NASA set to bomb the moon today
October 9th, 2009 - 3:56 pm ICT by Aishwarya BhattMoffett Field, Oct 9 (THAINDIAN NEWS) NASA has launched a special moon-specific mission called Lunar CRater Observing and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) that will send a missile that will literally crash (”bomb”) into the southern surface of the moon. This is being done with the aim and intention to find water/ice on the moon’s surface.
According to NASA, The LCROSS moon bombing will take place inside a crater on the moon’s southern pole, and the impact is expected to produce such a cloud of debris that scientists back on Earth can ascertain whether or not water actually exists in some form on the moon.
However, it must be noted that this is not an act of terrorism or an act of vandalism on NASA’s part. It is only for scientific purposes that are to ascertain whether water in any form exists on the moon’s surface or not.
As per news shared by NASA, LCROSS was launched with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on June 18, 2009 at 2:32 p.m. PDT. The LCROSS shepherding spacecraft and the Atlas V’s Centaur upper stage rocket executed a fly-by of the moon on June 23, 2009 (LCROSS lunar swing by video stream coverage) and entered into an elongated Earth orbit to position LCROSS for impact on a lunar pole. On final approach, the shepherding spacecraft and Centaur will separate. The Centaur will act as a heavy impactor to create a debris plume that will rise above the lunar surface. Projected impact at the lunar South Pole is currently: Oct 9, 2009 at 4:30 a.m. PDT. Following four minutes behind, the shepherding spacecraft will fly through the debris plume, collecting and relaying data back to Earth before impacting the lunar surface and creating a second debris plume.
On the social networking and micro blogging site Twitter, you can to follow @LCROSS_NASA for live updates on this moon-bombing mission.
Thaindian News will also make the webcast available live online as the event starts.
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Tags: cape canaveral, earth orbit, final approach, impactor, lcross, live updates, lro, lunar crater, lunar pole, lunar south pole, lunar surface, moffett field, nasa, social networking, stage rocket, surface of the moon, upper stage, v rocket, video stream, water ice