NASA bomb moon to find water

NeilFawcett said:
Two weeks on... And still no news? :(
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They are still analysing the data. The latest news is from the 16th:

October 16, 2009

NASA'S LCROSS Captures All Phases of Centaur Impact

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. – NASA’s Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) was a smashing success, returning tantalizing data about the Centaur impact before the spacecraft itself impacted the surface of the moon.

Plunging headlong into Cabeus crater, the nine LCROSS instruments successfully captured each phase of the impact sequence: the impact flash, the ejecta plume, and the creation of the Centaur crater.

"We are blown away by the data returned," said Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS principal investigator and project scientist. "The team is working hard on the analysis and the data appear to be of very high quality.”

Within the ultraviolet/visible and near infra-red spectrometer and camera data was a faint, but distinct, debris plume created by the Centaur's impact.

"There is a clear indication of a plume of vapor and fine debris," said Colaprete. “Within the range of model predictions we made, the ejecta brightness appears to be at the low end of our predictions and this may be a clue to the properties of the material the Centaur impacted.”

The magnitude, form, and visibility of the debris plume add additional information about the concentrations and state of the material at the impact site.

The LCROSS spacecraft also captured the Centaur impact flash in both mid-infrared (MIR) thermal cameras over a couple of seconds. The temperature of the flash provides valuable information about the composition of the material at the impact site. LCROSS also captured emissions and absorption spectra across the flash using an ultraviolet/visible spectrometer. Different materials release or absorb energy at specific wavelengths that are measurable by the spectrometers.

With the spacecraft returning data until virtually the last second, the thermal and near-infrared cameras returned excellent images of the Centaur impact crater at a resolution of less than 6.5 feet (2 m). The images indicate that the crater was about 92 feet (28 m) wide.

"The images of the floor of Cabeus are exciting," said Colaprete. "Being able to image the Centaur crater helps us reconstruct the impact process, which in turn helps us understand the observations of the flash and ejecta plume."

In the coming weeks, the LCROSS team and other observation assets will continue to analyze and verify data collected from the LCROSS impacts. Any new information will undergo the normal scientific review process and will be released as soon as it is available.
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http://lcross.arc.nasa.gov/news/arc-101609.htm

Looks like we will have to wait patiently. :)
 
Cheers... You'd think they'd have all the data, just run the program and some cool lights would flash on a wall somewhere and an answer would pop out... :)

If anyone hears anymore, please do post it here :)
 
NeilFawcett said:
If anyone hears anymore, please do post it here :)
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November 13, 2009: NASA BRIEFS PRELIMINARY PLUME FINDINGS FROM MOON MISSION

NASA will hold a news conference Friday, November 13 to talk about early science results from its successful moon impacting mission, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS. The satellite gained worldwide attention when it plunged into a crater near the moon's south pole on Oct. 9. The briefing from NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., will begin at 9 a.m. PST. It will be broadcast live on NASA Television: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
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From http://lcross.arc.nasa.gov/news.htm

That will be 17:00 GMT on Friday. :)
 
NeilFawcett said:
Muchos thankos!

I hope they found a good amount of water... That way we get to watch Patrick Moore eat his hat :)
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They have found water. :)

Substantial water reserves have been found beneath the Moon’s surface, Nasa announced yesterday, paving the way for a permanent lunar base.

The discovery came from Nasa’s “moon bombing” mission, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) probe, which was deliberately crashed into the lunar South Pole last month. An analysis of the dust thrown up from the impact revealed the presence of about 80 litres of water, or enough for a shallow bath. The results suggest that much larger, more accessible reserves are available at the poles.

“We can announce that we’ve found water — not just a little bit, a significant amount,” said Tony Colaprete, principal investigator for the mission at Nasa’s Ames Research Centre in California.

The exact form of the water is not yet clear, but it is likely to be spread out in small ice crystals. The rocket hit the Moon at an area where the surface temperature is around -230C. This region has not been in direct sunlight for at least two billion years.
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From The Times

From NASA: LCROSS Impact Data Indicates Water on Moon

From the news conference:

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I will post the full briefing when it becomes available.
 
Drat! Didn't even know there had been a news conference as I'd have love to see it. Hope they post it online (they don't always).
 
Latest news from the LRO/LCROSS mission:

New Lunar Images and Data Available to the Public

GREENBELT, Md. – The public can follow along with NASA on its journey of lunar discovery. On March 15, the publicly accessible Planetary Data System will release data sets from the seven instruments on board NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

“The Planetary Data System is a NASA funded program to archive data from past and present planetary missions as well as astronomical observations and laboratory data,” said Dr. John Keller, LRO Deputy Project Scientist from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “The purpose of the Planetary Data System is to make available to the public the fruits of NASA funded research and to allow advanced research on solar system science.”

Each of the seven instruments is unique and will provide data in different formats to the Planetary Data System. Much of the data will be in a relatively low level form, not highly processed, which allows researchers to maximize flexibility in working with the data. The instrument teams will also provide higher level data products in the form of maps and calibrated images for the general public. Many of the images can be accessed using a computer with an internet browser.
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Source

The seven instruments aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter provide varied and unique datasets, but because of its polar orbit, the data coverage from LRO is best at the lunar poles. This visualization shows datasets from three LRO instruments at the moons south pole and then flies around the lunar terrain shown by the last of the three, the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter:

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:)
 
It looks like the moon has been shrinking:

Newly discovered cliffs in the lunar crust indicate the moon shrank globally in the geologically recent past and might still be shrinking today, according to a team analyzing new images from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft. The results provide important clues to the moon's recent geologic and tectonic evolution.
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More on the story:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/news/shrinking-moon.html
 
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