NASA will throw a one-two punch at the big old moon tomorrow and the whole world will have ringside seats for the lunar dust-up.

NASA will send a used-up spacecraft slamming into the moon's south pole to kick up a massive plume of lunar dirt and then scour it to see if there's any water or ice spraying up. The idea is to confirm the theory that water - a key resource if people are going to go back to the moon - is hidden below the barren moonscape.
The crashing spaceship was launched in June along with an orbiter that is now mapping the lunar surface.

LCROSS - short for Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite and pronounced L-Cross - is on a collision course with the moon, attached to an empty 2.2-tonne rocket that helped get the probe off the ground.
This evening, US time, about 10 hours before smashing into the moon, LCROSS and its empty rocket will separate.
Then comes the first part of the lunar assault. At 7.31am US EDT, the larger empty rocket will crash into a permanently dark crater and kick up a 10-kilometre high spray of debris.
Trailing just behind that rocket is the LCROSS satellite itself, beaming back to Earth live pictures of the impact and the debris plume using colour cameras.

It will search for ice, fly through the debris cloud and then, just four minutes later, take the fatal plunge itself, triggering a dust storm one-third the size of the first hit.
"This is going to be pretty cool," LCROSS project manager Dan Andrews told The Associated Press. "We'll be going right down into it. Seeing the moon come up at you is pretty spectacular."
Within an hour, scientists will know whether water was hiding there or not.
The mission is a set-the-stage venture dreamed up by the NASA office that has been working on a $US100 billion program eventually to return astronauts to the moon. The return-to-the-moon goal is now being re-examined by NASA and the White House.
These are not crashes for the faint of heart. The two ships will smash into the moon at 9000km/h, more than seven times the speed of sound. The explosion will have the force of 1.5 tonnes of TNT and throw 772,000 pounds of lunar dirt out of the crater. It will create a new crater - inside an old one - about half the size of an Olympic swimming pool, Andrews said.
But don't feel bad for the moon. It gets crashes this size about four times a month from space rocks. But the difference is this one is planned and at just the right angle and location to provide interesting science for astronomers. The southern polar region is a prime landing possibility. This crater, called Cabeus, is one in which astronomers think there is a good chance of hidden ice that would be freed by the crash, describing the dirt there as "fluffy".
The crashes will also be a good show for the folks back home, which was always part of NASA's plan for the probe, Andrews said.

The crashes will be broadcast live on NASA's website. The Hubble Space Telescope and other larger Earth telescopes will be trained at the moon. Observatories and museums are planning viewing parties in at least three countries.
"A lot of telescopes will be tuning in," said Terry Mann, president of the Astronomical League, an umbrella group for local amateur astronomy societies. "You might see something you might not ever see again."
Amateurs need at least a 10-inch (0.25-metre) telescope to look at the crashes and what they see will only be a small part of their overall view in the scope. And they won't see the impact itself, but the spray of debris flying up.
This is all happening during a peak week in year-long celebrations commemorating the 400th anniversary of Galileo using a telescope to see Jupiter's moons.

For more on the topic.
NASA to slam spacecraft into moon

 

This really pissed me off when I heard it on the news tonight. We don't need to be littering up the moon with trash.

 

This just doesnt seem like a smart thing to do. I know they say it wont do much hurt to the moon but things could go wrong. Also, NASA hasn't had a perfect rating when it comes to mistakes not to mention the 70+ million dollars could be of more help to the economy instead of throwing it into outer space un pun intented.

 

remember its this type of thing which developed someof the tecnologies we take for granted to day

 

I would rather we throw $70 million at the moon, than at a politicians pet study on the sex lives of XNXX forumites.

 

How, exactly, could things go wrong? Are you worried that the nuclear bombs which aren't on board might accidentally explode and contaminate the Moon's surface?


The craft aren't big enough to do more than kick up a cloud of dust, no matter where and what they hit. The worst "go wrong" that is possible, is if it lands in the wrong place and doesn't find any water.

 

Well, by now we may be able to see a plume of dust with a good telescope on the south side of the moon. Has anyone seen it or tried to look at it?

 

Why are they looking for water. Everybody knows its made of CHEESE!

 

If they find water, they can grow tomatoes, and then they can make tomato sauce. By mixing the cheese with tomato sauce on the lunar crust they will be able to make the milky way galaxy's largest pizza. :excited:

 

Only a yank would think about food at a time like this !

 

I just saw it, but you couldn't see anything...I woke up for that!!!

 

We're earthlings let's blow up earth things i mean were spending all this money to bomb the moom when we have mount rushmore in our own back yard if were going to destory somethin let's keep it on our piece of rock. but it's probably some conspiracy where the moon creatures are getting uppity about us faking the moon landing and not including them so were gonna blow them up

 

I dunno if space is the final frontier, but it sure as hell is the most expensive one.

 

What's so bad about losing $70 million to watch moon dust explode compared to the $900 billion plus that's disappeared down the black holes of Iraq and Afghanistan

http://www.nationalpriorities.org/cost_of_war_tops_915_billion

 

oOo and there we have it folks!! The thread taking a political turn by post 11

 

*sigh*

First off: this is hardly littering the moon. It's a small amount of debris that will probably not fall back to the surface. Second, that is a very small price to pay when considering the overall question of the possibility of water on the moon.

Lastly, Beat, you're an idiot. It is physically impossible for this to 'harm' the moon. Do fruit-flies harm an oil-tanker when then fly into it?

 

Actually, I think the place has great potential as a landfill. No streams or oceans to pollute, no seagulls to flock....

 

I know, I woke up just in time to see it. Kind of disappointing from an entertainment standpoint.

 

A good point, but actually an even better spacefill site exists; the two Lagrange points at sixty degrees either side of the Moon along it's orbit. Anything dumped in those areas will be held in place, forever circling slowly about the exact Lagrance point; and it'll be a quarter of a million miles away from any solid object of any size.

 

We've almost wrecked out planet, so now we're looking for new sites to devastate...