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Lunar prospecting: Probe ready to touch moon water
Spaceflightnow.com ^ | 10/07/09 | Stephen Clark

Posted on 10/07/2009 6:50:05 PM PDT by advance_copy

An enterprising robotic explorer will smash into the lunar frontier Friday in search of water ice hidden deep inside the darkest corners of the moon, spewing hundreds of thousands of pounds of dust high above the surface in a celestial event visible from Earth.

Just four minutes will decide the outcome of three years of preparations, four months of space travel, and a $79 million investment put into the bold mission.

Four minutes is the time that nine science instruments on the LCROSS probe will be able to directly study a cloud of dust thrown high above the moon by the impact of an empty Centaur rocket stage.

LCROSS is "a very exciting mission culminating in a real crescendo event," said Dan Andrews, the project manager from NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif.

The sensors will scan the debris for the chemical signature of water, providing definitive proof for a decade-old hypothesis that ice exists on Earth's inhospitable companion.

The Clementine and Lunar Prospector missions of the 1990s sensed elevated levels of hydrogen at the moon's poles. Scientists believed the hydrogen was from trapped water ice. The high concentrations were centered on permanently shadowed craters, lightless meteor impact sites that are unimagineably cold.

"And by cold, I mean cold," says Tony Colaprete, the mission's principal investigator from Ames.

(Excerpt) Read more at spaceflightnow.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: eotwawki; moon; nasa
What if it's so cold on the Moon that the explosion in the crater sets off a chain reaction where hydrogen is released and burns with the oxygen molecules and the heat releases more hydrogen perpetuating the explosions, and the Moon, unbeknownst to humankind, is full below the surface of frozen water that all just starts blowing up and the Moon sprays the entire sky with vapor that blocks out the sun and the tides stop flowing causing the oceans to die and then the Moon's orbit slows down from the reverse jettison of the exploding water and it slowly descends CRASHING INTO EARTH!!!! We could be DOOMED!!!
1 posted on 10/07/2009 6:50:06 PM PDT by advance_copy
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To: advance_copy

We are doomed.
More to follow at 11.


2 posted on 10/07/2009 6:52:24 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: advance_copy
*************BREAKING NEWS***************

Moon probe knocks moon off its orbit. Moon heading for collision with earth.

Obama says we must pass health care IMMEDIATELY.

3 posted on 10/07/2009 6:53:53 PM PDT by faucetman (Just the facts ma'am, just the facts)
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To: advance_copy

And what about the carbon footprint of the rocket to the moon? What about the money that was spent? It could have been spent on education and health care and Democrat priorities. Who planned this? Sounds like a Republican plan to send a rocket to the moon. Good Democrats would never agree to an explosion on the moon. Such a violent act. Tsk tsk.


4 posted on 10/07/2009 6:54:15 PM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: advance_copy

“...CRASHING INTO EARTH!!!! We could be DOOMED!!!”

Women and minorities hardest hit.


5 posted on 10/07/2009 6:54:18 PM PDT by poindexter
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To: advance_copy; Two Thirds Vote Aye

Well, advance, that would mean the Mayans were off by three years and that Caligula’s Reign of Terror would end.

2/3rds, have you been in on this?


6 posted on 10/07/2009 6:55:49 PM PDT by Jemian (For the first time in my life I'm proud of the IOC.)
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To: advance_copy

More likely the impact will throw up water as well as residual organic carbon compounds. These were left behind by the 3.5 billion year’s ago intergalactic mining operation that used the Moon to launch loads of organophosphates toward the asteroid belt where they could be picked up and added to the fleet’s stores for use in producing food.


7 posted on 10/07/2009 6:56:36 PM PDT by muawiyah (qui)
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To: Jemian

What if it takes three years for the Moon to crash down and all the blowing up water to block out the Sun? What about that?!?!?!?


8 posted on 10/07/2009 6:59:39 PM PDT by advance_copy (Stand for life or nothing at all)
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To: advance_copy

Hopefully this will happen while I'm on the other side of the earth.

9 posted on 10/07/2009 7:01:41 PM PDT by Oratam
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To: advance_copy
"Secret Alien Base Owners Not Amused, Reprisals Announced..."


10 posted on 10/07/2009 7:02:14 PM PDT by The Comedian (Evil can only succeed if good men don't point at it and laugh.)
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To: advance_copy
Yeah, they ( The Global Warmist Hoaxsters and the Envirowakcos ) tell us how we are upsetting the delicate balance here on Earth...
What if they upset the delicate balance of the moon's gravitational orbit ?
If the moon collides with the Earth or is thrown out into space, or causes the debris from the moon to fall upon the Earth, who's fault will it be ?
11 posted on 10/07/2009 7:05:52 PM PDT by American Constitutionalist (There is no civility in the way the Communist/Marxist want to destroy the USA)
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To: advance_copy

That’s a laugh. So, the moon is going to blow! Well, did you know that it is the moon that helps cause the tide? Did you know that the moon had to be created the same time as our planet in order for life to even exist here? Without the moon this planet would be nothing more than volatile rock.


12 posted on 10/07/2009 7:06:27 PM PDT by ImperialistDaddy
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To: Oratam

This is always good for a diversion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtuIVM61nKE


13 posted on 10/07/2009 7:14:32 PM PDT by Rebelbase (This is the time of year when ACORNS fall.)
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To: advance_copy

Then stall on your car and house payments.


14 posted on 10/07/2009 7:16:44 PM PDT by Jemian
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To: Dilbert San Diego

It could have been spent on education and health care and Democrat priorities.

Acorn moon office to close.
Reports of moon maids for hire,
greatly overblown says Head Lewis.
There are no moon pimps!
She declares.


15 posted on 10/07/2009 7:21:13 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: Rebelbase

Thanks for the vid . . . I think.


16 posted on 10/07/2009 7:23:22 PM PDT by Oratam
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To: Jemian

Nope.


17 posted on 10/08/2009 4:31:08 AM PDT by Two Thirds Vote Aye (Call H.R. 3200 by it's rightful name: "DEATHcare".)
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