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Twin Probes Crash Into the Moon
SchrodingerZ writes "After their yearlong mission to map the Moon's gravitational field, twin probes Ebb and Flow crashed into the lunar surface, ending the GRAIL mission. The crashes were controlled events, each impacting 30 seconds apart from each other. The twin spacecraft were running low on maneuvering fuel and NASA, not wanting the craft to fall on historical sites such as the Apollo landing sites, redirected their flight patterns to impart the far (dark) side of the moon. Their impact sites were named after Sally Ride, the first American woman in space. 'During the news conference last week, Maria T. Zuber, the principal investigator, said the probes would be crashing into a "non-sunlit" part of the surface.' When the site becomes sunlit again in several weeks, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will attempt to take pictures of the craters the probes undoubtedly made in the lunar soil."
I'm sure the EPA or Al Gore is going to file a claim against NASA for lunar warming or polluting the surface of the moon.
The moon doesn't have a permanent dark side any more than the earth does!!!! The far side is in fact the mainly bright side during a new moon.
"redirected their flight patterns to [impact] the far (dark) side of the moon."
Wrong. As TFA takes pains to explain, the "dark side of the Moon" and the "far side of the Moon" are not the same thing.
An the impacts were on the near side of the Moon, while it is dark.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
Create enormous collisions.
Watch the video.
No matter how it ends, Earth shoot first.
Even the summary says "would be crashing into a 'non-sunlit' part of the surface" (not "side") followed immediately by "When the site becomes sunlit again in several weeks...".
Damn illiterates.
Maybe someone can point out which elements/chemicals they are going to seek or can detect?
Curious people want to know if Helium-3, water or even amino acid detection is in that mix.
What can they potentially see? What have the sensor ground tests revealed?
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"Oh, bye the way, which one's Pink?"
...or doesn't it seem a bit odd to name the crash site after Sally Ride? I mean, name the Mountain after her...OK. But a crash site named after a (now dead) astronaut seems a little wrong.
Great warrior...hrmph! Wars not make one great.
Was not prepared for that headline this morning.
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How likely would the probes be to crash into one of the historic sites? The surface area of the moon is, whatm almost four times that of the entire US? Oh, my, the probe fell exactly on the Quick-e-mart in SomeVille, Arizona!
there is no dark side in the moon, really. As a matter of fact it's all dark
While the Moon is tidally locked to the Earth so we can't directly observe much of the far side, the Moon has no permanently "dark side" that receives no sunlight. The more obvious difference between the two hemispheres is that the far side, probably because it's more exposed to incoming space debris, is more cratered than the near side.
While crashing the space probes on the far side is much like throwing tear gas in a gas chamber, I wonder whether the far side is actually the more valuable side from a scientific standpoint. While life on the Moon is extremely unlikely, the craters themselves could contain traces of organic and other alien compounds deposited from wayward comets or meteors.
Insert Apple maps joke here ___________
While it does require clarification for a layperson that the impact is on the far side of the moon, that side can be considered "dark" if you are talking in terms of communication... a "dark" area in regards to communication could happen anywhere, including those bathed in light. Granted, due to confusion (like the current subject matter), the use of "dark" is probably not the best choice of words.
To see truth or accuracy in the NYT requires equal faith in Kris Kringle.
Because some infotainment publisher pushes stories you want to believe it doesn't make them accurate.
No brain, no pain.
I wonder why they decided to crash both, on the very same day, on the same location.
It does not make much sense unless they already docked in orbit or are running some experiment that needs this to happen.
Hivemind harvest in progress..
I wonder why they decided to crash both, on the very same day, on the same location.
Convenience. If you have to crash two probes, may as well do it in one go.
No colour or religion ever stopped the bullet from a gun
The team misinterpreted the last instructions from their boss.
Eager young rocket scientist: Boss! Boss! The probes are running out of fuel!
Boss: I'm late for dinner. Shove 'em where the sun don't shine.
I wonder why they decided to crash both, on the very same day, on the same location.
It does not make much sense unless they already docked in orbit or are running some experiment that needs this to happen.
The two probes were orbiting in tandem, Flow (GRAIL B) always followed 20 swconds behind Ebb (GRAIL A). From what I understand this was actually implemented in software, i.e. the humans tell Ebb where to go and Flow follows.
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
That's no moon. It's a space station.
---As my daddy used to tell me: "You gotta be smart before you can be a smartass."
All I can say is didn't NASA give any though to avoiding sexist jokes about thei choice of "first American Woman Astronaut"? They had to have had at least one candidate with a less problematic name.
Even if it said "each impacting 30 seconds apart from THE other"
it would be twisted.
Since they were TWIN probes, if the one impacted 30 seconds from
the other, the other must have impacted 30 seconds from the one.
Yes, but the Lunar Amazonian women may be really pissed!
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
For a moment there I forgot that the "dark" side of the moon is actually only dark at the full moon...
They were running some experiment that needs this to happen. Two-probe gravametric mapping only works if your two probes precisely share a common orbit at close (in space terms) distance.
Why didn't they name the two impact sites after Columbia and Challenger?
Does anyone find a little sick irony in naming a crash site after an astronaut who perished in a crash?
Currently, over half of the far side of the moon is not dark.
C'mon with the IronSky jokes already,
what an awful film that was
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You forgot to account for the wacky time dilation you get everywhere in space. The time each impacted relative to the other is entirely subjective to each.
Or the submitter screwed up the English language, and slashdot doesn't do copy-editing. Whatever.
...the 2 probes were not named "Harry Reid" and "Nancy Pelosi"