Chandrayaan-2 Finds Hidden Water Ice on Moon | India's Big Lunar Discovery Explained | NEXT IAS

Added: 2026-06-04

[00:00:00]You might actually be able to live on the moon one day and India may have just found the key to it. Scientists using data from Chandrayaan-2 have found strong signs of hidden water ice near the moon's South Pole. The discovery was made using a special radar instrument called DFSAR which can scan below the lunar surface. Researchers identified extremely cold craters that never receive sunlight. These regions are called permanently shadowed regions and temperatures here can fall to nearly minus 248 degrees Celsius because sunlight never reaches these craters.

[00:00:39]Scientists believe frozen water may have survived there for millions or even billions of years. Now why is this discovery such a big deal? Because water is the key to building the future moon base. This ice could provide a drinking water for astronauts, oxygen for breathing and even hydrogen fuel for rockets. In the future scientists may extract and convert it into usable resources directly on the moon. This concept [music] is called in situ resource utilization where space missions use local resources instead of carrying everything from Earth.

[00:01:13]Interestingly, the moon's South Pole is now becoming the center of a global space [music] race involving India, the US, China and several other countries.

[00:01:22]>> [music] >> And now here's a quick question for you.

[00:01:24]Which Indian mission first landed near the moon's South Pole region? Do let me know in the comment section below.