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NASA To Trigger Massive Explosion On the Moon In Search of Ice
Hugh Pickens writes "NASA is preparing to launch the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, which will fly a Centaur rocket booster into the moon, triggering a six-mile-high explosion that scientists hope will confirm whether water is frozen in the perpetual darkness of craters near the moon's south pole. If the spacecraft launches on schedule at 12:51 p.m. Wednesday, it will hit the moon in the early morning hours of October 8 after an 86-day Lunar Gravity-Assist, Lunar Return Orbit that will allow the spacecraft time to complete its two-month commissioning phase and conduct nearly a month of science data collection of polar crater measurements before colliding with the moon just 10 minutes behind the Centaur." (Continues, below.)
"The cloud from the Centaur rocket booster will kick up 350 metric tons of debris that should spread six miles above the surface of the moon, hitting the sunlight and making it visible to amateur astronomers across North America. Over the final four minutes of its existence, as LCROSS follows the same terminal trajectory as the Centaur, the spacecraft will train its instruments and cameras on the debris cloud, searching it for the chemical signature of water. Previous spacecraft and ground-based instruments have detected signs of hydrogen near the moon's poles, and scientists are split over whether that is from ice that could have arrived through the impact of comets or by other means. Despite all the serious scientific talk about hydrogen signatures and lunar regolith, flying a rocket booster into the moon at 5,600 mph to trigger a massive explosion is just flat-out cool. 'We're certainly going to be making a big splash,' says Kimberly Ennico, the LCROSS payload scientist. 'We're going to see something, but I don't know what to expect. I know on the night of the impact, I'll be running on adrenaline.'"
They are using explosives to write NASA in the moon for all people to see. You won't succeed where Chairface failed!
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
am I the only one who thinks we should blow everything up *here* before we start blowing everything up elsewhere?
Oh yea, remember that 2002 or whatever make of The Time Machine? With the fragmented moon? Lets just hope this time it doesn't come crashing down on Earth.
Our intelligence is that they are storing WMD's on the moon.
SO, NASA is going the way of Mythbusters - from an organization devoted to scientific inquiry into one that just blows things up for kicks...
There is no God, and Dirac is his prophet.
How could it be US territory since we never went there?
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
In fact, it already is.
"Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
From TFA, "For Kimberly Ennico, the LCROSS payload scientist, those worries are focused on a critical moment less than two hours into the mission, when controllers will signal the spacecraft to turn itself on."
Will they also integrate a cheese flavor detector? How many thousands of years has human kind been wondering what flavor of cheese the moon is?
My hope is a nice sharp cheddar, but with all those holes you can see on the surface I have a sinking feeling that it will probably be Swiss.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
Sept 13, 1999. Ten years and a few days late. Space:1999
www.lucernesys.comHorizon: Calendar-based personal finance
Plus, people often forget that with the sky falling it's actually cheaper to get there! Win!
Except in this case, the sky is falling because of NASA...
You're right, they probably didn't think of that. It's not like NASA is full of rocket scientists or something.
It's ok to blow things up if you just want to know if "there is water there."
For instance, I just blew up a watermelon 'to see if there was water in there.' It was moist, leading me to believe that there is, in fact, water in there. Then I blew up a junk yard Ford Pinto so I could verify that there was not, in fact, "water in there." As I suspected, there wasn't.
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!
<stolen>http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/1c81d0df12/mr-show-america-blows-up-the-moon-from-thaffner</stolen>
We always knew Comcast was corrupt, here's the proof: http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1909890&cid=34545432
I think we've just run out of places on earth to look for Osama Bin Laden
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Csj7vMKy4EI
...we never went there?
Since when has that been a prerequisite?
(AP) NASA announces that they have discovered that there were in fact trace amounts of ice on the moon.
"We detected a modest amount of water by blowing up a small part of the moon, but is not really sufficient to allow for future use."
Critics argue that NASA may have destroyed the precious lunar water, damaging the lunar system irreparably.
"They blew it up, I tell you. This is a travesty. It's all just testosterone, blowing things up. We thought we were changing away from this white male blowing up the moon business. Now, future life will not be able to evolve on the moon without water.", said the head of the leftist Environmental Action Front.
Other critics disagreed. "Drill, baby, drill", argued the head of the Chamber of Christian Commerce. "There's probably plenty more water on the moon. NASA couldn't have blown it up. It's the moon for Pete's sake...besides, there's no such thing as evolution anyways... "
President Obama's press secretary forgot where he was for a moment, then blamed the launch of the space craft on George Bush.
Dick Cheney replied that blowing up part of the moon was for national security but regretted that there will not be sufficient water to waterboard alien terrorists with.
Aliens from Alpha Centauri expressed their outrage through their ambassadors at Area 51. Ambassador Xwillxiahch told human reporters "First, you shot down our spaceship, after we showed you how to make pyramids, and now you do this. You humans are far too aggressive. We could have told you that there was water on the moon". Are you going to go killed the fish on Europa to see if they are there...oh, there's fish on Europa...didn't know that, did you HUMANS.."
This is my sig.
If a 1 mile high explosion on Earth is your idea of a firecracker, I'd advise you to keep your firecrackers away from my house, sir.
I for one look forward to our future of savagery, sorcery and super science.
Actually, it's not so much upset that we landed on it 40 years ago as it is that we said we'd call the next day and we didn't.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Sure, the LCOSS is intended to crash, but I bet NASA will announce eventually that the probe missed, made a soft landing instead and is now sending data from the surface. Way to lower expectations, guys.
http://xkcd.com/397/
But the moon is only a little over a quarter of the diameter of Earth, so it's like a 24 mile high explosion! ;)
That's no moon, it's a pair of moons!
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
That's no moon, it's a target.
rewriting history since 2109
Um.. Dude, not to make you worry, but Bruce is your next door neighbor's gay cousin and the bring it on was a reference to your sweet ass, not an invitation to fight. I can understand the confusion, your eyes were closed and you were attempting to do the impossible.
Think about it, what self proclaimed bad ass talks about being tickled?
Signed,
Your next door neighbor's straight cousin who is embarrassed for the confusion.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the solar system, aliens prepare a missile to launch at earth to see whether there is any carbon-based life there.
Foreign countries are not good enough to bomb anymore?