On October 9, 2009, NASA deliberately crashed a Centaur rocket into the Cabeus crater, near the Moon's south pole. Right after, the LCROSS probe flew through the debris plume kicked up by the impact, measured what was there, and crashed into the crater itself. The goal was simple: confirm whether there was water as ice in the permanently shadowed regions of the lunar pole.
Analysis of the lifted material showed:
The direct confirmation of lunar water ice was a milestone. Before LCROSS, several instruments (Clementine in 1994, Lunar Prospector in 1998) had given indirect signals consistent with hydrogen in those regions, but no proof it was water in ice form.
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