New images from the Earth's moon show evidence of water in the satellite's north pole, the space agency announced on Tuesday.

This new evidence suggests manned missions to the lunar surface could use such deposits to sustain themselves.

"The new discoveries show the moon is an even more interesting and attractive scientific, exploration and operational destination than people had previously thought," said Paul Spudis, of the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston.

This discovery comes thanks to NASA's Mini-SAR, a radar found onboard India's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, which was launched in 2008 to capture detailed images of the lunar surface.

The Mini-SAR found deposits of water ice scattered throughout the north pole in deep craters, totaling at least 600 million of tons of water, NASA said.

This finding "will give future missions a new target to further explore and exploit," said Jason Crusan, program executive for the Mini-RF Program for NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate in Washington.

NASA first announced in November it had discovered water ice on the moon. The finding was a significant event, sparking renewed interest in manned missions.

Those plans were recently shelved by the Obama administration. It is unclear whether this new discovery will affect that decision.