NASA are set to crash two unmanned spacecrafts into the Moon today in an effort to detect ice near the surface.
It has been long thought that craters on the moon may contain ice in the shadow areas not exposed to sun light. By "Moon Bombing" NASA hopes to send up plumes of dust that will then be analised by the second craft before it follows the first into the crater.
A 2,200kg rocket stage will be first to crash into the moon, hurling debris high above the lunar surface.
Scientists say the identification of water-ice in the impact plume would be a significant discovery.
The ice could be used as water for future human explorartion and as a source of oxygen for breathing and hydrogen for fuel.
The $79m (£49m; 53m euro) mission is called LCROSS (the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite) and was launched in June.
The shepherding spacecraft is designed to guide the rocket to its target at the Moon's south pole, a shaded 100km-wide depression called Cabeus crater.
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