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NASA To Trigger Massive Explosion On the Moon In Search of Ice
Posted by
timothy
on Tue Jun 16, 2009 11:13 AM
from the smashing-darling-smashing dept.
from the smashing-darling-smashing dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "NASA is preparing to launch the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, which will fly a Centaur rocket booster into the moon, triggering a six-mile-high explosion that scientists hope will confirm whether water is frozen in the perpetual darkness of craters near the moon's south pole. If the spacecraft launches on schedule at 12:51 p.m. Wednesday, it will hit the moon in the early morning hours of October 8 after an 86-day Lunar Gravity-Assist, Lunar Return Orbit that will allow the spacecraft time to complete its two-month commissioning phase and conduct nearly a month of science data collection of polar crater measurements before colliding with the moon just 10 minutes behind the Centaur." (Continues, below.)
"The cloud from the Centaur rocket booster will kick up 350 metric tons of debris that should spread six miles above the surface of the moon, hitting the sunlight and making it visible to amateur astronomers across North America. Over the final four minutes of its existence, as LCROSS follows the same terminal trajectory as the Centaur, the spacecraft will train its instruments and cameras on the debris cloud, searching it for the chemical signature of water. Previous spacecraft and ground-based instruments have detected signs of hydrogen near the moon's poles, and scientists are split over whether that is from ice that could have arrived through the impact of comets or by other means. Despite all the serious scientific talk about hydrogen signatures and lunar regolith, flying a rocket booster into the moon at 5,600 mph to trigger a massive explosion is just flat-out cool. 'We're certainly going to be making a big splash,' says Kimberly Ennico, the LCROSS payload scientist. 'We're going to see something, but I don't know what to expect. I know on the night of the impact, I'll be running on adrenaline.'"
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Nonsense (Score:5, Funny)
They are using explosives to write NASA in the moon for all people to see. You won't succeed where Chairface failed!
Re:Nonsense (Score:4, Insightful)
well as long as it doesn't say Coca-Cola on the moon..
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Re:Nonsense (Score:5, Funny)
Guys, get ready to have two moons.
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inevitable (Score:4, Funny)
That's no moon, it's a pair of moons!
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Re:Nonsense (Score:5, Informative)
To anybody who doesn't get this, it's a reference to The Tick [wikipedia.org], a brilliant super-hero/spoof TV animation. In one of the episodes, a super-villain called Chairface Chippendale tries to write his name on the moon. For some reason. I seem to remember that later in the series, you can still see the partially written word "Chairface" in the moon.
My favourite Tick episode is where he gets flu and, for some reason, has to fight a version of himself made out of snot. He wins by snorting it into himself and sneezing it into a dimensional portal. Nice.
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Re:Nonsense (Score:5, Funny)
My favourite Tick episode is where he gets flu and, for some reason, has to fight a version of himself made out of snot. He wins by snorting it into himself and sneezing it into a dimensional portal. Nice.
That is by far the oddest usage of the word nice I've seen all day.
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Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Susan?
Re:Nonsense (Score:4, Informative)
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Re:Nonsense (Score:4, Funny)
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Is it just me or (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Is it just me or (Score:5, Informative)
We have the technology. The time is now. Science can wait no longer. Children are our future. American can, should, must, and will blow up the moon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdT2HqoV198 [youtube.com]
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Raping the moon (Score:5, Interesting)
I really can't tell if this article [examiner.com] is serious or not.
Re:Raping the moon (Score:4, Insightful)
In her follow-up, she explains that she does not think that science is the only way that knowledge is revealed to people. She is entitled to her opinion, of course, but that does not mean that we have to agree with or respect it. The beauty of science is that it is something of an amorphous blob. If it turns out that astrology does reveal things about the universe that current science cannot observe, science will hungrily scoop it up and make it a part of itself.
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Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Go check out her website [oldsoulwakeupcalls.com] if you want a clue.
Re:Raping the moon (Score:5, Funny)
Actually, it's not so much upset that we landed on it 40 years ago as it is that we said we'd call the next day and we didn't.
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Ok, she says that to speak with the Moon you just need to quiet your mind and ask it a question. I'll give it a shot. ......
Ok, the answer that I got is that the Moon is actually a guy named Bruce who prides himself on being tough. He told me that we should "bring it on" and that he doubts we'd even be able to tickle him. So I think we're good to go.
Shock and Awe... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Shock and Awe... (Score:5, Funny)
I love the smell of near-vacuum in the morning
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Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Just like Mythbusters.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Mythbusters wouldn't perform spectography on the resulting explosion...
(Although they are getting more clever as the years go on. I wouldn't be surprised if Adam becomes the new Mr. Wizard in the 2020's...)
Obligitory (Score:4, Funny)
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Cheese? (Score:4, Funny)
Will they also integrate a cheese flavor detector? How many thousands of years has human kind been wondering what flavor of cheese the moon is?
My hope is a nice sharp cheddar, but with all those holes you can see on the surface I have a sinking feeling that it will probably be Swiss.
Can it be viewed through a telescope? (Score:3, Interesting)
Use inflammatory language much? (Score:4, Insightful)
ZOMG!!!! A massive explosion!!! A six mile high explosion!!!!
Or would that actually be a very, very modest explosion (especially in astronomical terms) triggering a six mile high debris plume?
I hope everyone is learning an important lesson (Score:5, Funny)
It's ok to blow things up if you just want to know if "there is water there."
For instance, I just blew up a watermelon 'to see if there was water in there.' It was moist, leading me to believe that there is, in fact, water in there. Then I blew up a junk yard Ford Pinto so I could verify that there was not, in fact, "water in there." As I suspected, there wasn't.
Beginning of the end? (Score:3, Informative)
Look out moon, America's gonna get you (Score:5, Funny)
We have the technology... the time is now... science can wait no longer... children are our future. America can, should, must, and will blow up the moon!
<stolen>http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/1c81d0df12/mr-show-america-blows-up-the-moon-from-thaffner [funnyordie.com]</stolen>
NASA to blow up the moon (Score:4, Funny)
Well, there WAS ice! (Score:5, Funny)
(AP) NASA announces that they have discovered that there were in fact trace amounts of ice on the moon.
"We detected a modest amount of water by blowing up a small part of the moon, but is not really sufficient to allow for future use."
Critics argue that NASA may have destroyed the precious lunar water, damaging the lunar system irreparably.
"They blew it up, I tell you. This is a travesty. It's all just testosterone, blowing things up. We thought we were changing away from this white male blowing up the moon business. Now, future life will not be able to evolve on the moon without water.", said the head of the leftist Environmental Action Front.
Other critics disagreed. "Drill, baby, drill", argued the head of the Chamber of Christian Commerce. "There's probably plenty more water on the moon. NASA couldn't have blown it up. It's the moon for Pete's sake...besides, there's no such thing as evolution anyways... "
President Obama's press secretary forgot where he was for a moment, then blamed the launch of the space craft on George Bush.
Dick Cheney replied that blowing up part of the moon was for national security but regretted that there will not be sufficient water to waterboard alien terrorists with.
Aliens from Alpha Centauri expressed their outrage through their ambassadors at Area 51. Ambassador Xwillxiahch told human reporters "First, you shot down our spaceship, after we showed you how to make pyramids, and now you do this. You humans are far too aggressive. We could have told you that there was water on the moon". Are you going to go killed the fish on Europa to see if they are there...oh, there's fish on Europa...didn't know that, did you HUMANS.."
Cue Ookla the Mok... (Score:3, Funny)
I for one look forward to our future of savagery, sorcery and super science.
Cheap ploy (Score:4, Funny)
Sure, the LCOSS is intended to crash, but I bet NASA will announce eventually that the probe missed, made a soft landing instead and is now sending data from the surface. Way to lower expectations, guys.
Re:Massive lunar explosion splits moon in half (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Massive lunar explosion splits moon in half (Score:5, Funny)
Sept 13, 1999. Ten years and a few days late. Space:1999 [wikipedia.org]
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Re:Massive lunar explosion splits moon in half (Score:5, Informative)
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/11aug_lcross.htm
Equivalent to 2000 pounds of TNT. That's less than a bunker buster bomb carried by an F15. The moons been hit by stuff a lot more powerful, like the enormous asteroids that made the 1000-mile craters you can see without a telescope.
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Re:Massive lunar explosion splits moon in half (Score:5, Informative)
One of Largest conventional explosion on earth was a single ship:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion [wikipedia.org]
3000 tones equivalent of TNT. 3000 short tons = 6 000 000 pounds.
6 000 000 pounds = 3000 Bunker Buster Bombs.
That's more like it!
In other big bangs of note, The US did make two conventional explosions that were bigger (4 kilotons) to try and simulate a small yield nuclear device. Also the British tried to blow up an island (3.2 kilotons).
The US ones were basically Nitrate Fuel bombs, the British one was various old WW2 munitions, Canadian was WW1 munitions. Be interesting to see what you could do with some more high tech stuff.
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Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Queue all the anti-war nutjobs (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Queue all the anti-war nutjobs (Score:4, Funny)
...we never went there?
Since when has that been a prerequisite?
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It already is! (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm sick of the Chicken Littles bemoaning any public spending because of this "financial crisis".
If the sky is falling because of this financial crisis, having NASA research stuff up in the sky is a good idea, I say.
Re:WTF? (Score:4, Funny)
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
We are in a financial crisis, and the government wants to see if there is ice on the moon? There's plenty on this planet. I can make some for you in my freezer and you can save 20 billion dollars.
Why do you hate science? And, no, I'm not being facetious. Humanity is reaching a potential ceiling on this planet's resources, and you deride efforts to determine whether we can ever get off this rock and sustain ourselves?
Re:WTF? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:WTF? (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:Reminds me of a crappy film... (Score:5, Informative)
Oh yea, remember that 2002 or whatever make of The Time Machine? With the fragmented moon? Lets just hope this time it doesn't come crashing down on Earth.
Well, technically it didn't come crashing down on the earth, the explosions they created for the lunar colony caused the moon to drop out of its natural orbit, which in turn has massive gravational effects on earth that more or less started tearing apart the continants, forcing people to make a decision to either try and survive on the surface, or retreat underground for their survival.
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Re:Not really thinking???? (Score:4, Informative)
OK, did you see the craters covering the surface? Look again if you want.
Those are quite big no? In fact, they're bigger than the rocket booster - about half a million of them have diameters bigger than 1km (according to wikipedia). Since not one of those 500,000 (some of which are fairly recent) has had any significant effect on the moons orbit I'd say we're safe.
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Re: (Score:3, Interesting)