Early Friday morning NASA will crash a probe into the south pole of the moon - twice. The live broadcast of the event begins at 6:15 a.m. EDT/3:15 a.m. PDT/11:15 am BST. You can watch it online via NASA TV. The mission is named LCROSS, short for Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite. The purpose of the crash is to detect water on the moon. First the empty rocket will be sent hurling towards the moon at 2.5km per second. On impact it will throw up a plume of debris 10km high. The impact crater is expect to be 20 meters in diameter and 3 to 4 meters deep, equivalent to the explosion produced by 1 ton of TNT. The payload carrying the instruments will then hurl through the debris cloud taking measurements before it too crashes into the moon. For more of these kinds of details see Moon crash will create six-mile plume of dust as Nasa searches for water and Crash course in geology: Water-seeking probe to smack into moon as world watches and Rocket Smash Could Find Moon’s Water Ice, Expert Says. Does anyone have plans to watch it? I might wake up early to watch it. You can watch NASA give the moon a one-two punch

Quote: ... And amateur astronomy buffs with telescopes who live west of the Mississippi may try to catch a glimpse of it through their own instruments because it will still be dark outside. People who live in areas where it will be daylight won't be able to see it from home telescopes. "A lot of telescopes will be tuning in," said Terry Mann, president of the Astronomical League, an umbrella group for local amateur astronomy societies. "You might see something you might not ever see again." Amateurs need at least a 10-inch telescope to look at the crashes and what they see will only be a small part of their overall view in the scope. And they won't see the impact itself, but the spray of debris flying up. ...

What do you think about this?

I think it's awesome. However I think some people have taken the "bomb the moon" a little too seriously.

Bomb the moon on youtube search Read the descriptions :P

I wonder if people think nasa is trying to blow up the moon :\

Quote: Original post by Sirisian
Bomb the moon on youtube search Read the descriptions :P

My favourite is this one:

"NASA moon bombing violates space law & may cause conflict with lunar ET/UFO civilizations"

I think that irrational people with a chip on their shoulders will equate the "explosions" with military action; those on the fringes of the Chinese military will use it to gain support for a full scale invasion of the US.

The US will then use this invasion as an excuse to invade NK and china, together with the british govt. who will commit their entire military to the invasion. Iraq and Afghanistan will be abandoned, where radical new governments will train huge armies of suicide bombers; during a military parade a freak accident will result in accidental detonation of 240,000 explosive vests simultaneously. The force of the explosion will send the moon hurtling through space, throwing all the satellites currently orbiting the earth into space and we wont be able to get decent internet connections until about 2 years after the US / UK / China / North Korean war ends.

Is it really worth it?

I thought about linking to No War on the Moon! In Defense of the Dark Side of the Moon for an alternative view of the mission. Only people with colonized minds believe these things are positive, or that this type of "progress" can be beneficial to anyone beyond a small circle of exploiter-elites. And, as to be expected, there is no end to the number of those who seek to compensate for their own personal impotence by over-identifying with these grotesque displays of obscene state-corporate power. I decided not to link to it in the op because today it didn't strike me as profoundly as it did when I first read it back in August.

Quote: Original post by LessBread
Does anyone have plans to watch it? I might wake up early to watch it.

As to this question, the time corresponds to 6:15pm tonight here, and it should be dark-ish at that time, but unfortunately, I don't own a telescope otherwise I probably would've wanted to check it out.

Quote: Original post by LessBread
I thought about linking to No War on the Moon! In Defense of the Dark Side of the Moon for an alternative view of the mission. Only people with colonized minds believe these things are positive, or that this type of "progress" can be beneficial to anyone beyond a small circle of exploiter-elites. And, as to be expected, there is no end to the number of those who seek to compensate for their own personal impotence by over-identifying with these grotesque displays of obscene state-corporate power. I decided not to link to it in the op because today it didn't strike me as profoundly as it did when I first read it back in August.

I'd just like to make sure of one thing: Do you sympathise with the views in that article? I'm afraid for your sanity if you do.

My dad just told me they are going to broad cast it on TV. Which I think is a great idea. And you know what else? NASA should start broadcasting everythign they do and use that money for research.

All in for "Orbital Porn".

Quote: Original post by owl
My dad just told me they are going to broad cast it on TV. Which I think is a great idea. And you know what else? NASA should start broadcasting everythign they do and use that money for research.

All in for "Orbital Porn".

Better still, they can simply spend their yearly budget on a years supply of porn for everybody on earth. (and have change)

I personally think that if NASA has placed millions, if not billions of dollars into this operation then it's more then likely gone through dozens of tests and checks from other organisations as well as NASA own stringent requirements.

I hope the 'Bombing' will result in some solid information that will bring us one step towards permanent outposts on the moon. When that happens I really can say i'm living "In the future!"