Posted on 10/08/2009 6:35:15 AM PDT by Reaganesque
NASA's Lunar Prospector first detected some hydrogen signatures in craters on the dark side of the moon in 1999. Ever since, researchers have been keen to confirm the presence of water on the moon. The Lunar CRater Observing and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) is tasked with crashing through the mists of speculation and conjecture and discover the truth. And you can watch all the action as it happens.
LCROSS was launched on June 18th and executed a fly-by of the moon five days later before entering into a wide orbit. On Friday October 9th, the craft will start to make its final approach, not to land but to crash land. The upper stage rocket in front, the Centaur, will separate from LCROSS which will, in turn, slow down a little. Creating a four minute gap between each vessel, the Centaur will crash into the Cabeus crater at the Moon's south pole. The heavy impact will create a great plume of debris.
Following behind, the LCROSS will pass through the debris, collecting and relaying data back to Earth before itself impacting the crater. As well as a visible camera and radiometer, the LCROSS payload also includes two near-infrared spectrometers, a visible light spectrometer, two mid-infrared cameras and two near-infrared cameras.
"As the ejecta rises above the target crater's rim and is exposed to sunlight, any water-ice, hydrocarbons or organics will vaporize and break down into their basic components. These components primarily will be monitored by the visible and infrared spectrometers. The near-infrared and mid-infrared cameras will determine the total amount and distribution of water in the debris plume. The spacecraft's visible camera will track the impact location and the behavior of the debris plume while the visible radiometer will measure the flash created by the Centaur impact," NASA explains in the mission overview.
The good news for all you space fans out there is that NASA will be broadcasting the whole event live on NASA TV. The one and a half hour long show will start at 6:15 am EDT / 3:15 am PDT on Friday October 9th, with the first impact currently scheduled for 7:30 am EDT / 4:30 am PDT.
The broadcast will include live footage from the spacecraft's camera, real-time telemetry based animation, various location clips and (of course, sports fans) live commentary with special guests. For information on how and where to best enjoy the experience, visit NASA's Impact index page.
Ever since, researchers have been keen to confirm the presence of water on the moon.
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Why ???
If its so important to you researchers to know, spend your own money to find out...
Obama’s war on the moon pt 1
Why would NASA crash a Buick LaCrosse into the moon?
Still pretty dark at 7:30 here so I’m going to take a look but not really expecting to see much.
Knowing if there is water on the Moon would mean not having to bring it from Earth when creating a base of operations for further explorations.
Language issues.... "Crash for Crunkers..."
I slipped on my mental hazmat suit and flushed myself over to the DUmp this morning, some people over there are pissed they are bombing the moon, we don’t have a right to do that to it.
I was glad to see other DUmmies making fun of them, saved me from having to start yet another identity there...
The broadcast will include a 15 minute speech by Obama on the need for single-payer Health Care...
PING!
Hello Nana,
What their thinking is that if there is water on the moon it can be used for two purposes.
first if they decide to put a manned base there if there is water to use it would greatly reduce costs of transporting enough to supply the base.
Second if they ever decide to actually go to Mars and they can stop along the way to pick up water it too would greatly reduce the cost of getting it out of our strong gravity.
Lots of money for what? I do not know.
There is no dark side of the moon. Matter of fact, it’s all dark.
*sigh* I used to love Buicks... Now I refuse to buy a GM (Government Motors) car.
geek out....I may have to watch this....
Rain and clouds predicted in Chicago area.
Crud!
From this link...
Why NASA Should Bomb the Moon to Find Water: Analysis
The cost of LCROSS is about $79 million—cheap in the spaceflight world—and its planners delivered it on budget and on time.
Note to NASA: When you hold the inevitable self-congratulatory presser, it would behoove y'all to remember to thank the beleaguered taxpayers who provide you with your living :)
Transporting anything from Earth into outer space is very expensive. If you can get water locally on the moon, a permanent lunar base becomes feasible.
Secondly, the hydrogen molecules can be separated from the oxygen molecule to provide pure hydrogen, a fuel source.
Third, hydrogen and oxygen molecules can be recombined to form hydrogen peroxide H2O2, a rocket fuel. Hydrogen can also be combined with nitrogen to form an even better rocket fuel called hydrazine N2H4
Prime time where? East Coast? West Coast? Japan? Film at 11 for those too lazy to get up and watch it live.
Final judgment
Hoshana Rabbah is known as the day of the final sealing of judgment, which began on Rosh Hashanah.[1] During the festival of Sukkot the world is judged for water. The seventh day of the festival is the final sealing and since human life depends on water, Hoshana Rabbah is somewhat similar to Yom Kippur. Hence there are additional prayers and requests for repentance as on Yom Kippur.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoshana_Rabbah
The new Buick LaCrosse and Lucerne are beautiful cars, but I will not buy a Government Motors car. I suspect these two will go the way of Pontiac G8 and the Saturns pretty soon................
"No Blood for Cheese!"
Not in My Name!
Personally I think taxpayer funded “prospecting” is a fairly good use of money and its something our government has done to some extent all along.
That said, corporate space start up should be pretty much tax free for any company that actually gets there and shows that profit can be made.
I hope it doesn’t land on little flag that was left in ‘69
We here will be setting up for this event tonight, and hopefully catch the lunar impact.
On a side note, I obtained this picture of M13 star cluster about a week ago from our backyard location. We are set up more for imaging deep space objects as opposed to brighter objects such as planets and the lunar surface...But we'll give it a go.
M-13 is a Globular star cluster in the Constellation Hercules. This cluster contains several hundred thousand stars, and is approximately 25,000 light years from earth.
This is what is making this a really neat event for those that like explosions and large impacts, as many of us do.
There will be the "mother" spacecraft so to speak, releasing the "impactor" as the mother craft films the festivities from above, sending back the impact pics and data, before impacting itself.
It is expected to be large enough impact to be seen with telescopes here on earth, so you can imagine what kind of view the "mother" ship is going to have of the festivities.
Here is the mission overview and impact simulator, it’s a pretty cool short video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ZiYFbenrY
Ever since, researchers have been keen to confirm the presence of water on the moon.
_______________________________________________
Why ???
If its so important to you researchers to know, spend your own money to find out...
____________________________________________________________
Here is a great video, to answer why, and an overview of the mission, complete with how the mission has unfolded with simulated impact video.
It’s only about a 4 minute video and well worth watching.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZcQh6lfxFk&feature=player_embedded
I agree
I believe the Lewis and Clark expedition is comparable. It was a taxpayer funded mission that included surveying a route west and geological surveying among its goals.
Many at the time called it a colossal waste of taxpayer money not to mention illegal waste of taxpayer money. I believe it was considered a military mission for the purposes of funding it.
I tend to agree. Did you see the mission video at #30?
Don't know whether to laugh at these types of comments or have these people put in a rubber room for their own safety...lol
They're sad commentary on the state of science (particularly physics) education in our country, if nothing else. :-/
I feel fortunate, when I was in public schools, they're were enough qualified teachers that cared, that actually spurred the science spark in some of us...
So much so, years later we built this in our backyard, which can be totally remote controlled via computer from inside the home.
Enableing to take images such as this:
Orion Nebula M42 - 1275 lights years from earth.
Orion Nebula M-42 1/30/2009 19X65sec with a SCT - M42 is a stellar nursery where new stars are being formed. 700 stars in various stages of formation have been detected within the core of the nebula.
Will Sheila Jackson Lee be calling for an investigation of why we bombed Mars without giving diplomacy a chance to work?
Here is a great video for those that want to know more about this fantastic mission, complete with how the mission has unfolded, with simulated double impact video.
It’s only about a 4 minute video and well worth watching.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZcQh6lfxFk&feature=player_embedded
I have all the equipment to see it from home, I am an astronomer.
But I’m out of town on biz.
Sucks, but I’ll take the LRO and Hubble views!
What kind of scope do you have? I’ve got a Meade 10 inch GPS with a wedge. I really need a big guidescope and guide camera, try as I might, I can’t get perfect tracking with the wedge. But, I do have a focal reducer which helps. M42 is always a good reliable target, I hope to someday get some great long exposure shots, I shoot with a DSLR and my laptop
They’ll be the best, however, we are also going to try our best to obtain impact images from our location...
I’ve always wanted to observe a lunar impact, and now that chance seems very near...
I really like large impacts and explosions...lol
Main camera is a Canon 40D.
We have tracking down pretty well up to approximately 10 minutes..If you're not familiar with drift alignment, google it and do it.
See post 37...We are fortunate enough to have the scope permanently mounted inside a small observatory, that we can operate via computer, remotely from the home.
Leaving the scope mounted and aligned and ready to go is great and allows near instant imaging/observing after throwing a few switches.
And below is a close of the Eagle center, "Pillars of Creation" that Hubble made famous.
The height of the tallest pillar is approximately 24 trillion miles high or 4 light years long....lol
The shot of the Eagle in post#44 with the amateur scope, shows the same area as taken with the Hubble telescope below. Of course we have considerably less than a billion dollars into our scope/cameras... 
A little less than 9 hours to impact!
dude... that so rocks.
The orbit room...I actually set up a little bar in there...
A nice place to launch...an get away from earth for a while.
Yeah, I have to drive many miles for darkness. Even finding polaris in my neighborhood is tough. I’m using a Canon 450D, it does OK. I found something cool, a scope cover that is also a focusing mask, makes life very easy
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