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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.
I really can't tell if this article is serious or not.
We are in a financial crisis, and the government wants to see if there is ice on the moon? There's plenty on this planet. I can make some for you in my freezer and you can save 20 billion dollars.
Every time you call tech support, a little kitten dies.
Our intelligence is that they are storing WMD's on the moon.
Unless one of those halves goes spinning off somewhere, why would the gravitational pull radically change? It's still the same mass in the same relative position. It would have to be one hell of an explosion to nudge half the moon out of orbit.
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
Will it be possible to watch through binoculars or a telescope?
12:50 - press return.
You're right, they probably didn't think of that. It's not like NASA is full of rocket scientists or something.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/11aug_lcross.htm
Equivalent to 2000 pounds of TNT. That's less than a bunker buster bomb carried by an F15. The moons been hit by stuff a lot more powerful, like the enormous asteroids that made the 1000-mile craters you can see without a telescope.
ZOMG!!!! A massive explosion!!! A six mile high explosion!!!!
Or would that actually be a very, very modest explosion (especially in astronomical terms) triggering a six mile high debris plume?
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
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.
December 21st, 2012?
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
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
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Csj7vMKy4EI
Look at a picture of the moon. Go on I'll wait.
OK, did you see the craters covering the surface? Look again if you want.
Those are quite big no? In fact, they're bigger than the rocket booster - about half a million of them have diameters bigger than 1km (according to wikipedia). Since not one of those 500,000 (some of which are fairly recent) has had any significant effect on the moons orbit I'd say we're safe.
I was actually visualizing the death star exploding. It kinda looks like the moon.
Armaments, 2-9-21 And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, 'O Lord, bless this Thy hand grenade' N
...we never went there?
Since when has that been a prerequisite?
I'm pretty sure I remember reading that a 10-12 in telescope should do the trick. To give a sense of scope, the moon is about 2,160 miles in diameter.
(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.
It would, at least, take a Hyperspace Phased Gate explosion to damage the Moon in the fashion that you suggest.
Sig this!
I for one look forward to our future of savagery, sorcery and super science.
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.
The mission will supposedly cost $78 million. A lot of money to the average person... but a drop in the bucket compared to the trillions we're wasting on needless wars and bailing out failed banks and automotive companies. Guess which I think is being better spent?
http://xkcd.com/397/
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
Several S-IVB stages from Saturn V rockets impacted the moon in the 1960s and '70s. All of them were more massive than the little Centaur.
At least one Apollo mission left seismic sensors on the moon, which recorded the effects of S-IVB impacts on later flights.
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?
One of Largest conventional explosion on earth was a single ship:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion
3000 tones equivalent of TNT. 3000 short tons = 6 000 000 pounds.
6 000 000 pounds = 3000 Bunker Buster Bombs.
That's more like it!
In other big bangs of note, The US did make two conventional explosions that were bigger (4 kilotons) to try and simulate a small yield nuclear device. Also the British tried to blow up an island (3.2 kilotons).
The US ones were basically Nitrate Fuel bombs, the British one was various old WW2 munitions, Canadian was WW1 munitions. Be interesting to see what you could do with some more high tech stuff.
It might not be a good idea to anger the Mooninites. Their Quad Laser is quite an effective weapon, you know.
Does it make you happy you're so strange?