CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: This week, a small NASA satellite was launched into space from Florida to find and map water on the moon.

Water is a key resource for future lunar missions, especially in permanently shadowed craters at the moon's poles.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carried the satellite, called Lunar Trailblazer, from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. Built by Lockheed Martin, it was a secondary payload on the rocket, which was primarily carrying a lunar lander mission by Intuitive Machines.

Although the moon is often thought to be dry, past studies have found traces of water, even in sunlit areas. Scientists believe enormous amounts of ice may exist in cold, shadowed regions at the lunar poles. Lunar Trailblazer will search for and map this ice to understand its location and availability.

The satellite weighs about 440 pounds (200 kg) and is 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) wide when its solar panels are extended. It will orbit about 60 miles (100 km) above the moon, capturing high-resolution images to study water distribution.

Lunar water could be crucial for future moon missions, providing drinking water, breathable oxygen, and hydrogen fuel for rockets. Ice may be hidden in deep craters at the South Pole or trapped in lunar dust and rocks.

Over the next few months, Lunar Trailblazer will perform flybys and looping orbits before settling into position for mapping. Its instruments will measure surface temperatures and detect water using reflected light patterns.

Scientists believe lunar water may come from different sources, such as solar wind interacting with moon minerals or comets and meteorites depositing ice over billions of years. While the exact amount is unknown, it could be hundreds of millions of tons.

Understanding where water exists will help astronauts and rovers explore the moon more efficiently in the future.

"Other than for human exploration, lunar water is also scientifically very exciting. The moon has been orbiting near the Earth almost since the formation of Earth itself. So understanding the origin of the lunar water might help us to understand the origin of water on Earth," Warren said.