NASA unleashes Moon-attack probe NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) were successfully projected Moonwards yesterday atop an Atlas V rocket. The Atlas V rocket blasts off yesterday. Pic: NASA The launch from Cape Canaveral was at 21:32 GMT. The LRO separated from the upper stage at 22:16 GMT …
NASA seem hell bent on beating The Welsh to having created the most lofty eyesore, deftly countering the heinous heideoucity of Snowdon's pleaseance-souring cafe and tat-vendor, with their superfluitic smashing and stone-strewing on Selene's sometime serene surface.
Where's old Jug-ear Charlie when ya need him???
It seems the latest fad is to fire stuff at the moon just to see what happens.
Someone -somewhere is going to say this is harming the moon and upsetting the natural healing waves that eminate from the sprits deep within.
That or it's gonna crack like an egg and the Soup Dragon will be as homeless as the Clangers
But please don't break it in two, one period a month is enough for us men to suffer.
(doesn't stop to get coat but just keeps running)
Clearly what they are really doing is sending off replicas of the so-called "Apollo lunar modules" so NASA won't be caught out reference lying regarding the Moon landings. It's a fake mission (again!)
You prove me wrong, I say. There'll be several of these "orbiters" and suddenly the moon will look full of lunar modules, you mark my words.
It's all a big conspiracy, man! (You need a Californian accent to make that bit work).
O
Mine's the one with the detonator for the Twin Towers demolition charges in the pocket.
@ Fragula The Furry
Don't worry, it's not the first time we've done this, humans are pretty good at hitting the Moon now.
The Soviet Union started it (so blame them) with Luna 2 in 1959 and continued smashing stuff (sometimes deliberately) into the Moon for about the next ten years.
The US then deliberately crashed the Ranger probes into the Moon - filming all the way - look for the videos on YouTube - they're awesome:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP3e8ujJfJ8&feature=related
(You can do the Space 1999 theme tune if you like)
During the Apollo missions, the discarded upper stages of the Lunar Modules for Apollo 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17 were all crashed into the Moon to study the internal structure of the Moon. they would have crashed anyway because it's pretty much impossible to maintain an orbit around the Moon because of its lumpy gravity. Crashing them at a known time allowed the geologists to work out just how much energy was involved.
And just to top that, the SIVB third stage of the Saturn V was crashed into the Moon for Apollos 13 - 17 officially in an attempt to locate the boundary of the Moon's core, but I suspect mainly because it was going to make a really big bang.
@ Ginger.
It's 50cm with good lighting. It's been tasked to return images of all the landing sites - not just Apollo, but also Surveyor and the Soviet Luna/Lunokhod sites.
Looks like the dudes at NASA have closely analyzed Iron Sky trailer at http://www.ironsky.net/site/
Now the US has decided to make a pre-emptive strike. The official peaceful objective of "discovering whether there’s frozen water in the craters near the moon’s south pole" is a massive cover-up to avoid panic amongst the citizenry of Earth.
That's the altimeter The camera has a resolution of 12 inches, so all the Apollo hardware will be easily visible. And I read somewhere they are hoping to locate a couple of probes that crashed (unintentionally).
Bandwidth available means that images of about 10% of the surface can be sent back in a year.
Despite everything they know, they still want to find the man in the moon? By smashing him to bits?
What little power there is in facts when put up against a fairy tale!
Either that, or NASA feel the need to free the inner scientist from the tyranny of a fairy tale by vicariously killing the man in the moon in themselves. Only then will they realize that they are not, after all, thirsty - and that Coke, Coors, or Kool-Aid will do fine when they are.
@ Cameron Colly
No lunar conspiracy theory fodder here, the radiation they are seeking to characterize is cosmic ray (= long duration stay problem). The Apollo missions did not last long enough for this to be a problem, but if you are thinking about doing a lunar base where astronauts will spend months outside the Van Allen belts, protection against cosmic rays becomes much more important.
@Mike Richards
They discarded the LM in the upper atmosphere (along with the service module) for Apollo 13, the Wikipedia page on Apollo 13 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_13) even has a picture of the reentry.
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