Where is NASA heading after they’ve found water on the Moon?

I admit the discovery of the water on Mars thrilled me much more than those ice craters found on the Moon. Yet, it’s another significant discovery in the mankind history and may result in some groundbreaking answers about the very fabric of our galaxy. Or at least provide the opportunity to create the first permanent cosmic base up there.

After numerous recent evidences from different lunar mission, a few days ago NASA has officially confirmed in a press conference that they’ve found “a significant amount” of water in some of the Moon’s craters. As you may have guessed, it’s frozen, but NASA promises it is water like any other and will be suitable to drink after some filtration.

Well, this will certainly help the future Moon habitants – the astronauts, which may live in a future permanent cosmic base. Still NASA is quiet about the exact amount of water reserves up there.

Just don’t get too excited over the water discovery – it’s not something that can save you a** when 2012 comes around (just watched, love it). First off, the Moon is a natural satellite instead of some independent planet like Mars. If anything catastrophic happens on Earth, it will most probably involve the Moon as well. And secondly, it is just a peace of rock, without any atmosphere, which makes the living up there quite hard.

Still the water on the Moon gives us hope. We might be far away from the discovery of space traveling (like in Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica), but I believe NASA is on the right track. Searching for human friendly factors and environments along with the understanding the planet’s structures is the first step of venturing into Space. And until we find some Stargate hidden in the deep jungles, let’s hope NASA and the other countries’ space programs will make more and more breakthroughs.