http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=nasas-mission-to-bomb-the-moon-2009-06 NASA will tomorrow launch a spectacular mission to bomb the Moon. Their LCROSS mission will blast off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying a missile that will blast a hole in the lunar surface at twice the speed of a bullet. The missile, a Centaur rocket, will be steered by a shepherding spacecraft that will guide it towards its target - a crater close to the Moon's south pole. Scientists expect the blast to be so powerful that a huge plume of debris will be ejected. The attack on the Moon is not a declaration of war or act of wanton vandalism. Space scientists want to see if any water ice or vapour is revealed in the cloud of debris. Though the Moon mostly a dry airless desert, they believe ice could be trapped in crater shadows near the south pole which never receive any sunlight. If so it could provide vital supplies for a manned moonbase. Last year, British scientists identified regions where water might be found on the Moon and estimated that there could be enough to fill one of Europe's largest reservoirs. The spacecraft will not head straight for the Moon. First it will orbit the Earth a number of times while its precise target is identified. Finally, it will send the missile into the Moon at twice the speed of a bullet on October 8. The shepherding spacecraft will follow close behind, taking pictures and analysing the ejected debris as it looks for evidence of water. It has just four minutes to do this before it crashes into the Moon itself, producing a spectacular explosion that should be visible in amateur astronomers' telescopes. It is a busy time for Moon crashes. Last week Japan's Kaguya probe collided with the Moon at the end of its own mission. The LCROSS mission - it stands for Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite - will launch on an Atlas V rocket together with another spacecraft, called the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The orbiter will circle the Moon for at least a year searching for potential landing sites for astronauts when they return there in the next decade. It will also look for suitable materials that might support a colony. The dual mission was due to blast off today but was delayed to make way for the shuttle Endeavour. However, another hydrogen leak means that the shuttle launch has now been delayed until next month. This whole bombing is supposed to go down on Friday. I think they ought to give diplomacy some more time before we bomb the moon. We are already in two wars and we really don't need to be starting a war with the moon.
Boyaah! Bunch of red necks, bomb the moon. At two years old, I broke a toy, I had to see what was inside. I'm all for it.
Exactly. Why don't we go to the UN to get their approval nd support from the world wide community? And how about we admit our mistakes (saying it was green cheese, the Earth was the center of the universe, invading several times during the Apollo "missions", etc.)? While the moon has done a fair amount of damage such as tides and weather, wouldn't it be better to sit down with them and resolve our differences rather than going it alone with a brutal bombing run?
US must bomb the moon! Recent reports show that Moon dwellers dispose of weapons of mass destruction and may be helping Osama bin Laden's terrorist network
"Scientists" said that water in space was impossible, then somebody went there and found some, then they said that water on the moon would go against everything they believe in.. so at least they seem to be learning to go and actually check things out.. Windbag theorists, we should find some way to keep them penned off from the rest of humanity, people actually take them serious...
The dickheads behind this idea are the most brainless fuckers that have ever graced our sacred planet. But hey, if you have a team of 150 physicists each of whom has atleast 5 degrees in physics all standing together at mission control nodding their heads in agreement, you cannot be stoopid, right??