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NASA's LCROSS Moon Impact Mission Provides Great Data
Several sources are sending us reports of NASA's recent LCROSS Moon impact mission. While the visual results seem to be less than stunning, LCROSS Principal Investigator Anthony Colaprete said the initial results produced "the data we need," but refused to say anything about "water or no water." "The goal of this dual impact was to have the Centaur upper stage impact first, allowing the LCROSS spacecraft to observe close-up the results of the impact. In fairness, the view from LCROSS as it approached the moon was amazing — even though there was no obvious visual evidence of impact, which early data from the infrared camera on the craft indicates did occur. What happens next is a whole lot of math and science. The LCROSS spacecraft included nine individual science instruments. This suite of instruments consisted of one visible camera, two near-infrared cameras, two mid-infrared cameras, a visible light spectrometer, two near-infrared spectrometers, and a photometer. All nine of those instruments were gathering data simultaneously and streaming that data back to Earth."
"The International Space Station is still going strong, but you can only budget so many taxpayer dollars for the study of toilet-flushing, spiderweb-weaving and astronaut-humping in zero gravity. Eventually people are going to get wise. You gotta do something, so messing up the moon is an awesome idea. And don’t bring up Mars, because that’s still a sore subject. Not gonna happen. They did the math, and it turns out that it was all just made up by Bush after he accidentally mixed his Zoloft with three Tom Collinses."
http://digg.com/d316nFP
For great justice!
Mess not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.
Maybe the LRO will show something, because I sure as hell didn't see anything at 4:30 this morning.
The moon has a completely insurmountable 1.2 second ping.
Even if a first generation move to the moon, their kids won't put up with a 1.2+ second ping in halo, and will move back to earth when they are 16.
So you see, it won't be sustainable.
"I have just signed legislation outlawing the Moon. We begin bombing in 5 minutes."
Anybody want my mod points?
It might be worth pointing to the mission site or project site at NASA.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
... or does this posting say almost nothing? "We blew up a crater on the moon, and boy our data is great. Check back with you guys later."
Is this just NASA-speak for "We haven't analyzed the data yet but we wanted to make some sort of comment anyways"?
There's a nice sequence of screen-grabs showing the journey into lunar oblivion plus summary of the post-impact press conference here.
It was strange not seeing any massive impact plume like expected, but seems they got spectroscopic data which is what really matters. You got the sense that all the journos were disappointed there wasn't a big KABOOM with all those questions asked about it in the press conference.
followed by "a whole lot of math and science".
Pure orgasm.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Jim: This just in, we have confirmed reports that the two NASA probes that slammed into the moon earlier today have irrevocably changed the moons trajectory in such a way that it will intersect with Earth's. Scientist's calculated that impact will oc
Yes it is boring but that's science, not science fiction (ya ever noticed that all space sci-fi shows are either alien space monsters or laser beam battles? Like there's only seven plots to a western.) They probably shouldn't have hyped the huge explosive plume in animations for weeks before impact. However, public was given direct observation of this program in action. OK maybe they didn't feed all the console data direct but they gave realtime visuals. However, realtime astronomy is really boring to those that don't understand it. Gathering at Ames Research Center grass area of Shenandoah Plaza was interesting. How often can someone camp out at a federal facility?
mfwright@batnet.com
All nine of those instruments were gathering data simultaneously and streaming that data back to Earth.
Unfortunately, this high volume of data alerted the MPAA/RIAA that copyright theft was in progress, and their lawyers ordered a DMCA take down order to cut off data transmission from the moon. So not all the data was received.
The Moon must appear in court in order for its data service to be restored.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
It's unfortunate that NASA hyped this up as much as they did, asking the nation to host "backyard impact parties" and saying you'll see it in your mid sized backyard telescope and whatever.
This may have been a smashing success for the scientists, but each time they play up something that turns out to be a dud in the eyes of Joe Sixpack, they'll lose that much more public support. They're teetering on the brink as it is; people don't understand why they should be funding smashing things into the moon when their local roads are filled with potholes and they can't afford health care.
While the science geek in me says cool!, the other side says, After 40 years, is this the BEST we can do?
"I bow to no man" - Riddick
Funniest comment I have ever seen
Linux forever
- We didn't miss the aim point.
- None of the instruments malfunctioned.
- We didn't lose the data on the way back.
- We'll tell you what it means once we're done analyzing and checking it.
In still other words "The project passed THE major milestone and is on track with nothing broken."
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
While the science geek in me says cool!, the other side says, After 40 years, is this the BEST we can do?
After the Apollo program we pi**ed all the money away on Vietnam, a string of other wars, and "The Great Society" welfare programs. These were all run on the national credit card until the interest on the account is now sucking down more than the income tax provides.
The value was sucked out of the economy and disposed of by government until, despite what advancements WERE made since with what resources were left, we still can't afford the size of program we could in the 1960s.
Moon shots are expensive and we're broke.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Did that guy ever get his high-five?
I would've thought that the Moon is owned by no one... or everyone on Earth. So why does NASA have the rights to blow up the Moon?!
The real reason that there was no plume is that the moon is so frickin' wet with water at the poles the probes each stuck in the mud with a mighty *splat*. We're talking the kind of mud that sucks the boots right off your feet, so muddy they'll have to jack up the cows to milk them.
Seriously, didn't the ISRO just do this? And wasn't NASA was given free passage for any equipment they wanted to include? As I recall, the mission was a success.
A small comparison of interest:
Windows: Public School. Mac: Private School. Linux: Homeschool. Assembly: Unschool.
People who play Halo reproduce? How?
Help stamp out iliturcy.
First NASA spacecraft to slam into the moon was Ranger 4 in 1962.
Of course, back then they didn't crash-land on purpose... ;)
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
LCROSS_NASA “And what's this thing coming toward me very fast? So big and flat and round, about 18 hours ago from web
LCROSS_NASA it needs a big wide sounding name like 'Ow', 'Ownge', 'Round', 'Ground'!” about 18 hours ago from web
LCROSS_NASA “That's it! Ground! Ha! I wonder if it'll be friends with me?” about 18 hours ago from web
If a NASA dud craft falls in a crater and nobody sees it in their telescope, did it really fall?
You can't send a takedown notice to an already printed newspaper.
This is all true.
But I find it better to think about this speed of 213 Mm/s as the speed of light (electromagnetic radiation) in that material.
Your post makes my brain hurt.
ResidntGeek
Barack Obama, the President of Earth, has controversially launched an attack on the Lunar Imperium the same day he received the Nobel Peace Prize for not being George W. Bush.
"We closely examined Mr Obama's record over the past nine months," said Nobel Prize committee chair Thorbjørn Jagland, "and have established to our satisfaction that he has succeeded in not been George W. Bush in any manner whatsoever. Also, the flying cars, moving sidewalks and robot servants he brought in are pretty cool."
The committee had initially been concerned that Mr Obama may have been, per investigations by "birther" researchers, a replicant created by the team responsible for the cyborgization of Dick Cheney, to take his place as humanity's next robot overlord after Mr Cheney's term had finished. "However, we are now confident that his documentation of Autobot manufacture is entirely in order."
The surprise attack on the moon came after a CIA report indicated the Taliban had set up shop in the old Nazi moon base, based on intelligence gathered from secret mass phone tapping. The Obama administration denied it was merely an excuse to invade the Lunar Imperium and steal its water.
"It grieves us terribly that our lunar brothers have let us down so," said Mr Obama today. "But with mutual respect and communication, I am confident we can work through our differences. We'll teach them to love again DESTROY ALL HUMANS DESTROY ALL HUMANS SOCIALIZE HEALTH CARE I'm sorry, I'm having a minor glitch. I'll get back to you."
http://rocknerd.co.uk
I live in Colorado, and I haven't seen the Moon since they blew it up, and our weather turned cold, snowy, and icy right afterwards. I can't help but think the Moon is gone, so has anyone else seen it lately?
Well, I'm pretty sure the spacecraft and all its instruments are broken now. That WAS the milestone.
I can't believe nobody has figured it out yet! The moon IS made of CHEESE! I think the Centaur and LCROSS just went straight through, and came out the opposite side in a stream of molten mozzarella!
I scoff at the "good data" NASA received - seriously, what do you expect lobbing a satellite into a hunk of gouda?
Golly, IANARS (not a rocket scientist) and even I figured that one out!
-SixD