Impacting lunar prospector in a cold trap to detect water ice

Lunar Prospector data support the contention that water ice reservoirs exis t in the permanently shaded craters near the lunar poles. Yet the question remains whether the detected hydrogen abundance is actually water ice or is hydrogen in some other form. Present plans call for a controlled impact of Lunar Prospector into a polar crater at the end of July, 1999, in an attem pt to liberate a small amount of water vapor that may be detected by ground - and space-based observatories. A positive spectral detection of water vap or or its photo-dissociated byproduct, OH, would be definite proof of the p resence of water ice in the regolith. The following represents both an anal ysis of this method of searching for water ice as well as an announcement t o the observing community of the event.