How NASA Will Bomb the Moon To Find Water

mattnyc99 writes "A few weeks ago we got first word of NASA's plan to crash a spacecraft into the moon next February. The new issue of Popular Mechanics has an in-depth look at the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite and its low-cost, lightning-fast mission prep — even if delays have pushed it to late February or early March. Quoting: 'Andrews had no budget for an expensive lander to seek water, and conditions in the eternally dark polar craters would kill rovers, with temperatures close to minus 300 F. Instead, Blue Ice and its partners at Northrop Grumman came up with a concept to bring the lunar floor out in the open.... Since engineering precision hardware would break the budget, the LCROSS team had to make existing components work together.'"

Comments

Earth's Orbit?

[coreconcern]

Isn't Earth's orbit intimately mingled with it's moon?? How precise can the potential impact be measured in relation to this fact? I think Earth's orbit is fine where it is...

Wasn't this the plot of that Time Machine Remake?

[TTURabble]

The Article states that it will be a crash landing instead of actually "bombing" the moon in the classical sense. But still, seems kind of reckless considering how important the moon is to our own ecosystem.

Re:Bomb what?

[infonography]

Ah, obviously you don't know about the secret Soviet and Nazi moon bases. That's what this is really about.

Oh and the gray aliens have them there too.