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back to article NASA's LADEE: A Great Gig in the Sky, now on a death dive to the Dark Side of the Moon

NASA has confirmed it will crash its Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) probe into the Moon's surface on April 21 after the successful completion of its missions. LADEE has been operating around the Moon since November, analyzing its scant atmosphere to solve one of the odder mysteries of our natural …

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  1. Graham Marsden
    Coat

    Dear Clangers...

    ... DUCK!

    7 0
    1. JeffyPoooh
      Reply Icon
      Pint

      Ah...

      They're holding a contest to pick the day, hour and exact minute of impact. Thousands of punters may enter, covering all possible minutes. They plan to crash it on the back of the Moon, out of sight.

      SO HOW CAN THEY DETERMINE THE EXACT MINUTE OF IMPACT?

      Perhaps the LRO will be tasked to help pick a winner?

      1 1
  2. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

    Oblig

    "There is no dark side of the moon really. Matter of fact it's all dark."

    Sad to see al those taxpayers $$$$ going up in a puff of moon dust though.

    Been listening to DSOTM since 20-Jan-1972, @ Brighton Dome....

    1 0
  3. McHack
    Happy

    Crash it where?

    Oh please, please, can it "accidentally" hit the Chinese Jade Rabbit rover? It's not doing much, and its death "at the hands of the imperialist capitalist running dogs" would be much more valuable for the PR.

    Or perhaps it can take out the old Soviet Lunokhod 2 rover. After it's destroyed, perhaps the current owner "Lord British" could get an insurance claim out of it.

    7 1
    1. Wzrd1 Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Crash it where?

      Hmm, that's a thought. A near miss might jog that rover back into operation.

      After all, we all know that technology works better once one slams it hard a few times.

      Works great for hard drives, never hear a complaint about one again after a few slams on the users desk.

      1 0
  4. VeganVegan
    Pint

    Lumpy gravity

    I had originally read it as "lumpy gravy".

    Working too late, must get food...

    Beer, in lieu of a food icon.

    1 0
    1. Suburban Inmate
      Reply Icon
      Joke

      Joke: "in lieu of food" comment.

      0 0
  5. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    In Both a Great TV Hoax or a Grand Mind Hack ..... Hysteria to Derision is One Small Step

    ... for a Man and Mankind

    “We have beautiful data,” said CU-Boulder physics Professor Mihaly Horanyi of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, principal investigator for the Lunar Dust Experiment, or LDEX, onboard LADEE. “We discovered that a cloud of dust permanently engulfs the Moon, and that the dust density dramatically increases toward its surface."

    Without an atmosphere to abate incoming meteorites, the Moon gets peppered with thousands of space pebbles each year, and a gram of material hitting at 14 miles per second throws up an enormous amount of dust, Horanyi explained.

    Spot the permanent heavy dust clouds in this historic video ...... http://youtu.be/RMINSD7MmT4

    0 1
  6. Mark 85

    In space, no one can hear you go "splat".

    A pity it won't hit the near side instead of the far side. At least we might be able to see it with a good telescope.

    1 0
  7. Robin

    Dusty

    "dust density dramatically increases toward its surface."

    You don't say?

    3 0
  8. The Axe

    Timing

    If they don't know when it'll crash how can they guarantee that it'll crash on the dark side of the moon.

    0 0
    1. Richard Ball
      Reply Icon

      Re: Timing

      The near side is denser, which means the centre of mass is towards the near side, which means the mountains on the far side are 'higher' to something that is orbiting the centre of (lumpy) mass.

      Could be very wrong - just an idea.

      0 0
  9. td97402

    Dark Side of the Moon

    I get the Pink Floyd reference and all but there is no dark side of the moon. Perhaps you are referring to the far side of the moon?

    0 1

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  11. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Vending machines

    In view of its function, surely the unit of size should be Dysons rather than vending machines?

    I await the cheap British version of 2010 in which alien intelligences use a huge array of self-replicating vacuum cleaners to gobble up all the Moon dust, to make it tidy before the lizard overlords set up their permanent base.

    ...yes, I do know vacuum cleaners don't function in, er, vacuum.

    1 0

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. hplasm
      Reply Icon

      Re: yes, I do know vacuum cleaners don't function in, er, vacuum.

      But they do... clean it, right?

      0 0
  12. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Unhappy

    600Mbps from 250 000 miles and 1 atmosphere away.

    Is there any UK ISP that can do that from 5 miles away from the exchange?

    Or 1 mile?

    Or with the exchange next door to the house?

    And as long as BT owns the last mile they probably never will.

    5 0
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: 600Mbps from 250 000 miles and 1 atmosphere away.

      Ah... There's a fibre optic cable now at the end of my driveway. In about two weeks when it's finally connected to our house, our Internet connection will go from 1.4 Mbps DSL to "175" Mbps fibre. Not bad for a suburban sprawl area.

      0 1
  13. CraPo

    So...

    now we are crashing our rubbish into the surface of the moon as well?

    What will the enivronmental (for what it's worth) "impact" (ho ho) be?

    0 0
  14. hoola Silver badge

    Irresponsible

    What is completely insane is the amount of junk that is orbiting aounrd space. This is not just around earth but elsewhere. Every probe or explorer that get put up ends floating round for ever or left to decay on the surface. To deliberatly destroy something by running it into the surface is just stupid. It will contaminate a huge area with debris. The Moon and Mars are covered with man-made crap that we have left in the quest for knowledge. All this junk is left because it is considered too expensive to clean up.

    It is just as bad, if not worse then lobbing barrels of radioactive waste and concrete into a trench in the Atlantic.

    Man and science has an awful lot to answer for and is a stark reminder of how selfish mankind actually is.

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