'Water on lunar surface': Chandrayaan 2 validates its predecessor's breakthrough finding

According to ISRO scientists who were associated with both Lunar projects, the data from the Chandrayaan-2 would be used to build a lunar water map, which would further aid upcoming missions to the moon. 

Chennai: One of the significant findings of India’s Chandrayaan-1 mission was to detect the presence of water on the moon’s surface. A probe on board India’s Chandrayaan-2 orbiter (second lunar mission) has not only validated the breakthrough by its predecessor but also paved the way for future lunar exploration. According to ISRO scientists who were associated with both Lunar projects, the data from the Chandrayaan-2 would be used to build a lunar water map, which would further aid upcoming missions to the moon.    Initial evidence for surface water came from the NASA-provided Moon Mineralogy Mapper(M3) experiment carried on Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft. While this payload from NASA also detected evidence for water at lunar poles, its finding was under question, owing to the limited wavelength that M3(an imaging spectrometer) covered. The basic function of a Spectrometer is to take in light (reflected from a surface) and provide a graph of the output. However, in the case of the M3, its wavelength of 0.7 to 3 microns was not sufficient to ascertain and affirm the detection of water on the moon.