Water water everywhere, but no one needs a drink

Last month India’s Moon Impact Probe, onboard the maiden voyage of Chandrayaan 1, confirmed trace amounts of water on the moon’s surface. The US space agency and NASA corroborated the findings, and top Indian scientist G Madhavan Nair expressed pride in the “path-breaking discovery”. This may have come as sharp relief for those who have become belatedly bored with the water features Earth has to offer, but unfortunately the moon-water is embedded in the surface of minerals and rocks.
Though NASA missed the water with their 1969 walkover, they’ve followed up the Indian find with an Impact Probe of their own. The imposing LCROSS device detonated in the crater Cabeus A at 11:30 GMT on October 9, the idea being that any residue ice would be shot up above the lunar surface by the impacting probe, where sunlight would break it into easily detectible oxygen and hydrogen molecules. The water, thought to be sublimated at the bottom of craters after several million years of meteor impact, could have been essentially refrigerated by virtue of the constant shadow, and scientists think there now could be some billion tons locked up near the Moon’s South Pole. Cabeus A, near the South Pole, is shaded and easily visible from Earth—the 2 second long impact flash was visible to those with household telescopes. NASA crashed the rocket and a satellite into the moon's surface on Friday morning in a $79 million mission. It will be some weeks before all the data from the satellite can be analyzed to determine if there is indeed water on the moon.
While this is well and good, NASA’s recent machinations still and unabatedly beg the question, why? As the fifty billion dollar space station looms overhead without production or purpose, it is appropriate that one wonders at the feverish expense going into the rather mundane space exploration. Even now, there are fanciful talks of establishing an international moon base for eventual shuttle launches to Mars and further expansion (though not necessarily useful) of the space station. Now a moderate expense like the Hubble Telescope seems to be well worth the amazing celestial photos it’s captured, and hey if NASA wants to launch some probes every once in a while that’s fine too—it’s good to stay busy, but especially now in these times of economic and political upheaval, where is it appropriate to draw the line?
Many students and professors alike, especially here at UD, will rightly insist that learning is an excellent virtue and an end in itself, and furthermore one can’t well put a price on excellent education. It seems in Man’s nature to explore and test his surroundings, and while that should not necessarily be curbed, perhaps it should be redirected to Man’s more immediate surroundings. After all, more is known about the moon’s surface already than the ocean floors, and apart from any potential resources that may be there discovered (not to mention there’s lots and lots of water already) a more direct study of life—tangible and reactionary—can be carried out.