limited amount of ice at lunar south pole

ladies and gents,
it looks like there is a limited amount of ice at the south pole so putting a lunar base there maybe a waste of time.

www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&...=qw1161205741718B216

www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0610/18lunarice

Spaceflightnow carries much the same story.

This is disappointing news.

The lack of frozen ice on the Moon will have major cost implications to the whole Lunar colonization project.

Pity, "Shackleton Base" would have been named after an Irishman.

Ernest Shakleton was born in Kildare in 1874.

It sure puts a dampner on things alright. The presence of Ice had been much hyped up, and was seen as a source of drinking water, O2 and fuel. / propellant.

There may be a bright side to this though.

The Bush administration took $3.2 Billion from their budget, mainly to fund the moon project, causing them to cancel or postpone quite a few important projects, such as one on dark energy and another to investigate Europa's interior.

Or maybe the delayed Space Interferometry Mission or cancelled Terrestrial Planet Finder will get the goahead again.

Wishful thinking I know but let's hope.

Trev