Just after midnight tonight NZ time, America will bomb another major target. No sanctions, no provocations, no declarations of war, no protests.
It will bomb...THE MOON! This - is - not - a - drill.
NASA’s LCROSS (Lunar CRater Observing and Sensing Satellite) mission has sent a booster rocket at twice the speed of a bullet to impact near the moon’s South Pole, to see if there's ice mixed in the soil of the crater’s floor. Scientists think there may be billions of litres of it...but so far no proof.
So the NASA moon missile will splat into the moon at 9000kmph. It’s expected to make a crater about 20m across — and send 350 tonnes of rock and moon dust flying in all directions, creating a monstrous plume several kms high. The blast will be so large that it should be seen from Earth through telescopes 30cm or larger.
If there's ice mixed in, a small satellite, flying on the same path less than 600km behind the rocket, should be able to detect it before it too crashes about four minutes later. More info on the NASA website...
PS: 10 Oct.2009 - Well, wasn't THAT a non-event! *yawn* NASA is now trading-off the less-than-spectacular result by saying analysis of the obtained data'll make it all worthwhile: "Science is not about fireworks." Yea, so why did NASA build the whole impact thing up in the first place then?
It will bomb...THE MOON! This - is - not - a - drill.
NASA’s LCROSS (Lunar CRater Observing and Sensing Satellite) mission has sent a booster rocket at twice the speed of a bullet to impact near the moon’s South Pole, to see if there's ice mixed in the soil of the crater’s floor. Scientists think there may be billions of litres of it...but so far no proof.So the NASA moon missile will splat into the moon at 9000kmph. It’s expected to make a crater about 20m across — and send 350 tonnes of rock and moon dust flying in all directions, creating a monstrous plume several kms high. The blast will be so large that it should be seen from Earth through telescopes 30cm or larger.
If there's ice mixed in, a small satellite, flying on the same path less than 600km behind the rocket, should be able to detect it before it too crashes about four minutes later. More info on the NASA website...
PS: 10 Oct.2009 - Well, wasn't THAT a non-event! *yawn* NASA is now trading-off the less-than-spectacular result by saying analysis of the obtained data'll make it all worthwhile: "Science is not about fireworks." Yea, so why did NASA build the whole impact thing up in the first place then?
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