Back to the moon with some hard hitting science
Lift off for LRO and LCROSS (Courtesy NASA)
Like any curious boy or girl wanting to understand how something works and what it’s made of, the tried and tested method that always seems to deliver results is brute force; hitting something hard and cracking the curiosity open to reveal what’s inside. The engineers and scientists at NASA are no exception when it comes to using this primeval method and they’re heading back to the moon with something that packs an astronomical punch.
This afternoon, NASA launched the Lunar reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), along with the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
The LRO will begin its mission next week, orbiting the moon and imaging its surface in great detail, providing valuable data for the selection of future landing sites and perhaps even a manned moon base.
The job of LCROSS, in October of this year, is to smash its way into the moon’s surface. First it will separate from the Centaur rocket to which it is attached and watch as it crashes into the lunar pole, where scientists suspect water might be found. Instruments on board LCROSS will analyse the ejected material as it passes through the plumes sent up from the impact, shortly before the spacecraft itself crashes into the planet and meets its end.
The ejected material from both impacts will be illuminated by the sun and will also be studied by Earth and space based telescopes, including LRO. If we’re lucky, they may glimpse evidence of water on our otherwise rocky neighbour, a much needed resource for a moon base or any other human colony.
[...] mission went according to plan, crashing a spent rocket booster into a crater of the moon on the 9th of October, while instruments [...]