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Bombing the Moon for Water
s20451 writes "In 1998, NASA scientists deliberately crashed the Lunar Prospector into the Moon, in a
failed attempt to detect traces of water allegedly hiding in deep craters at the lunar south pole.
Now the BBC is reporting a new proposal to attack the lunar poles with "Bunker Buster" missiles to liberate a detectable amount of water. Called Polar Night, the mission is being proposed as part of the "Discovery" series of probes."
they will use bunker busting bombs.. the point is that these bombs are used against man-made structures.. and they are much easier to penetrate than solid ground.
The bomb might have to be a nuclear one. Another question is about the delivery capability. Moon does'nt have oxygen. Therefore this bomb will need to have its own oxygen system.
The place they bomb and the place where the spacecraft is located has to be some distance apart. The dust(?) created from this bomb will linger far longer than earth because of moon's gravity.
It sounds corny because of the lame ass "i hate america and the space program" spin the slashbot who posted the article put on it.
They want to know if there's traces of water on the moon. They think if there is, it's buried at the poles. They would have to dig it up slightly to get to it.
Crashing a device into the moon would do no more (and most likely much less) damage than the countless meteors that slam into it constantly.
And it's not a simple military missle, it merely shares some principles of design. It also has a large scientific payload to detect the water (if any) and transmit the info back to earth.
Isn't earth like 3/4 water already? We have plenty. Why do we need to mess with the moon?
*buzzzzzz!* "Thanks for playing! Try again later." The purpose is not to discover life on the Moon, it is to verify the presence of water. With known supplies of water-ice on the moon, semi-permanent, and permanent bases can be set-up without having to ship really expensive water and air to the moon.
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Yeah they needed it to have an excuse for a large military. Lucky for them though 9/11 came and so they had an excuse to start a new war, "on teror". This is just the cold war of the new age. Another excuse for a large military.
"It is not how things are in the world that is mystical, but that it exists." -Ludwig Wittgenstein
Yeah, and then my stomach lurches to the left when thinking about the image of the moon drifting apart... as obviously the lunar construction project must've damaged the ancient Atlantean gravity engines that kept the ball of rock together in the first place.
Blech. Movie science.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
Does anyone think this is a secret test project by the government to test the feasibility of some type of Star Wars program or missile program from space? I wonder...
This abundant, unavailable hydrogen thing make me laugh, kind of like "water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink".
OK, pet peeve time. If you're going to quote poetry, at least quote it correctly:
- Rick "Pedant" Dickinson