Posted on 06/16/2009 1:39:29 PM PDT by decimon
In an unprecedented scientific endeavor — and what may be one of the coolest space missions ever — NASA is preparing to fly a rocket booster into the moon, triggering a six-mile-high explosion that scientists hope will confirm the presence of water.
The four-month mission of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), which will be directed from NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, is to discover whether water is frozen in the perpetual darkness of craters near the moon's south pole. As a potential source of oxygen for life support and hydrogen for rocket fuel, that water would be a tremendous boost to NASA's plans to restart human exploration of the moon.
But the launch is scheduled for Thursday at Cape Canaveral, Fla. It was delayed a day to allow repairs to the space shuttle.
Shuttle Endeavour must fly by this weekend. Otherwise the mission to deliver the final piece of the Japanese space station lab must wait until mid-July because of unfavorable sun angles that would heat up the shuttle. The moon mission — NASA's first in a decade — must be launched by Saturday as well. Otherwise it will have to wait until the end of the month for another shot.
(Excerpt) Read more at siliconvalley.com ...
I think they are attacking an alien outpost there.
:)
Is this a good idea?
What if it broke up into zillions of pieces and fell to earth with cometary impact?
They're shooting for one of the poles so I figure they'll set the moon spinning.
Earth fires the first shot. The shot will be directed by Obama’s Earth versus Moon Czar.
Quick, someone find out where Marin Balsam is.
Shouldn’t we meet without preconditions first?
Besides, the moon obstructs my view of Venus.
Six mile high explosion to see whether or not there’s water? Cool. This sounds exactly like something those Mythbuster guys would have come up with.
Actually we had a plan in 1865 or so. Or you could say the French did, depending on where you place Jules Vern.
Its already been done. There was even a live thread.
We already crashed a vehicle into the moon over ten years ago.
The only difference is that the vehicle is purpose-built this time.
USA for teh win!!!
The mission is over?
We’ve crashed lots of them, some on purpose, others not. Rangers 7-9 were “hard landing” photographic missions. Surveyors 2 and 4 were designed for soft landings but had glitches that made them go splat. Starting with Apollo 13, the spent S-IVB stage was targeted for lunar impact to provide seismic signals for the ALSEP seismometers.
They’re going to the moon for water? I got ya water right here. I’ll sell it to ya. You pay me, and I’ll tell you where to pick it up.
[after the sucker pays TheOldLady] The surface of the earth is 75% water. Go for it.
Oh wait. I know, I know! The water on the moon is lighter than the water here, so the molecular bond is weaker. That will make it easier to separate the oxygen from the hydrogen. Right?
So even though it will cost about a bazillion trillion gazillion dollars to get the light water from the moon, it will still be cheaper to separate the gases. Right?
Right?
In July 1964, Ranger 7 impacted the moon sending back thousands of pictures on its way in. A few more successful Ranger flights followed.
I remember that one. But I think it was a big chunk of the earth- about half of Africa IIRC, that broke away and went into orbit as a second moon.
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