NASA To Trigger Massive Explosion On the Moon In Search of Ice 376
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.'"
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.
Re:Raping the moon (Score:3, Informative)
Go check out her website [oldsoulwakeupcalls.com] if you want a clue.
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.
Beginning of the end? (Score:3, Informative)
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.
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.
Re:Nonsense (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Massive lunar explosion splits moon in half (Score:3, Informative)
Um, no. Actually... (Score:1, Informative)
After LRO decouples, the launch vehicle has to be set down on the moon anyway so it doesn't become orbital space junk. LCROSS will get science out of what would otherwise just be housekeeping.
The impact will be visible from some places on Earth if you have a good scope- >10". There's a google group to co-ordinate amateur observations with the pros: http://groups.google.com/group/lcross_observation
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]
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.
Mooninites (Score:3, Informative)
It might not be a good idea to anger the Mooninites. Their Quad Laser is quite an effective weapon, you know.
Re:Cheap ploy (Score:3, Informative)
Ah, an SMBC reference! [smbc-comics.com]