Nasa prepares to bomb the moon!!!

Teki187

Teki187

Teki187

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The aim is to see whether any traces of water will be revealed by the disruption caused to the planet's surface. Nasa will analyse the space cloud caused by the explosion for any sign of water or vapour.

Scientists expect the impact to blast out a huge cloud of dust, gas and vaporized water ice at least 6 miles high - making it visible from Earth.

If the search is successful it could provide vital supplies for a moonbase. The moon is mostly dry desert but ice may be trapped in craters which never see sunlight.
The unmanned Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite mission (LCROSS) will fire a Centaur rocket into the surface at twice the speed of a bullet.

An accompanying spacecraft will orbit the moon for a year looking for possible landing sites for astronauts. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will spend at least a year creating the most minutely detailed map of the moon's surface ever seen.

The vessel swill be the first American spacecrafts to make a lunar trip since 1999.

Astronomers have long thought that a rain of comets brought water to the arid, lifeless moon over billions of years.

In the past few years, at least two American spacecraft reported the presence of water by detecting hints of hydrogen and oxygen - the constituents of water - frozen deep in the darkest recesses of craters around both the north and south lunar poles.
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Source


Ohhh might have to get my self a telescope for this.
 
We had this news here before the Telegraph:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=14247370&postcount=2319

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=14288546&postcount=2403

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=14294028&postcount=46

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 01:34:16 AM UTC+0100


NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, successfully separated from the Centaur upper stage and Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, spacecraft at 6:16:43 p.m. EDT.

The official transfer of control from the Centaur rocket to LCROSS is expected about 9:30 p.m.

LRO will reach the moon on Tuesday at 5:43 a.m.

LCROSS and the Centaur rocket will stay attached for the next four months. They will then separate and be directed to impact the moon on Oct. 9, UTC.
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:)
 
Teki187 said:
Damn! Will the explosion be visible with the human eye?
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The moon impact is due on October 9th.

There won't be an explosion only dust and water plumes.

No, it will be seen through ground-based and orbital observatories, Hubble will be looking at the event so we should have some spectacular images. A crater 66 feet wide and 13 feet deep is expected to be formed.

Edit:

Mission scientists estimate that the Centaur impact plume may be visible through amateur-class telescopes with apertures as small as 10 to 12 inches.
 
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this is just a smoke screen for the public to throw them off track to cover up what is really happening on the moon
 
cyclopopcicle said:
dont they already know this from the first moon landing?
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What would be the point in landing where they already went to before? They could go back out to Neil and Buzz's parking Lot, but even going there and taking photos of what Apollo 11 left behind wouldn't satisfy the conspiracy theorists and would be next to useless scientifically.
 
thevet said:
this is just a smoke screen for the public to throw them off track to cover up what is really happening on the moon
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And what would that be then? Come on - please don't post utter rubbish like this without even making an attempt to justify it - otherwise you are just a troll and should go away.

No, I haven't seen "the time machine". I just hope there's no moon base already, otherwise it's "space 1999", only a decade late. :D

PS - I'm not sure the impact will be visible from here. It will be timed for best viewing from Hawaii, for reasons that should be obvious. However, the intention is to stream the LCROSS impact live on NASA TV. That'll be worth watching. :)
 
Why don't they just call Bruce Willis?

Will certainly try and get a look at this, will be interesting to see what effects are visable from Earth.

Woo yay new avatar/title.
 
Ciphon said:
Imagine being the guy who could say "I was the first man to bomb the moon" How awesome!
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Yep, awesomely wrong! It may be the first dedicated moon impact mission, and is probably the biggest impactor, but it's far from the first probe to hit the moon - India's Chandraayan, ESA's SMART-1, Japan's Kaguya, and several others from NASA and probably Russia have ended their missions inside a crater on the moon.
 
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