"Indeed, yes, we found water. And we didn't find just a little bit, we found a significant amount," said Anthony Colaprete, a principal project investigator at NASA's Ames Research Center.

The discovery came from an analysis of data from a spacecraft NASA intentionally crashed into the moon last month.

Colaprete estimated the impact kicked up at least 25 gallons of water.

Significant water would make it easier to set up a base camp for astronauts.

Previous spacecraft have detected the presence of hydrogen in lunar craters near the poles. In September, scientists reported finding tiny amounts of water mixed into the lunar soil all over the lunar surface.

The mission actually involved two moon shots. First, an empty rocket hull slammed into Cabeus crater. The shepherding spacecraft recorded the drama live before it also crashed into the same spot minutes later.

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On the Net:

LCROSS mission: http://www.nasa.gov/mission(underscore)pages/LCROSS/main/index.html
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