If the moon harbours ice, for example, measuring the amount of it at different depths could enable planetary scientists to work out the rate at which comets smashed into the lunar surface over its history, and that knowledge could then be plugged into models of the formation of the solar system.

ECONOMIST: Divining water

The LLCD (Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration) launches on LADEE in January of next year and will demonstrate a laser downlink rate of 622 megabytes from the moon.

FORBES: Future Of NASA's Aging Deep Space Network Lies In X-Rays And Lasers