Question: Is there water on the moon?

Experiment:

The main LCROSS mission objective is to confirm the presence or absence of water ice in a permanently shadowed crater near a lunar polar region.

LCROSS launched with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on June 18, 2009 at 2:32 p.m. PDT. The LCROSS shepherding spacecraft and the Atlas V’s Centaur upper stage rocket executed a fly-by of the moon on June 23, 2009 (LCROSS lunar swingby video stream coverage) and entered into an elongated Earth orbit to position LCROSS for impact on a lunar pole. On final approach, the shepherding spacecraft and Centaur will separate. The Centaur will act as a heavy impactor to create a debris plume that will rise above the lunar surface. Projected impact at the lunar South Pole is currently: Oct 9, 2009 at 4:30 a.m. PDT. Following four minutes behind, the shepherding spacecraft will fly through the debris plume, collecting and relaying data back to Earth before impacting the lunar surface and creating a second debris plume.

The debris plumes are expected to be visible from Earth- and space-based telescopes 10-to-12 inches and larger.

A small group is gathering at Cal Anderson park to observe. Bring your telescope and join in!

Updated:
At 6:40pm PDT, the Centaur will separate from the rest of the ship. You’ll be able to watch it live, via NASA!

The countdown has begun.

Jonathan Golob is an actual doctor.

22 replies on “In About Twelve Hours, We Smash a Part of the Moon”

  2. @1: I hand-built a mostly-portable 16″ dobsonian at my friend’s house when I was 14, I’m pretty sure at least 1 or 2 people in this smarty-smart city have managed to obtain or build their own telescope.

    No wait, I take that back– the well-monied nerds of this city probably have boutique Maksutov-Cassegrains they hurled way too much money at.

  4. “In About Twelve Hours, We Smash a Part of the Moon”

    so, does this have anything to do with the slog happy after party?

  5. Dammit Jonathon, all headlines for this should be TONIGHT WE BLOW UP THE MOON! Smashing a part, while accurate, is un-American. We have to blow that fucker up.

  10. @2:

    My old Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain 6″ reflector only cost me about $150 back in 1993, so would a 300 mm version really be that much more?

  17. The Moon Men are the red indians of the 21st century. We bomb them, destroy their homes, infect them with smallpox and kill all the Moon buffalo, all for our own selfish greed. And nobody on Earth cares what you do to them.

    Americans are no better than Englishmen and Spaniards. There I said it.

  19. In grand PNW tradition there was a nary a cloud in the sky 40 minutes before impact, and ten minutes before the face of the moon was still clear. Then the clouds just kept getting thicker and thicker until, at 4 minutes out, I couldn’t see anything through my 12.5 inch Dob (reflector). But there was no ejecta plume, apparently, so I don’t feel so bad.

  21. I’m still waiting for word that the Amazon Women on the Moon have landed to take us hostage.

    Tie me up – Tie me down!

  22. @7: Ah yes, a glorious scene in American cinematic history. Not least because the young warrior fires his two globs (golobs?) of gleaming white power into the receptive hole and then expresses a total O-face. Super hot.

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