LCROSS Team Changes Target Crater For Impact

Matt_dk sends word that NASA has chosen a new target crater into which to crash the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission vehicles. "The decision means that when NASA's LCROSS probe and its spent Centaur rocket stage slam into the moon on Oct. 9, they will crash into the large crater Cabeus, and not the nearby (and smaller) Cabeus A crater that was previously targeted. ... The data suggests the new target Cabeus has a concentration of hydrogen — an indication of possible water ice — that's higher than anywhere else at the lunar south pole. ... A small valley etched into the otherwise tall crater ridge of Cabeus should allow sunlight to shine on the ejecta cloud kicked up when LCROSS and its Centaur rocket stage crash into the moon in successive impacts."

Comments

Re:Why not remotely?

[solafide]

It's hard to dig deep into rocks without some variety of explosive. It's pretty hard to plant explosives well. The Mars rovers have a rock-digging tool, the RAT: it regularly measures its dig depths in millimeters. This project wants to dig in and learn about well below the surface: we don't really have a good way of doing this right now without smashing stuff.

We can always recycle this variety of space junk once we get there: this is patently untrue of genuine junk in space. The usefulness of a ridiculously high-tech junkyard cannot be underestimated.

Google Maps of Cabeus crater

[BadAnalogyGuy]

http://maps.google.com/moon/#lat=-83.215692&lon=-38.320312&map=visible&apollo=&q=Cabeus