One small step for unmanned, one giant crash for mankind.

[thelordharry]

Any of you guys following this? NASA are sending an unmanned rocket to the moon to intentionally crash into it in the hope that the resulting impact will throw up evidence of water.

LCROSS Lunar Impact
7:31 a.m. EDT/4:31 a.m. PDT
Friday Oct. 9

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROS ... index.html

Mission overview:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROS ... index.html

How cool is this....you'll be able to watch a live broadcast of the event and:

Live footage from spacecraft camera
Real-time telemetry based animation

New Berlin, here we come!!!

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009 ... rossvg.htm

[stitch626]

Am I the only one who feels like doing this ?

[Tyyr]

Ummm, why would you feel like doing that?

[Aaron]

I think this is an awesome idea, though I thought they already had proof of water. Or was that Mars?

[Tyyr]

Yeah, Mars.

[stitch626]

Sorry, I'm just not one for spending thousands on something your just going to crash.

[Tyyr]

It's not crashing for the hell of it, its crashing for a good scientific reason. Not to mention that a non crash method of doing this kind of testing would cost much, much more.

[stitch626]

It's not crashing for the hell of it, its crashing for a good scientific reason. Not to mention that a non crash method of doing this kind of testing would cost much, much more.

Good point. Of course, if they do this and find nothing (other than moon dust) then it will have been a waste.

Even worse if they discover cheese.

[Tyyr]

No, if they discover there is none its a critical piece of information. In science a negative result is just as useful as a positive.

[Teaos]

Maybe not as cool, but as useful.

And they arent even crashing somthing important, this is something they would usually just leave floating as space junk, at least now its useful.

[thelordharry]

For a bit of a laugh, on it's descent to the lunar surface, just before impact, they should show that clip of Data in 'Generations' when the saucer section is hurtling towards Veridian III.

Sorry, I'm just not one for spending thousands on something your just going to crash.

I imagine it's millions rather than thousands? Could be wrong...

[Graham Kennedy]

So... America is even bombing the MOON now?!?!

(Actually I made a thread on this very subject months back. Couldn't resist using the line again though...)

[Abby]

So worst case scenario is that nothing happens. As in the junk never hits the moon.
And if it hits the moon, we get data. The usefulness of such data, well we'll have to wait and see.

Though, if it misses the moon, then that money will truly have been wasted.

[Sionnach Glic]

Sorry, I'm just not one for spending thousands on something your just going to crash.

Gotta break a few eggs if you want to make an omlette

Though, if it misses the moon, then that money will truly have been wasted.

I'd be pretty impressed if they managed to fuck up so badly they missed the moon.

[Abby]

Sorry, I'm just not one for spending thousands on something your just going to crash.

Gotta break a few eggs if you want to make an omlette.

Actually, they now have "eggs" in a jar. Already separated from the shell, so the end user doesn't need to break a thing.

Though, if it misses the moon, then that money will truly have been wasted.

I'd be pretty impressed if they managed to f**k up so badly they missed the moon.

Well, there was that instance where they crashed a rover on Mars simply because one group used metric while the other used English...
And I was wrong, missing the moon isn't worst case. Hitting the Earth is... or the ISS.
But those are really unlikely, especially hitting the ISS.
Kinda like Scotty's description of transwarp beaming.