Pack up the spaceship there is water in them there craters! Dry 1849 gold rush humor aside, the possibility of nations/companies “prospecting” for water on the lunar south pole is very real. But what makes water so special? In fact we have an immense supply of H2O right here on earth. The answer is: Location Location Location. With a cost of around $400,000 per pound to bring something to the moon you would not expect to pack a full supply of water on board. To put this into perspective the cost of transporting 1 ounce of water to the moon costs $25,000 this makes water on the moon 25 times more valuable than gold. Water is necessary for maintaining human life as well as creating rocker fuel (H2 and O2).
What has space experts more excited is the attributes of the location of the water discovered. Located on the south pole are small mountain peaks that are constantly exposed to sunlight. This presents several advantages to a potential lunar base camp. The base will avoid the temperature fluctuations from 212 °F in direct sunlight to -238°F in the dark. Along with the sunlight offering a constant supply of power collected using solar panels. Be excited but patient we are another step closer to setting up a base camp on the moon with the next objective to colonize Mars.