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LADEE Probe Ends Its Mission On the Far Side Of the Moon

Posted by timothy on from the in-lieu-of-flowers dept.

The mission of NASA's LADEE probe was brought to an intentional violent end yesterday, when it smashed into the far side of the moon. As the Ars Technica report explains, "NASA's policy is to treat the locations of the Moon landings as historical sites, and it takes pains to preserve them from possible damage. LADEE didn't have the fuel to control its orbit indefinitely. As a result, the controllers had been preparing to terminate the probe for several weeks. ... The exact moment of impact isn't clear, since the precise terrain it hit couldn't be determined in advance. (If it hit a ridge, it would have happened earlier than if LADEE plowed across a plain. What is clear is that the impact destroyed the probe." Before the end of LADEE's mission, besides close up observations, the craft was used to test a new laser-based communication system.

5 of 25 comments (clear)

  1. Allahu Ackbar! by hessian · · Score: 5, Funny

    The real question is whether or not the probe screamed "Allahu Ackbar!" at the moment of the crash.

    If it did, it goes to Heaven where it will be surrounded by 72 vintage Apple 6502 machines.

    --
    Futurist Traditionalism
  2. Space Muslims reporting for duty, sir. by hessian · · Score: 2

    "Space Muslim" sounds like an ill-conceived spinoff of "Space Moose."

    Either way, you've found me out. It's my covert goal to bring Sharia Law(tm) to the Moon.

    --
    Futurist Traditionalism
  3. Probes only, no humans allowed by ArcadeMan · · Score: 2

    There's a reason we never went back to the moon.

    --
    Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
  4. Far Side... (Sqore:200, Insiteful) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    The headline was supposed to read "Dark Side of the Moon", but Floyd
    threatened to sue; Far Side has a far weaker legal team, it appears...

    CAP = 'paralyze'

  5. Correction to summary: impact was on near-side by craighansen · · Score: 2

    I have it on good authority that the LADEE Probe did not impact on the far-side of the moon, though that's what was intended (for reasons of safety to historical sites). According to team member, it actually impacted on the near-side, close to the end of it's traversal of the near side and close to the near-side-far-side boundary (and because it was a full moon, near the terminus, which is the "day/night" boundary). Because it was close to the end of the near-side traversal, they waited until it would have returned to the near-side after the far-side traversal to "officially" call it.