AN INDIAN and a US space probe have performed a delicate dance in lunar orbit, a manoeuvre designed to detect water on the moon.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a unique experiment that can only be conducted by two spacecraft in orbit at the same time,鈥� says in Washington DC.
The first evidence of lunar water came in 1994, from radar signals sent by the NASA moon probe Clementine, bounced off the moon and picked up by the probe and receivers on Earth. The reflections hinted that there might be water ice on the surface, but solid proof requires closer listening posts. So on 20 August NASA鈥檚 (LRO) and came within a few dozen kilometres of each other, thanks to tight coordination between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation.
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Then Chandrayaan-1 fired its radar at a crater near the moon鈥檚 north pole, and both spacecraft listened to the echoes. The results are still being analysed, but the partners will probably not perform this measurement again: the LRO will soon settle into a lower orbit than Chandrayaan-1 to begin its main observing task.