NASA iceberg-finder prangs into Moon's south pole
Place where sun doesn't shine probed
Update NASA has successfully crashed a spent rocket stage and accompanying probe-craft into the Cabeus crater in the lunar antarctic. Space-agency boffins are now eagerly harvesting a flood of data from telescopes, orbiters and the probe itself in order to find out if valuable water ice has been discovered by the impact.
Here's a rather groovy vid from NASA outlining the LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite) mission and the tricky loop-the-loop manoeuvres the spacecraft have had to perform about Earth and its satellite to line up for their high-angle, high-speed crash into the Cabeus crater today.
LCROSS is primarily intended to see if there might be deposits of water ice lying frozen in the sunless crater bottoms of the lunar south pole. Though it has recently been revealed that there are tiny amounts of water present all over the moon's surface, immense amounts of regolith (dirt) would have to processed to extract it. Crater-bottom icebergs would be hugely easier to exploit.
This is important, as having a source of water on the Moon would make all activity in space much easier and more affordable. Not only would astronauts in lunar bases have water to drink and to make breathing oxygen from; hydrogen and oxygen from moon water could also be used to produce rocket fuel.
Lunar rocket fuel could be used for return missions to Earth, hugely increasing what could be carried on outbound journeys. It would also be possible to use it for longhaul trips beyond the Earth-Moon system, to Mars or the asteroids. Moon juice would also be hugely valuable for operations in Earth orbit, as it would be easier to get it there than it is to boost it up through Earth's powerful gravity well and troublesome atmosphere. Some have even suggested that lunar rocket-fuel factories could turn a tidy profit selling their product to satellite operators above Earth.
At present, when a satellite runs out of fuel it has to be de-orbited and destroyed: in-orbit refuelling from Earth has been trialled, but would be hugely expensive compared to supplies from the Moon.
In you go, we're right behind you
All in all, then, the presence or absence of exploitable water on the Moon is very important for humanity's future in space. The freezing crater deeps of the lunar poles are easily cold enough that water ice could exist there more or less permanently, and there are ways it could have got there - but has it? Nobody knows.
That's where LCROSS comes in. The twin craft's smash into the crater deeps will have released as much energy as a ton and a half of TNT detonating: the mighty debris plume is even now being scanned by an array of earth-based telescopes and others in orbit around Earth and the Moon. In addition, the follower spacecraft sent copious analysis of the cloud in its final moments as it fell through it. If there's water in the plume, this mighty array of instruments will detect it.
NASA anticipates a data download from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter passing above the strike in a couple of hours, and will offer some immediate comment later today. The word on presence or absence of water isn't expected to be firm until after the weekend, however. ®
One has to ask WHY?
.........what was the point of the whole exercise? So there may be ice on the moon - so what? Surely the money spent on this 'mission' could have been directed to better use, considering the current crisis.............
@Annihilator RE: Moon Juice
Firstly, got to love the highly technical term. Its not moon juice, its the liquid that comes from a tub of cottage cheese.
Anyway, the fuel canister would have to be reusable, but there is one *tiny* flaw in the plan of using the Moon as the neighborhood petrol quickee-mart. Satellites aren't generally fueled up with Liquid Hydrogen / Liquid Oxygen like the Shuttle is. The on-orbit engines are powered by hydrazine, for both the shuttle and satellites.
If you plan on filling a single-tank vehicle with a binary fuel that has a nasty explosive relationship when mixed... The results will be most entertaining for everyone except the blighter with that petrol can. Will they send up a mechanic to add a second tank to all these orbiting birds? Doubtful.
"Why was it necessary to crash the 2nd craft? If they had kept it intact then they could have used it again for another go. Or are they hiding something?"
The 2nd craft traveled with the upper stage the whole way, going the same direction at the same speed, splitting at the last hour or so.
This means that at the end, they were _both_ heading straight for the Moon at about 9,000 kph.
Of course, the point of LCROSS was to get observations of the actual impact, which means it cannot change course; it _must_ be there when the upper stage hits the dirt.
The LCROSS is only 4 minutes behind, at which point it would require a few times its own mass in fuel to avoid collision.
Not to sound patronizing, but look up the Rocket Equation and play with it a bit to see what it really takes to change your velocity by 9,000 kph! Then compare it with how much fuel the thing actually carried...
Anyway, its all irrelevant. Once the upper stage goes in, the LCROSS has nothing left to observe; there can't be a 2nd round because there's no 2nd bullet!
Giving LCROSS the ability to become a lunar satellite after the mission would have radically driven up costs in ways you haven't even thought of.
It would be superfluous because the whole point of the upper stage was to send the LRO (the main lunar sat) into lunar orbit. LCROSS was just a scheme they conjured up to do something with the upper stage instead of throwing it away.
The goal here is cheap, cheap, cheap!