# Did the Indian Luna rover find any sign of water?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-indian-luna-rover-find-any-sign-of-water/989889>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 10, 2023, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-indian-luna-rover-find-any-sign-of-water/989889 "2023-09-10T18:29:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2023, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-indian-luna-rover-find-any-sign-of-water/989889/1 "2023-09-10T18:29:07Z")

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It landed and has done some good science, it seems. But as far as I can see, there has been no report of it discovering any water (or ice) near the Lunar south pole? Of course there may be some time before the full results are analysed, but this seems a bit disappointing?

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**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2023, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-indian-luna-rover-find-any-sign-of-water/989889/2 "2023-09-10T21:53:54Z")

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Apparently not. It completed its walk and has been put into sleep mode until September 22. It was scheduled to work for one lunar day with total uncertainly about whether it could be revived after the cold night. In the meantime, nothing has been said about finding water. Since they announced the finding of sulfur and other elements I would have assumed they could have reported water if encountered. Slight maybe to the possibility they’re waiting for the results of more extensive testing but if the findings are that far on the edge, they’re not really findings.

Disappointing? The self-supporting moon colony is not going to happen, not for generations anyway. This changes nothing really.

> **[India's moon rover completes its walk as scientists look for signs of frozen...](https://www.npr.org/2023/09/04/1197526592/indias-moon-rover-completes-its-walk-as-scientists-look-for-signs-of-frozen-wate)**
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> There was no word on the outcome of the rover searches for signs of frozen water on the lunar surface that could help future astronaut missions.

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2023, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-indian-luna-rover-find-any-sign-of-water/989889/3 "2023-09-10T22:00:54Z")

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Testing for specific chemicals is easy, if you know what you’re looking for, and water was surely on the top of the list of what they were looking for. If they found it, that probably would have been the first thing they announced.