NASA to Bomb the Moon

[wab]

It's official...we've run out of stuff to blow up. Yeah, what could go wrong with launching a missle, small as it may be, into the planetary mass that controls the earths axis, rotational control and tidal movement? Yeah...what could go wrong?

NASA is launching a dramatic mission to bomb the moon.

The LCROSS (Lunar CRater Observing and Sensing Satellite) mission will send a missile traveling at twice the speed of a bullet to blast a hole in the lunar surface near the moon's South pole.

Scientists expect the impact of the Centaur rocket to be powerful enough to eject a huge plume of debris from the moon. The moon dust should even be large enough to be seen from earth through telescopes 10-to-12 inches and larger, says NASA.

So what's our beef with the moon?

The bombing isn't an act of hostility: it's all part of our search for water in space.

The missile will impact the lunar surface at crater Cabeus A (see photo below). The crater is located on the moon's South pole, an area in which scientists estimate there may be billions of tons of trapped ice.

Scientists intend to examine the debris from the blast for traces of water ice or vapor. Discover Magazine explains how it works:

Detecting that water is tough. Radar results have been inconclusive, with some people saying there's lots of water, and others saying there's none at all. By impacting a probe there, any ice located at the impact site will be shot up above the lunar surface, where sunlight will break it up into O+ and OH- molecules, which can be detected. Thus, LCROSS.

Locating water on the moon would be a big boon for future space missions, NASA notes:

Transporting water and other goods from Earth to the moon's surface is expensive. Finding natural resources, such as water ice, on the moon could help expedite lunar exploration.

Linked:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/0 ... 11038.html

[UOK]

How about no? The moon is, and always will be, just a desolate chunk of earth. The moon was created billions upon billions of years ago by a neighboring planet crashing into the earth. This cataclysmic event shot a hat-sized chunk off the top of the earth while both planets fused over many billions of years. Thanks to the earths magnetic fields, the chunk of earth maintained in the orbit, eventually forming a perfect sphere, void of life and unique features outside of a few big craters. Meanwhile the earth, with its liquid hot interior being splashed out from it's interior formed horrific gaseous atmospheres which over millenia became the earth as we know it. The moon is just a rock. We don't need to be blowing shit up on it or putting any shit on it.

[IE]

It would be funny if there were a super-advanced & powerful race of normally peaceful creatures living inside the moon, just minding their own business & pursuing their own advancement & intellectual purposes ... until they get shaken by our primitive explosive device, and decide they need to protect themselves by finally getting rid of that asthetically pleasing-but-dangerous blue layer around the outside of the planet.

[gaba]

What if they're NOT peaceful, and they were trapped there millions of years ago by a now extinct race of super intelligent beings, without whose help we can never hope to defend ourselves against the bloodthirsty conquering hordes of moon beasts?

... or what if the moon really IS made of cheese and the explosion releases toxic mold into our atmosphere, creating the zombie plague that will inevitably wipe us out?

What if the moon is heaven and the bomb kills Elvis... again!!!?

What if the moon is hell, and the bomb releases Vince Lombardi and Curly Lambeau... and their bloodthirsty corpses come to earth to eat our brains and f*&k our goats?

What if the moon is hollow, and the missile shatters the surprisingly thin outer shell, raining a cascade of creamy marshmallow filling down on our fragile eco-system? Sure, marshmallow cows are cute and maybe even tasty, but it'll kill the cattle industry.

What if the ocean were beer and I were a duck?

[gaba]

Great eric, now I'm terrified. How the hell am I supposed to sleep now?

[Xee]

I'm all for it in the name of science. Like UOK said, it's pretty much a big rock floating in space. If our geeks can get some info that might help us colonize space, go for it. Explosions are never boring. Explosions in space are just awesome.

[Boris13c]

why is it part of this "scientific exploration" has to include blowing up anything, ESPECIALLY when they do not know what repercussions there may be?

like the ocean tides, suddenly doing their own thing at random times, perhaps ending up with rogue waves 100 feet or more high crashing into each other in shipping lanes? because from what I understand, there has been more than 1 scientific study confirming the moon does have an effect on the earth's ocean tides ... they do NOT know what blasting this missile into the moon will do ... and hey, maybe it will be just enough of a push to send it AWAY from the earth, and orbiting around say Mars rather than earth

that would be cool wouldn't it? no moonlight, weird oceans, and maybe an impending Martian attack

[gaba]

The point of the explosion isn't to destroy anything. It's not like they're sending nukes up there. By simply disturbing a small portion of the moons surface, they'll be able to examine and study the debris for signs of water. Now, why the f*&k this matters is a completely different matter. This is one of my few problems with Obama. After giving the impression that he'd be cutting funding for useless projects like NASA, he backtracked. At a time like this, I see absolutely no reason to be spending massive amounts of money on a project whose sole redeeming quality is "it's cool." Seriously... aside from just being able to say we've done it and that we did it first, what real good has come of the moon landing. So little that some people don't believe it actually happened. If we'd found a cure for cancer or a solution to economic crisis up there we'd sure as f*&k believe we were there. Unfortunately, we just brought back a few rocks.

So I get why they're doing this. I understand their purpose and I'm not worried about repercussions. I don't however, know why the f*&k they were given the funds to do this in the first place. My daughter's school had to cut their kitchen staff to the point that they can no longer get all the kids through in the time alloted and kids either miss class time or leave hungry. This and countless other problems like it could be fixed several thousand times over for what it's gonna cost for NASA to chuck a missile at the moon.



HOWEVER... the fact that our government is so unanimous in their support of this seemingly useless project (NASA in general and not just bombing the moon) leads me to believe there's more to NASA than what is generally public knowledge. Maybe there is a race of intelligent beings living up there.

[Boris13c]

HOWEVER... the fact that our government is so unanimous in their support of this seemingly useless project (NASA in general and not just bombing the moon) leads me to believe there's more to NASA than what is generally public knowledge. Maybe there is a race of intelligent beings living up there.

if there are water rock vermin on the moon, living off their own recycled feces because their assholes are connected to their mouths, a small turd particle dripping from their ass to mouth connection would be immediately classified as more intelligent than all of our elected officials combined

[Boris13c]

my top 10 possible results of the NASA rocket bombing the moon:

* impact disturbs the peaceful beings living beneath the moon's crust and they respond with some bombs of their own

* impact pushes moon away from Earth and into an orbit around Mars, resulting in a little green man landing on the White House lawn and doing a "neener neener" dance to the President

* impact confirms the moon IS in fact made of cheese, and the citizens of Earth watch in horror as the brie-like inner mass of the moon oozes away and into the galaxy

* impact results in the Earth's sky immediately darkening and a large booming James Earl Jones like voicing saying "oh no you didn't"

* impact results in a large black monolith appearing in orbit above Earth asking to speak to Dave

* impact results in every radio station on Earth broadcasting Elvis singing 'Don't Be Cruel'

* impact results in Amelia Earhardt landing at Dulles Airport, climbing from her plane and uttering "what ... the ... fuck"

* impact results in Sasquatch (all 6 of them) climbing to mountain peaks around the globe and howling in unison in the direction where the moon used to be

* impact results in the return of Disco

* impact results in worm sign the likes of which gods have never seen

[Xee]

First off, crashing stuff into the lunar surface is not new. Europe did it with a satellite in '06 for the exact same reason.

This and countless other problems like it could be fixed several thousand times over for what it's gonna cost for NASA to chuck a missile at the moon.

Then where does it end? Your same argument can be used for support of the arts, various sciences, libraries, etc. None of them are feeding the hungry or curing cancer. And even if you did get rid of all of them and spent the money they freed up on the aforementioned causes it'd just be a drop in the bucket compared to the magnitude of those problems on this Earth.

Personally, I'd like to think our curiosity and the continuous quest for knowledge is what got us to the level of development we are at now and it's the only thing that will allow us to grow. Take that away and there's a good chance we'd all still be running around the forests naked.

In the end though I agree, NASA is a waste of money. Not because the cause they pursue is "worthless" but because of the way they're run and huge amount of money they waste. Unfortunately, there's little we can directly do to solve that; it's up to our administration to come down on them and straighten them out.

[UOK]

I just find this mission, despite it's 'cheap' pricetag for a NASA project (a mere $80mill) it just doesn't serve a purpose with an American economy in such disarray.

[gaba]

I agree Xee, and it's not that I have anything against NASA. Partly, I just don't think they have a goal right now... but mostly I'm just so very confused with the unanimous support they get from our elected officials. It seriously seems like people are not allowed to question NASA. I'm not suggesting shutting them down or anything, but at a time like this a few budget cuts would certainly not be unreasonable. Maybe NASA could use some of that incredible collective brain power and find a way to blow up the moon for less than $80million.

[wab]

Maybe they wanna figure out a way to live there before 12/21 2012?