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NASA Plans to Smash Spacecraft into the Moon
djasbestos writes "NASA is planning to smash a spacecraft into the Moon in order to look for hydrogen deposits in the poles. More notably, it will impact with significantly greater force (100x, per the article) than previous Moon collisions, such as by the Lunar Prospector and Smart-1 probes. Admiral Ackbar was unreachable for comment as to the exact location and size of the Moon's thermal exhaust port."
Many Bothans died to bring samzenpus this information...
It's a space station...
-Rhomboid
...for another Mars mission, eh?
It had to be said - even if it is terribly trolly.
Genesis 1:32 And God typed
Admiral Ackbar led the attack on the second Battle Station. The thermal exhaust port weakness was on the first.
before someone tries to blame high tide, beached whales, and global warming on us crashing shit into the moon?
I'll meet you at the intersection of "Should be" and "Reality"
I am planning on failing my midterms. I expect to fail this midterm by significantly more points (100x per my plans) than previous failures. I am doing this in search of hydrogen deposits in the poles.
NASA needs funds right? So they should sell the right to name the new crater on ebay.
Unfortunately, due to a failure to perform a metric/imperial conversion, the mission failed when the probe performed a perfect soft landing on the moon's surface.
may I suggest that NASA replace their somewhat embarrassing "Faster, better, cheaper" motto with "Closer, cheaper, deeper"?
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
This is what happens when you screw with boston.
-The world would be a better place if everyone had a hoverboard
You may laugh, but NASA did do it before. During the final Apollo missions, they allowed the (abandoned) lunar module to crash into the moon in order to test seismic readings on the instruments left behind.
Russian Spaceships Fly Yo....
Oh wait, that's actually true..
So... They want to deal with starting and flying but not landing? Oh my god, call the DHS!
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Which insensitive clod tagged this story Beagle3?
This entire thread will be kept behind until whoever did it owns up...
Come on, I can wait all day if necessary.
They also smashed the third stage of the Saturn V into the Moon for every Apollo after 13 IIRC, also as seismic probes. That had
considerably more kinetic energy than either the LEM upper stages or any of the recent impacts.
It wasn't just to test the seismometers, it was to map the interior of the Moon, once they found out that the Moon is seismically pretty quiet and doesn't have much in the way of Moonquakes. It was thus a very large scale example of the seismic prospecting that is done frequently in oil exploration.
Wensleydale, I think.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
The moon's poles can't repel firepower of that magnitude!
TWO BRICKS BEING SMASHED TOGETHER!
I'm sorry sir, but that's offtopic. Try Again, please.
I'D LIKE TO SEE... A ROCKET SMASHING INTO THE MOON!
That's more like it. And now for something completely different...
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
One Small Step for Man,
One Big *SMASH* for Hulk!
Mod Karma -1: I sed bad wurds. If I cep my mouf shut, I wud be at riyses.
Toby Ziegler: They know it was on course traveling at a rate of 15,400 miles per hour, which it was supposed to. Somewhere during its descent it was also supposed to release two probes - each about the size of a basketball - firing them deep into the ground as part of the mission's search for evidence of water under surface.
Josh Lyman: We think if we hit the ground hard enough, we can make it to the center of the planet and find water?
Toby Ziegler: Yeah.
Josh Lyman: That's not a theory of physics pretty much disproved by Wile E. Coyote?
One thousand, one hundred and two tons of debris and dust.
Plus or minus 500 tons.
I come here for the love
Lucas saved a ton of money on makeup costs by casting Tori Spelling to play Admiral Ackbar. It's a fact--look it up.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
A short list of missions intended to impact the Moon:
A short list of missions with other goals, but were eventually intentionally impacted with the Moon:
WeRelate.org - wiki-based genealogy
"On July 4th of this year, America will blow up the moon."
"We have the technology; the time is now; science can wait no longer; children are our future. America can, should, must, and will blow up the moon."
"Yes, and we'll be doing it during a full moon, so we make sure we get it all."
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kHpX5aa5Lz4
Too bad we turned off the Apollo ALSEP package, the seismometer experiments. I had the joy of working with the data team, and on one of the lunar missions they crashed the Apollo S4-B stage into the moon. The seismic event lasted for an hour. The moon is a homogeneous sphere, no core.