His plan requires the probe to be accelerated, using its remaining fuel, and then steered at a shallow angle into one of the permanently shadowed regions near the south lunar pole.

ECONOMIST: Creative destruction

On Tuesday, the space agency released before-and-after pictures of the lunar north pole where Ebb and Flow came to rest.

NPR: NASA Moon Craft Spots Ebb And Flow Crash Sites

The lunar outpost will most likely be placed on the lunar south pole, which is lit by the sun three-quarters of the time, and has possible resources to mine nearby.

ENGADGET: NASA planning to set up shop on the moon in 2024

After a month of fly-bys over the south pole, Lunar Prospector should be able to confirm the presence or absence of water once and for all.

ECONOMIST: Divining water

When scientists used the spacecraft's antennae to analyse radar echoes from the lunar surface, they found that within certain deep canyons near the south pole the echoes increased and were altered in just the way they would be if dirty icerather than rock were filling the caverns.

ECONOMIST: Divining water

The lunar crater named after Tycho Brahe, a 16th century Danish astronomer, near the moon's south pole, is 85km across.

ECONOMIST: Asteroid impacts