In a bid to find water-ice on the moon, NASA has crashed two unmanned spacecraft into the moon's southpole today. The first spacecraft hit the surface at 12.31pm and the second one followed minutes later, to detect water in the debris the first spacecraft had kicked up.

NASA had anticipated a cloud of 350 tonnes of debris to reach heights of up to 10km. However, neither on the video stream nor from earth could such a cloud be detected, proving a disappointment to watchers. The LCROSS mission (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellit) cost approx. GBP 49,000,000. But to fully answer the question whether there is water on the moon, NASA now has to evaluate all the data collected.

The lunar mission is supposed to help return men to the moon by 2020. However, President Obama has ordered a review of the manned spaceflight programmes, and the plans have been under scrutiny since then.