey Moon Chief Scientist

AFP - China will launch its second moon orbiter next October, state media reported Friday, as it powers ahead with a space programme that has sparked concerns abroad.

China to Launch Second Lunar Probe by 2013

Mountain View, CA – Odyssey Moon Limited, the first official contender in the $30M Google Lunar X PRIZE, announced today it is a participant in the NASA Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP) underway at the NASA Ames Research Center. The purpose of the LOIRP is to digitize the imagery available of the lunar surface taken in the 1960’s by five NASA Lunar Orbiter missions sent to the Moon in advance of the Apollo program. The Lunar Orbiters took thousands of images of the lunar surface in 1966 and 1967 that were never totally processed due to the limitations of computing technology at the time and concerns over revealing the capability of US satellite imaging. The public saw mostly lower resolution images while the highest resolution images were archived on carefully stored data tapes awaiting the technology and motivation to complete the work.

In support of the project Odyssey Moon supported the salary of an intern who provided direct support to the project's refurbishment of the original data tape drives. Odyssey Moon has also provided funding to the team to allow specific areas of the publicly released imagery to be enhanced for use in mission planning. Efforts to refurbish heritage equipment used to record the original images recently succeeded in playing back stunning visual and audio data from the archived lunar tapes that were recorded over forty years ago. NASA and the LOIRP team officially announced their achievement on November 13th, 2008 at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif.

“The Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project is the greatest techno-archaeology project of the space-age,” said Dr. Robert Richards, CEO of Odyssey Moon Ltd. “This is an inspiring story of vision and perseverance. Skycorp, SpaceRef and NASA have been extraordinary catalysts in the recovery of this precious imagery and Odyssey Moon is proud to be associated with the effort.”

All images processed will become part of the NASA Planetary Data System (PDS), available to researchers and historians worldwide. As new datasets are developed by the current generation of lunar orbiters from China, Japan, India and the US, the historic LOIRP images will provide valuable comparative information and may still boast the highest resolution imagery of certain regions of the Moon. Odyssey Moon became involved with the LOIRP with the hope of acquiring additional stereo imagery from the datasets that could help identify safe landing sites and areas of scientific and exploration interest.

Odyssey Moon is planning its first robotic lunar mission to the lunar equator, which was the primary focus of the Lunar Orbiter images as NASA planned the landing sites for Apollo program. The participation in the LOIRP project is important to the Odyssey Moon commercial lunar enterprise as both a strategic activity and, if successful, an important contribution to history.

About Odyssey Moon:

Odyssey Moon Ventures LLC is a U.S. company with offices in Washington, DC and Cocoa Beach, Florida. The company intends to develop and commercialize innovative technologies to offer frequent, low cost and reliable access to the lunar surface for private and government customers. In addition to working with NASA on lander development, Odyssey Moon Ventures will be responsible for the U.S. launch operations and ground processing of spacecraft that will be used in future commercial spaceflights to the Moon.

Odyssey Moon Limited is a multi-national commercial lunar enterprise based in the Isle of Man that was first unveiled in December 2007 as the first official contender in the $30M Google Lunar X PRIZE competition. The company is an innovative partnership of aerospace, financial, science, education, legal and policy interests that have come together to offer unique commercial lunar business services and products for humanity’s permanent return to the Moon. Odyssey Moon’s prime contractor is MDA, an experienced company with substantial space heritage in providing robotics on the Space Shuttle and International Space Station, and more recently for satellite servicing and planetary exploration.

Odyssey Moon's partnership with NASA will allow them to develop the "MoonOne" (M-1) lunar lander based on the Common Spacecraft Bus (CSB) developed at the NASA Ames Research Center. The Hover Test Vehicle used for ground testing of the CSB is demonstrating that small teams and rapid prototyping can lead to some game changing innovations. Odyssey Moon is the first of a series of mission opportunities designed to enable low cost, rapid, and frequent access to the Moon for government, academic and commercial customers.

Odyssey Moon Robotic Lunar Lander (Engineering TV)