India on Friday hailed the discovery of water on the moon as a triumph for a lunar programme that is aiming to cement its reputation as a serious player in the space industry.
The mood in India's space community has gone from glum disappointment last month when its Chandrayaan-1 satellite mission was prematurely aborted to jubilation with news of a major discovery.
"India should be proud that Chandrayaan discovered water on the moon," said a smiling G Madhavan Nair, chief of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), at a press conference to discuss the findings. "It has done a wonderful mission, it has not failed. It is 110-percent successful."
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In one of the three papers published in the latest edition of the journal Science on Thursday, researchers said they had analysed light waves detected by NASA-made instruments on board the Indian satellite and two other probes.
'It has done a wonderful mission' The reflected light waves showed a chemical bond between oxygen and hydrogen -- proof, the researchers said, of the existence of water on the moon's surface.
Until now, scientists had advanced the theory that, except for the possibility of ice at the bottom of craters, the moon was totally dry.
The water discovery was gleaned from data collected before the Chandrayaan mission was aborted.
And there could also be more to come from India's space agency once massive amounts of data beamed back to the national space centre in Bangalore are analysed, Nair added.
"We had very dramatic moments in this mission starting from its launch onwards, but I am happy to say that the volume of data collected has been phenomenal," he said. "It has filled the computers in ISRO as well in NASA."
India launched Chandrayaan and fired a probe onto the moon's surface late last year in an event that the national space agency hoped would bring it international recognition.
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