Can Lunar Ice Fuel Rockets? India's Next Big Moon Mission

(The Uttam Hindu): When India's Chandrayaan-1 mission entered lunar orbit in 2008, it carried a small but transformative scientific instrument supplied by NASA: the Moon Mineralogy Mapper, or M³. Almost nobody expected that the data returned by the instrument would reshape one of the most enduring assumptions about the Moon.

For decades, many scientists regarded the Moon as essentially dry. That view began to change dramatically when data from M³ revealed signatures of water molecules and hydroxyl (OH) across large areas of the lunar surface. The findings provided some of the first strong evidence that water related molecules are far more widespread on the Moon than previously believed.

What Chandrayaan-1 discovered, however, was not liquid water. The mission did not find lakes, rivers, or underground reservoirs. Instead, it detected water molecules (H₂O), hydroxyl molecules (OH), and evidence suggesting that water ice could exist within permanently shadowed craters near the Moon's poles. These regions remain so cold that ice may survive there for billions of years.

More than a decade later, Chandrayaan-3 expanded India's exploration of the lunar south polar region. The mission, which achieved a historic soft landing in 2023, also did not directly discover water ice. However, it explored an area considered important for future investigations into lunar water and collected valuable information about the local lunar environment. Scientists remain particularly interested in the south polar region because permanently shadowed craters there are among the most promising locations for water ice deposits.

Taken together, these missions mark different stages of the same scientific journey. Chandrayaan-1 helped establish that water-related molecules exist on the Moon. The next challenge is determining whether substantial, usable water ice lies beneath the surface and whether it can support future human exploration.

That question is central to the proposed Lunar Polar Exploration Mission, or LUPEX. The joint mission between the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is designed to move beyond orbital observations and directly investigate the lunar soil near the south pole. Its goal is to determine whether accessible water ice is actually present underground and, if so, in what quantity.

The interest in lunar water extends far beyond scientific curiosity. Water on the Moon could become a critical resource for future space missions because it can be split into hydrogen and oxygen through a process known as electrolysis. Hydrogen can serve as rocket fuel, while oxygen can be used both for life support and as an oxidizer in rocket engines.

This idea forms the basis of a strategy known as In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU), in which astronauts use local resources rather than transporting everything from Earth. If large quantities of water ice can be extracted from the Moon, future lunar bases could potentially produce fuel, air, and water on site, significantly reducing the cost and complexity of deep-space exploration.

Despite growing evidence for lunar ice, major questions remain unanswered. Scientists still do not know the precise concentration of ice in many regions, how deep the deposits extend beneath the surface, or whether extraction would be economically and technically practical. Orbital observations have identified promising targets, but definitive answers require direct investigation.

That is where LUPEX is expected to make a significant contribution. According to current mission plans, the rover will carry instruments capable of digging or drilling into the lunar regolith, collecting subsurface samples, and analyzing the presence, abundance, and physical form of water ice. The mission will also examine the chemical and mechanical properties of the surrounding soil.

The objective is not merely to confirm the presence of water. LUPEX aims to answer practical questions that will shape the future of lunar exploration: How much ice is actually there? How deep is it buried? Can it realistically be extracted and used by future human missions?

In many ways, Chandrayaan-1 opened the door by showing that the Moon is not the completely dry world scientists once imagined. LUPEX is intended to take the next step: Going beneath the surface to find out whether the Moon's hidden water resources can become a foundation for humanity's future beyond Earth.