One of the many things that really reemphasizes how limited remote technology such as probes and rovers really are. As the article mentions this has been known

One of the many things that really reemphasizes how limited remote technology such as probes and rovers really are. As the article mentions this has been known about for about 6 years. Having rovers do what they were designed to do is very difficult, having them try to explore previously unknown phenomena is generally just not really possible. Consider for instance water on the moon. When was this discovery finally confirmed once and for all? It didn't happen until 2009! [1] And the discovery of water-ice only happened in 2018. These are 'obvious' surface level characteristics, yet we're only confirming them some 60 years after our brief dalliance with manned exploration. It's incredible to think about all the things that we've yet to discover but eventually will once we start getting indefinite bases setup across various destinations. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_water https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_water