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Sep 11, 2009 05:27 PM | 2
One of NASA's moon probes, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), will complete a relatively simple mission next month: releasing a spent rocket stage toward a shadowy crater, then following it to see what the impact stirs up before crashing the mother ship itself into the crater. All the while, Earth-based and orbiting telescopes will be watching, looking for any evidence of water ice that might be hidden in the crater's depths.
Today, NASA unveiled its target of choice for LCROSS's double impact on October 9: a south-polar crater known as Cabeus A. The 48-kilometer-wide crater is named for 17th-century Italian astronomer Niccolo Cabeo. According to NASA, Cabeus A was chosen both for its potential for harboring water ice and for its location, which will allow Earth observers to track the plumes thrown up by the LCROSS impacts. For a fuller description of the LCROSS mission, see our coverage from June, just before the spacecraft launched.
Radar image of Cabeus A crater: JPL/NASA
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NASA,
LCROSS,
spacecraft
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2 Comments
Add CommentThis one has got me puzzled. If the moon was created by a collision with the earth, and was formed with a crust of super hot magma, and has never had an atmosphere, how could water have frozen there at the poles? The only source I can think of are collisions with comets.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNot only all that, but, have they secured the property rights?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI mean, who's responsible for the clean-up? Will be a SuperFund site for our grand children to fix? What if they, and this is the scary part, find oil?
BP hasn't even maintained the Alaskan Oil Pipeline. So, why would Exxon pay the royalties due on lunar oil? And who's gonna pay for *that* oil line? Eh?
I'm just sayin'
Besides, if they hit somebody's house by mistake, there'll be hell to pay. Lawsuits galore. NASA better think this through again.