If you knock it out of orbit, we all drown.
Good luck you silly humans.

Do you have any idea how small in power a six-mile high explosion is on a body that has .1g?

Knock it out of orbit. Right. Sneezing at it has a better chance of doing it.

anyone seen "the time machine"?

we going doooooown!!!!11

@ stargate525
I'm not sure exactly how the concept applies, but a lower gravity means there is less mass, which would be easier affected by the same explosion.

I doubt NASA would send up an explosive that could knock the moon out of orbit, but that is assuming there are explosives that are powerful enough for that. I doubt even nukes are that powerful, you would probably need several detonated simultaneously to knock the moon out of orbit.

I figure that this is to protect our future moon men from the moon Brears.

I figure that this is to protect our future moon men from the moon Brears.

@anon

Correct me if I am wrong, but the mass remains unchanged. It is the weight that is effected by the lower gravity.

Even so you prove Stargate525's point in as much as a smaller explosion in lower gravity will throw the debris much higher than the same explosion here. Not to mention the lack of atmospheric resistance.......

There will be more force expended getting there than detonation.

@Arid

I think what Anon was saying is that gravity is contenginent on an objects mass, meaning that--outsie variables withsanding--the Moon would be more effected from an explosion, than the Earth would be from a similar explosion, strictly because of it's mass.

I also believe that the lack of atmosphere would only help the explosion reach terminal velocity much more quickly than it would on Earth.

Just a fact check.

so we're doing work for the romulans now? we produce the hole to the moon's core and they chuck in the Red Matter?

So, THIS is how the world ends... :)

This is a great idea, I am going to watch this from Mars, maybe provide that extra umph you will need.

It's not the first time. Every SIVB booster from Apollo 13-17 were impacted directly into the moon for seismic measurement experiments.

Nothing to worry.

WE NEVER WENT TO THE MOON!

UNTIL WE HAVE STAR TREK & STAR WARS FORCE SHIELDS WE WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO GO ANYWHERE!

@ JARRJ3
Its understandable that people dont believe we went to the moon, but we did go out into space, with hundreds of sattelites to prove it. So therefore, you cant say that, although obviously it wasnt meant to be serious.

Check out the Mythbusters episode where they blow the "moon hoax myth" completely out of the water.

Also http://www.badastronomy.com will lay it out for you to. I know it's hard to believe, but we really DID go to the moon.

Even if this explosion was enough to disturb the moon's orbit, they would just have to do another one simultaneously on the exact opposite side, to cancel each other out, and all would be dandy.

@ Marick Neona

Actually, the only reason things have terminal velocity on Earth is because of air resistance due to the atmosphere, so, no atmosphere = no terminal velocity...

terminal velocity is the maximum speed achievable in a free fall. when the upward force of air and the downward force of gravity becomes balanced, then terminal velocity is reached.

Assuming the moon has almost no atmosphere (or none at all) then this would lead to the conclusion that there is no terminal velocity on the moon.

According to Carl Sagan, if the moon blew up, tides would DEcrease.

I'ts Algore who has the woody for Noah.

Cool.
Wish they had it on PPV.

Sadly, thanks to Obama, this will be the last time any of our hardware gets anywhere near the moon.

Didn't they propose this already?

http://vodpod.com/watch/1456331-mr-show-were-gonna-blow-up-the-moon

I hope they've warned Moonbase Alpha.

i realy dont see that as a good idea... first of all the mass of one cubic meter on moon is lower as on earth so that means when this bomb will hit the moon parts of moon will separate from it... then earths gravity will attract them and they will fall on earth...so i really dont see that as a good idea...

(i apologize for my english i come from slovenia and i just started learning it)

Apart from the obvious "End of the World" doomsday scenarios, has anyone at NASA considered the implications of such an undertaking ? It's bad enough we are destroying our own planet, and now they are suggesting we do the same to the moon ? If we can send a rover to Mars, and detect ice under its surface, why not do the same for the moon ? Oh, yes, sorry, I forgot - NASA IS CHEAP! Sending a bomb to the moon is MUCH more economical .

These people are totally nutz! What if the moon has a chemical compound under the surface that is highly explosive?

These people are totally nutz! What if the moon has a chemical compound under the surface that is highly explosive?

Has anyone given any thought to the fact that the moon has been pounded by meteors for the past 5 billion years? Some of them have left gaping craters. If the moon can survive them, I don't think a little old rocket from Earth is going to do much harm. Sheesh!

NASA is what happens when a committee sits down to design something. Remember, this agency squashed the original concept of getting men (and a few good women) into space by flying and landing like airbound airplanes. The X-15 was the test vehicle. And then someone or two came up with a "better" way as long as you have billions of dollars to throw at it. Now, we see independent companies approaching space flight for the masses by the old X-15 approach with turn around times that would make old NASA engineers' heads spin.

Maybe NASA actually found the Cybermen base on the moon. They had better get UNIT to handle it.

im not worried about the destruction of the moon or earth. im worried about just semi-randomly making explosions on the moon. do we know every possible effect that would have? i realize the moon has 1/6 earth's gravity and no atmosphere or any life forms wat so ever. but im worried as to the environmental effects these explosions will have. i know we studied the moon. but do we know enough to say "oh it'll be fiiiine" so cavalierly?

Trust us. We're using the new Eludium PU36 Explosive Space Modulator from Acme. :)

I want my $15 million dune buggy back first please

Even if we were to find water on the moon, what would that change? The moon has no other resources to speak of and it would cost more valuable resources to colonize the moon than it would be worth. We can create bio domes here on earth. Why would we need them on the moon instead?

to make it easier to go to Mars, Curious. and of course, science experiments.

Curious...what budgethero said + the fact that we will be needing to mine the asteroid field and we need a low gravity outpost close enough to start using our solar system, as we move beyond the earth

Curious...what budgethero said + the fact that we will be needing to mine the asteroid field and we need a low gravity outpost close enough to start using our solar system, as we move beyond the earth

The explosion will cause a bubbling cauldron of melted cheese. This is necessary to be secretly harvested since the Earth is at a critical defiecency for cheese since the mad cow disease scare.

if there's water on the moon that's one less very heavy supply we have to take with us to build a base there. if there's not water there's essentially no base because it would be too difficult to run a convoy line of space freight back and forth to constantly supply a fully operational science facility with water + all the other goods.

as to why not build a rover? because it's millions of dollars for something that might break of blow up upon landing. when you could instead just plan for something to blow up on impact. then the worst that could happen is it DOESN'T blow up. in which case you just shoot at it until it does.

and anyone who thinks the moon doesn't have any other resources is retarded.

Like Pakodoom said .... you are all retarded if you think that cheese is not a resource!!!

OK, since nobody knows its true origins, we don't know that there aren't huge veins of gold, platinum, silver.... There could be methane or oil for all we know! Moon people may have destroyed the moon's atmosphere and settled on the earth before their original planet burned up and died.

they better not hit our flag

Suppose, just suppose, that there are Alien bases on the moon. If that thing goes off near an Alien base, some Alien might be hurt.

Suppose, just suppose, that there are Alien bases on the moon. If that thing goes off near an Alien moon base, an Alien might be hurt.

What explosives? They just plan on hitting the moon at a couple of thousand miles per hour. That'll be the force used to blow some dust and (maybe) ice up high enough to see. Kinetic energy, not explosive energy.

@rdetaranto
"These people are totally nutz! What if the moon has a chemical compound under the surface that is highly explosive?"

Chances are unless the chemical compound is enriched with oxygen then nothing is going to happen even if it was hit. Being that the moon has been in space for billions of years i would think any oxygen would be have escaped by now. But thats just my guess.

"Check out the Mythbusters episode where they blow the "moon hoax myth" completely out of the water."

Because you know mythbusters is the definitive answer for fact or fiction with their infallible tests with a discovery channel budget. Good on ya, good on ya.

I sense no danger here.

Six-mile high? Are they SURE this won't blow the moon out of it's orbit?

USSR was going to detonate a nuke on the moon. I do think is a hell of a lot safer and I don't think NASA is going to do anything stupid that puts the planet in jeopardy. But wouldn't we be able to go deeper and create a more stable and usable hole if we drilled for water instead of bombing for water? I know it would take more equipment, more money, and more time; but seems like a greater reward to drill rather then to bomb.

As long as they do it on the dark side of the moon so they don't affect the features I have become accustomed to seeing when the moon is full.

Let me guess... they're going to do this on Dec. 21, 2012 right...

For those of you who are unfamiliar with that date, you might want to look it up to see the significance.

Ahhmm when we "went" to the Moon didn't we bring back samples that could be analyzed to see if there is water there or not? I mean if we really "went" there we should be able to check those rocks instead of firing a highly expensive missile up just to check that... Don't know, but it seems a waste of resources seeing as we already "went" to the Moon and all...

Ok folks....I have, all of my life, lived by a "code" that makes undeniable sense.

"Don't mess with the Universe"

You can apply that in millions of ways - but - I'm thinking blowing up our Moon..in any capacity .....rates right up there with the top 5!

Take the billions it will take to do that - and help mankind save our Earth!

Hey folks, see all those craters on the moon? Those were created by stuff much bigger than this puny impactor that NASA is sending to the moon and it is still orbiting the Earth. Do you really think our efforts would do more that make a tiny dust cloud and dislodge a couple moon rock?

Consider the crater Tycho, which is about 85 km in diameter and about 4.6 km deep. The energy required to make that size hole is in the millions of megaton range. If the moon can take swipes like that, I doubt the NASA pea shooter will send the moon off like in Space 1999.

Consider the crater Tycho, which is about 85 km in diameter and about 4.6 km deep. The energy required to make that size hole is in the millions of megaton range. If the moon can take swipes like that, I doubt the NASA pea shooter will send the moon off, like in Space 1999.

why don't we just send Al Gore, he's full of enough methane for a ginormous blast and then he can say He found water on the moon.

It would be appropriate if Al Gore found water on the moon. He found it here on Earth first. Probably even invented it.

@ satyricon for just learning English, you did a good job. Better than alot I've seen from people who've been studying it alot longer too.

As far as shooting a missle at the moon.....when we origanally went to the moon, we got some rocks. Those rocks are pretty small and do those rocks actually show us whats under the surface of the moon? Come on, they're from the surface, how can NASA, the US GOV, & Universities actually tell if there is anything worthy to us humans (ALL HUMANS, since we are ALL trapped on this floating rock) to go back and mine it. To me, it'd be like finding a rock in China & saying that there's nothing of value in Australia.
As far as the amount of damage the moon will receive, it's my belief that the moon won't even notice this gnat taking a sample from its skin compaired to the amount of damage it's already received from Billions of years of crater impacts. BUT....NASA better get this in High Def & from multiple angles, because on EARTH, we have WAY TOO MANY PROBLEMS to fix with the amount of money that this project is going to take.
Shoot the moon or fix economy......hmmm. (not that that money equates to the amount its gonna take to fix the worlds economy).

JJJ: knock it out of orbit. Yeah, NASA never would have thought to consider that.

It's nice to see NASA plays the same game that private companies do that are in competition. When one does something, the rest must follow and outdo them. That being said, we've already see other space agencies taking full HD maps of the moon and running probes into it. NASA's late to the game as usual and now feel like they have to 1up the competition by creating an even BIGGER PLUME of debris for the world to marvel at.

As a matter of fact, they are probably attempting a first strike on the Zeti Reticuli base on the dark side and this impact on the light side will be a cover story (j/k).

@The Quinessential Geek
Sending a bomb to the moon is not that economical . it only pleases the jar-heads pulling nasa's strings, rather sad,

@ all non belivers
yes we did goto the moon, if you dont belive so simply go buy your self a telescope then goto nasa's webpage and got the location of one of the mirrors they put at the landing sites. youll see it, and its there because someone put it there....

Why shoot a bomb at the moon? - Why not? We didn't blow up Iraq, so we have a few left over.

It's this kind of blatant violence that caused the Inhumans to move to the Blue Area

It's this kind of blatant violence that caused the Inhumans to move to the Blue Area of the Moon. Black Bolt is just gonna come down here and say a few words and then we'll all have to start registering our powers and our secret identities...

Is Michael Bay in charge of this program?

C'mon people.
1. NASA isn't sending a bomb, they're sending an impactor. It's just a heavy hunk of stuff that'll hit the moon. The six mile high plume will be from KINETIC energy. There will be NO explosives.
2. The moon is too massive to feel any effects from anything we can toss up there.
3. The moon is chock full of handy resources for us to dig out.
4. We will all be better off for going back to the moon and then beyond. I can't wait! (I just hope I live to see it.)
P.S. I like the idea of sending AlGore to the moon but politicians are so full of hot air just one might successfully float the moon out of orbit.

that's dumb, NASA doesn't have anything better to do? why not send rovers and drill!

Who's the jackass behind this idiotic idea? Maybe we should shoot a rocket up his moon!

Drill, baby, drill! America can do it! Death to Smoochie!

Who needs Aliens, parasites, portals and giant superweapons if we can just kill ourselves with the moon? Easier then glassing the place too...

Seriously, is Hollywood behind this? Or is Bungie looking for new ideas? Because this sounds more like something out of a videogame then soemthing we'd actually do...

I just hope the rocket has a way to catch all the blasted bits and bring them home!

Then we can all eat moon cheese!

Wow! Wait a minute! Why would NASA want to blow up the moon? Don't they know that it will rain down on us? And because the moon is 1/6 the mass of Earth, Earth will increase its mass by 1/6! We'll only be able to moving around like a worm -- that is, the one of us who don't get smashed by moon bits!!

Gives new meaning to the phrase, "Shoot for the moon!"

Gives new meaning to the phrase, "Shoot for the moon!"

Hey, What if they start shooting back!
Wasn't there a sign on moon behind
Neil Armstrong saying "Humans go home
this place is taken" The Moon Lander was
clamped because it was in a no parking
zone.

Well May be the US wants to test out a new nuclear weapon!

"But where are we going to test that? We scolded the North Koreans..."

"Lieutenant find me a test area where the rest of the world won't notice"

"Found one SIR..."

"Where?"

"Look up!"

"Oh I see... Well that's a brilliant idea Lieutenant... seems you're aiming for a promotion..."

"Yes sir.. huh no sir... uh... well sir, I don't know what to say sir... thank you sir... "

"Calm down lieutenant, we're not there yet... the world is going to know anyway... devise a plan to do this test right under their noses and you're promoted!"

"Aye Sir!"

Hmmmm....They are still racing to get the helium3 that is up on the moon.....this element is something that cant be produced on earth....and can be made into raw material for nuke reactors and super conductors....so who knows whats going on in the mind of NASA and our government.....

They are making ready for the Prison on the moon. This is where they will send all the long term 10 years and up prisoners. The only problem with this is that they have not paid for the purchase of the land, which will result in Giant Ants attacking them. Bummer..

Yes, I can see NASA's final quote to the world upon completion of this project; "It seemed like a good idea at the time... BUT IT DONE BLOW UP REAL GOOD !!!"

what it means over all if this has already been said i did not read them all so anyway with a lower grav it means it take LESS boom to make a high explosison so on earth at 1g say it would take a 100 megaton blast to go up junk 6 miles on the moon it would take a tenth of that so 10 megaton blast to get 6 miles high

This is just plain awesome. Somehow, I doubt it will happen, but if it does... the news stations better let us know exactly when we should set up chairs on our roofs. And hey, if they do somehow manage to compromise the integrity of our moon's gravitational pull and we all die, at least we'll get to see a beautiful explosion, right?

We can make things run on water on the moon.........but.......we can't make a car run on water on the earth???

ergo...we have to go to moon to drive cars.

Some of these posts are quite funny, some appear somewhat factual, and some seem to be written by complete and utter morons. Honestly though, I find it hard to differentiate between the categories.
It is disappointing, that such a significant percentage of posts degrade the intelligence of the tech community as a whole.
Do what all good techies do when you really don't understand something...... keep quite in the back reading the manual whilst others make a fool of themselves......then when you do know, say so with complete arrogance.

it would take 100 million pounds just to knock it out of orbit but in doing that we would blow up the moon and we would not drown but we would never have a high tide again and everyone on the planet whould have to worry about falling peces of the moon it would just be easyer to build something to pool the moon out of orbit insted of blowing it to a million peices

Nasa tells us they are searching for traces of water on the moon. Really? Really? Really? So they should just send missiles to each planet then, hahaha! Its obviously not the motive behind this project. Its military intrigue. A military test under the guise of science.

Okay, so we are going to bomb the moon to look for water that we already know is there?

Water molecules were previously detected during the Cassini flyby of the moon in 1999.

Then again on a joint mission by both the Indian Space Research Program and NASA using the "Moon Mineralogy Mapper", or "M3" instrument, it too reported the same finding of water elements were on he moon.

Then, just recently, on September 24, 2009 NASA's Epoxi Spacecraft Mission once again confirmed without a doubt that water is in fact traces of water on the moon. But this time, the Epoxi mission not only confirmed water, but showed much more than experts ever predicted.

So my question is this? Why are we bombing the moon to look for water that's already been confirmed to be there?

Someone please enlighten me on this? Please!

I just think its ironic that we are condeming Korea and Iran for launching test missles and here we are launching at the Moon !! Not that i dont support it,I love to blow stuff up as much as the next guy.

Heres an idea...What if we tie a long garden hose behind the projectile and leave the water on for a while? :)

How much did we spend on this farce???
We should have used a massive explosion on Afganistan and been done with it. Osama would have been the man on the moon!!!

the fact is the moon is constently drifting out of orbit at a rate of 1 1/2 inch per,year.
this has happened since time started
so the queston would be how much further would the moon have to drift before fsalling completely free from its orbit.
so the last queston would be how much push doea the 2 ton bomf have.
a hole blow into solid rock at 90 feet deep takes a lot of power.
if you droped a nike onto granet it would not blow a hole 90 feet deep.
so that tells us to blow a hole 90 feet deep into the rock we call the moon it will take a lot of power.