Soviet rocket found water on the moon in 1976 - but the West ignored their discovery



Probe dug six feet into moon's surface

Returned first evidence of water on moon

Finding completely ignored by West

Paper has never been cited by ANY Western scientist

The Luna 24 probe delivered samples of lunar soil from a six-foot depth, and found the first evidence of water on the moon - but the finding was ignored by Western scientists

In August 1976, a Soviet rocket landed on the moon, drilled six feet into the surface, extracted about half a pound of rock and flew back.

In the rocks that it brought back, water made up around 0.1%.



It was the first time any spacecraft had found conclusive evidence of water on the moon.

The American Apollo landings had brought back moon rocks, but the samples were thought to have been contaminated with water from Earth.

In 1976, the evidence of water was an earth-shattering discovery - but it was almost entirely ignored in the West.

The paper, published in the Soviet journal Geokhimiia, which had an English version, has never been cited by any Western scientist - despite the fact that in one small sample it found something that eluded the West's best efforts.



The Apollo missions brought back 300 kilos of moon rock to Earth.



Nasa's Clementine mission bounced radio waves off the surface of the moon in 1994, and found evidence of water.



Arlin Crotts at Columbia University in New York city says, 'No other author has ever cited the Luna 24 work.'

The fact that the West ignored it may well have put back Western science by decades.

Crystals of moon rock: Despite the fact that the American Apollo missions brought back 300 kilos of moon rock, they failed to do what the Soviets did - and prove the existence of water on the mooon





Scientists understimated the amount of water on the moon as recently as 2006.