We're Bombing the Moon!

[slyc_willie]

Well, not really, but the LCROSS Centaur vehicle is set to impact the lunar south pole at about 6:30 a.m. tomorrow morning (CST). The mission is to investigate the existence of frozen water detected in a crater near the pole.

In about 35 minutes, LCROSS and Centaur are going to separate, sending Centaur into its first and only lunar landing. The debris plume it casts up will be analyzed by the shepherding spacecraft which will fly through the debris field a few minutes later, before it, too goes bye-bye on the moon's surface.

Pretty cool, I think.

More info here.

 

[slyc_willie]

On the off chance anyone's interested . . . there's a live feed of the separation here.

 

[slyc_willie]

Well, that was interesting.

You may now return to political bickering.

 

[amicus]

Naw, Slyc, I am also keeping tabs on the mission; watched the animated prediction of how it will, or is supposed to go. Been checking in regularly to the NASA Channel to see if and when they begin live coverage, but I suppose that is a few hours away.

Have you heard, by chance, when they will have data from the impact and how soon it will be understood and released?

Ami

 

[JackLuis]

Amazing the things you can do with just a few Million dollars and antique technology?

 

[amicus]

79 million bucks is a few? The Atlas Booster is ancient indeed, in space parley, but everything else is cutting edge?

ami

 

[Guest]

It is a very cool thing.

And I can't believe anyone would bitch about mooning while being bombed.


http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b318/sweetsubsarahh/darkrum.gif


http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b318/sweetsubsarahh/mooning.jpg


Guess there's no pleasing some folks.

 

[slyc_willie]

Naw, Slyc, I am also keeping tabs on the mission; watched the animated prediction of how it will, or is supposed to go. Been checking in regularly to the NASA Channel to see if and when they begin live coverage, but I suppose that is a few hours away.

Have you heard, by chance, when they will have data from the impact and how soon it will be understood and released?

Ami

Well, considering this is govmint work, I'm assuming the data transfer from the shepherd module will be gathered fairly quickly, but then analyzed for at least a few days. I do expect some sort of small announcement by tomorrow afternoon, if only to keep public interest.

The idea of water existing on the Moon is pretty interesting. Since conventional theory says "where there's water, there may be life," it will be interesting to see where further exploration of the Moon goes from here.

 

[slyc_willie]

Guess there's no pleasing some folks.

And some of us are quite easily pleased.

 

[amicus]

Some interesting theories about how water is dispersed in our Solar System, and I merely use layman's terms from memory of several Science/Nasa channel things I have watched.

Water was thought to have been brought to earth by asteroids, until they discovered the atomic weight of water here is different than from what asteroids they have sampled.

Theory concerning water as an integral part of all rocks, even after they have melted into Magma, the chemical composition of Hydrogen and Oxygen are still present.

Water on the moon...curious, one theory concerns degradation, if that is the correct term, of surface material on the moon as a result of being bombarded for millions of years by solar and cosmic radiation.

If substantial water reserves can be discovered on the moon, breaking down the hydrogen and oxygen can produce both drinking water and rocket fuel and could make the Moon a 'waystation' on the way to interplanetary exploration, so this mission is somewhat critical for future Lunar Missions.

Amicus

 

[slyc_willie]

And manned Mars missions. After all, launching from the moon, with its 1/6 Earth's gravity, would require less fuel.

Water on the moon would give a good reason for establishing a base there. A biodome could be erected near the pole, with the water used to irrigate vegetation inside, which would provide oxygen and food. It would be amazing to see how large some of those plants would grow in such weak gravity.