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NASA bombs the moon, not much to see yet
What an exciting thing, crashing a probe into the moon at 5,600 mph! Man, where we pumped about this, but it turned out to be visually uninteresting. So far, all we've seen are blurry pictures of the moon, but no exciting cloud of dust we were so eagerly anticipating.
Never mind that, though, NASA hit the bull's-eye at 7:31 Eastern Time this morning, slamming the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's (LCROSS) 2.2-ton second stage into the bottom of a crater near the lunar south pole, and kicking up 350 tons of dust and rubble. Four minutes behind it was a probe gathering data that also crashed into that same crater, looking for water ice that might make it easier for humans to someday inhabit that desolate orb 230,000 miles from us.
Why no dust plume? As the probe followed the rocket booster, it sent back live video pictures as it crashed (looking more like a series of blurry stills), but that cloud of debris might not have risen high enough to catch the sunlight. The Hubble Space Telescope was also focused on that crash site, so stay tuned — there might be more pictures forthcoming.
UPDATE (11/13/09): Here it is a month later, and NASA says there's water on the moon, and plenty of it!
Via CrunchGear
By Realist at 2:49 PM ON 10/09/09
Now that we've expressed our hatred of the moon, lets bomb the sun next! Damn bright yellow thing, always turning the heat up...
By Doodad at 2:59 PM ON 10/09/09
Uh. Is this 2009 or are we still in the 60's? I can get better video from my license plate camera.
By Anonymous at 3:17 PM ON 10/09/09
@Realist... "Damn bright yellow thing, always turning the heat up..."
Thats a myth...global warming proponents have already stated that it has NOTHING to do with heating up the earth.
By Giggity at 3:20 PM ON 10/09/09
On second thought though...maybe we should just bomb it too.
Hell, thats the only thing we do with "pin-point" accuracy.
And even though we put cameras on every friggin thing possible, we obviously cant get good images or video. Toilet-brush-camera anyone?
By MatthiasF at 4:08 PM ON 10/09/09
@Doodad: Distance to your license plate camera, eight to ten feet.
Distance to the moon, two hundred thirty eight thousand miles.
You get crappy cell phone reception when you leave a 12 mile radius of a cell tower, imagine a freaking moon probe's problem WHEN IT LEAVES THE PLANET.
By Giggity at 4:26 PM ON 10/09/09
@MatthiasF...
Isnt it NASA's job to make cameras and equipment that function millions of miles away in the most hostile environment imaginable?
I would guess that a measley 230,000 miles would be child's play for them.
Must we bring in Fisher-Price cameras for them?
By Chris Downs at 8:05 PM ON 10/10/09
According to the documentary "The Time Machine," The Moon Luna will split in half, crumbling into fragments and then colliding with the Earth then we all almost die!
(Just being sarcastic I expected a better show from NASA)
By ace_frehely at 11:43 PM ON 10/10/09
Nasa run by American Rednecks?
Woooo hooo! Lets send a fast moving projectile at he moon with no regard for human life whatsoever to see what happens. We are intelliegent scientists right and we have taken everything into consideration?
… hmmm why didn’t it produce the predicted six-mile-high plume of debris that should have been visible from Earth as we thought? o well at least it didn’t knock the moon out of it’s orbit … pass me the JD!
I as a member of the human race don’t remember being asked what I thought about bombarding the moon and I wonder what the Chinese or any other super power for that matter will think about this.
By Me at 4:17 AM ON 10/11/09
I too expected something a lot cooler than that.
@ace: You don't remember being asked because we didn't ask you. Because we're Texans (not rednecks) and we don't need your approval to do jack...
By thisisonlatest at 4:56 PM ON 10/11/09
I love how everyone expects this huge dust cloud from the lunar surface... to apparently be held aloft by magic (since research has already shown there is no atmosphere to hold the dust)...
No... the reason there's no huge dust could is that the dust is heavy and is dragged back almost immediately by the constant gravitational force (and held aloft by nothing because there is no atmosphere)...
Also, I was asked how I felt about bombing the moon and I told them I didn't much care as long as I get free liquor. The next thing I remember I woke up in a ditch not remembering any free liquor but having a hangover from hell... I think they darted me and wiped my memory... Er... come to think of it, I wasn't asked anything... I was just drinking.
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thisisonlatest:
I love how everyone expects this huge dust cloud from the lunar surface... to apparently be held aloft by magic (si...More »