NASA's LCROSS (Lunar CRater Observing and Sensing Satellite) mission is coming to a glorious end. The mission launched on June 18, 2009 is just minutes away from making dual-impact on the face of the moon. The first impact sees the Centaur craft hitting the surface at a speed of about 1 mile per second ejecting about 350 tons of debris from a crater about 20-30-meters in diameter and 2- to 4-meters deep. A second Shepherding spacecraft will pass through the debris plume 4 minutes later, collecting and relaying data back to Earth in real-time before meeting its end. With any luck, we'll know shortly if the moon contains the water-ice theorized by scientists... and cheese. While the obvious use of lunar-based water is to sate the thirst of astronauts, it could also be used be make fuel for off-Earth exploration. Hit the read link for live streaming of the mission from NASA -- first impact occurs at 07:31:19 AM EDT.
Update: Impact occurred... are we still here? Data is now being analyzed and NASA is expected to know the facts in about an hour. Post-impact news conference scheduled for 10:00 AM EDT.
Update 2: Video added after the break showing the final minutes before impact. The highlight seems to be the denied high-5 at 5:00 minutes in.
posted Oct 9th 2009 7:15AM
To discover water on the moon? I don't think so.
With that kind of speed, we could be in New York from Paris in about an hour! :) That'd be sweet.
But then again, I wouldn't want to land in NY the way this little bugger will in T-10 minutes :/
Only humans can create such devastation in the name of science, who gave NASA the right to just crash a satellite into the moon?
Fair enough its just a barren rock but theres nothing to say that there isnt some kind of lifeform we cant detect and we go smashing something into the moon.
In the name of science! Now STFU and watch the moon get blown to bits.
the moon is a ball of dust in the cosmo... why we can not hit it?
@Kris S,
FTW!
Yeah... yeah...
Also, who says that in the "name of God" we CAN invade other countries, enslave the civilians, overthrow their goverments and take their resources. Yet, we do it.
I thought the same thing as ArcticFox... there are other ways, more difficult, but possible... but on the other hand, how else can we initiate life on other planets if we don't seed them?
I a few undred million years, our children from the Moon and Mars will come concquer our *ss. :)
loocas, that's an awful argument... we shouldn't do either but since we do the 1st, we might as do the 2nd. Not.
Urm, can't you see all the craters... It's not like this is the first time something has crashed into the moon.
Sure, Artic, it's not as if the moon gets smacked pretty regularly by debris on the basis that it has no atmosphere to cushion the impact or break up the incoming object due to friction.
Oh wait.
One more ain't going to make any difference.
You see all those funny looking pock marks all over the moon? I don't think one more is going to ruin the resale value.
Oh shut up, treehugger.
There won't be massive devastation. They're crashing an inert piece of mass into a pre-existing crater that was caused by a MUHC larger piece of inert mass hitting the moon much earlier.
Are you one of those dweebs that asks, What about the tides? Won't this affect the tides?" LOL.
"who gave NASA the right to just crash a satellite into the moon?"
What the fuck does it matter? They used a small enough piece so the resulting explosion wouldn't harm the satellite or send deadly pieces back to Earth. It was controlled, safe, and informational. And here you go and blow it out of proportion.
"but theres nothing to say that there isnt some kind of lifeform we cant detect and we go smashing something into the moon."
...Goodnight.
*walks away*
welcome, to the wooooooorld of tomorrroooooooooooooooooooow!
i thought it was pretty well established that there was no life on the moon... even if there was, they'd be some microorganisms that could be found elsewhere. you don't complain when you kill bacteria by washing your hands, do you?
and @loocas,
seriously, lay off the crazy pills. "in the name of god?" who ever said that any war we ever participated in was "in the name of god?" and enslaving people? i'm guessing you're referring to the recent Iraq war here, well, guess what? they have their own democratic government, pretty much the opposite of enslaved. i'm pretty sure if you went over there most Iraqis would say they're grateful for what we did. and please, we're not stealing anyone's natural resources. i can't believe people go on and on about how stupid big conservatives are, but idiot radical liberals like you are allowed to run amok spewing your FUD.
I thought it was pretty well established that America owns the moon. If you have a problem with that, go to the moon, plant a flag, and claim it for yourself.
I actually gave them permission to crash it in the moon, I had the stipulation of there being NO high-fives though, you have to keep these things under tight control.
Sadly Fox, the first plan was to crash you into the moon but they couldn't find you. Lucky us, we have your ip address being tracked and should grab you in time for the "crashing crap into the sun experiment". Make sure to get some tanning lotion.
What did the moon ever do to NASA? Sheesh!
But what if there is some unknown life-form on the sun that you'd be killing by crashing ArcticFox into it? Oh no!
What gave man the right to leave the cave and cause massive devastation with his footsteps? What gave sailors the right to find new lands and cause MASSIVE DEVASTATION with their boats? Seriously imagine if everyone thought like you.
BTW, FYI no one owns the moon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty
We should have strapped Joe on that rocket.
Doesn't T minus 19 come before T minus 15? I think the clue is in the minus.
Not in relation to time. The clue is in the minus.
Why yes, Keebaud, you're absolutely right, it does. I thnk.
T is the destination time, and minus is a progression towards T, so T-19 is sooner than T-15. T-10, 9, 8, 7, get it?
I think it's the countdown to lift off T: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 then after lift off T: -1, -2, -3..... I could be wrong.
but isn't the "moon inpact t-minus" different from the "water discovery t-minus"? I mean those t-minuses doesn't count the same thing..
T is 0
T-19 is 19 minutes before the event
T+19 is 19 minutes after the event
The headline should read:
'NASA LCROSS moon impact in T-minus 15, water discovery expected in T-plus 4'
But that just doesn't sound as good, does it?
This could also be a joke that has gone way over our heads in reference to the Indian mission that discovered water on the moon like a week ago.
We all know the moon is not made of cheese, but what if it were made of barbecue spare ribs. Would you eat it then? I would, and then I'd finish it off with a tall cool Budweiser
A nice, cool Sam Adams, maybe.
@LiqwidZero
Don't ruin the joke.
@Frun:
That's not a ruining, in my opinion. It's an improvement.
Harry Caray FTW!
I'd laugh if they missed and hit the Earth instead..
Exactly how would that happen. Also we have an atmosphere it would just burn up.
@Templarian
Actually Centaur upper stages are known to survive the atmospheric descent and impact the earth. Of course that's from GPS satallites, so they would have much less speed than something from the moon. either way, don't underestimate the durability of upper stages :)
Whoa, check out this weird image just received from the moon:
http://j.mp/MLK6n
:P
The Moon has launched a counterattack!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qItugh-fFgg
Dr. Evil is probably freaking out that something crashed through his moon base.
Dr. Evil is probably freaking out that something crashed through his moon base.
Srry if this is a double post.
No LOL for you !
"relying data back"
Relaying?
Yawn.. I stayed up till 5 am to watch.... nothing lol i was hoping for a boom or a cloud of smoke or something of that sort... and yet there was a black screen... and a confused guy saying i think we hit it lol
this is what happens when the camera crashes with it too :-) They should had sent a second spaceship behind it to record the impact :-)
Moon People are raving mad at being attacked...seems NASA had made a fatal error and hit the wrong target....Thousands dead..Moon President declares war on Earth.....
Nice rack.
Nice head spikes.
I wonder if they're going to be able to detect the impact on the Apollo seismic instruments...