You can watch NASA give the moon a one-two punch.

[[IN]Head-Kay]

[Genesis]

You skipped lunch? Man... I couldn't skip lunch if the room was on fire!

[[IN]Head-Kay]

[Nicktalopia]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Take that, moon!

NASA smacked two spacecraft into the lunar south pole Friday morning in a search for hidden ice. Instruments confirm that a large empty rocket hull barreled into the moon at 7:31 a.m., followed four minutes later by a probe with cameras taking pictures of the first crash.

But the big live public splash people anticipated didn't quite happen. Screens got fuzz and no immediate pictures of the crash or the six-mile plume of lunar dust that the mission was all about. The public, which followed the crashes on the Internet and at observatories, seemed puzzled.

NASA officials said their instruments were working, but live photos of the actual crash were missing. Some select photos should be ready by a 10 a.m. press conference, they said.

But so far all NASA had was "images on the way in," said NASA spokesman Grey Hautaluoma.

Expectations by the public for live plume video were probably too high and based on pre-crash animations, some of which were not by NASA, project manager Dan Andrews told The Associated Press Friday morning 80 minutes after impact.

Another issue, one NASA thought was a good possibility going into Friday, was that the lighting was bad and work needs to be done on images to make them easier to see, Andrews said. Experts said the images could be essentially "gray against black," he said.

"What matters for us is: What is the nature of the stuff that was kicked up going in?" Andrews said. "All nine instruments were working fine and we received good data."

Before the crash, mission scientists said there was a chance that if it was really moist under the crater, they'd know about water within an hour. That's not the case now, Andrews said.

People who got up before dawn to look for the crash at Los Angeles' Griffith Observatory threw confused looks at each other instead.

Telescope demonstrator Jim Mahon called the celestial show "anticlimactic."

"I was hoping we'd see a flash or a flare," Mahon said.

[Nicktalopia]

A little insight for people that don't usually follow these stuff.

How can ice survive on the Moon?
The Moon has no atmosphere, any substance on the lunar surface is exposed directly to vacuum. For water ice, this means it will rapidly sublime directly into water vapor and escape into space, as the Moon's low gravity cannot hold gas for any appreciable time. Over the course of a lunar day (~29 Earth days), all regions of the Moon are exposed to sunlight, and the temperature on the Moon in direct sunlight reaches about 395 K (395 Kelvin, which is equal to about 250 degrees above zero F). So any ice exposed to sunlight for even a short time would be lost. The only possible way for ice to exist on the Moon would be in a permanently shadowed area.

Where did the ice come from?
The Moon's surface is continuously bombarded by meteorites and micrometeorites. Many, if not most, of these impactors contain water ice, and the lunar craters show that many of these were very large objects. Any ice which survived impact would be scattered over the lunar surface. Most would be quickly vaporized by sunlight and lost to space, but some would end up inside the permanently shadowed craters, either by directly entering the crater or migrating over the surface as randomly moving individual molecules which would reach the craters and freeze there. Once inside the crater, the ice would be relatively stable, so over time the ice would collect in these "cold traps", and be buried to some extent by meteoritic gardening. Such a possibility was suggested as early as 1961 (3). However, loss of ice due to photodissociation, solar wind sputtering, and micrometeoroid gardening is not well quantified (4).

Is there any other evidence for ice?
In a Science magazine article (5) on 29 November 1996, it was announced that interpretation of data from a Clementine spacecraft experiment suggested the possibility of ice on the surface of the Moon. The ice was believed to be in the bottom of a permanently shadowed crater near the Moon's south pole (at the center of the Clementine mosaic shown at the top of the page). It was also thought likely that other frozen volatiles, such as methane, were in the deposit. The deposit was estimated to be approximately 60,000 to 120,000 cubic meters in volume. This would be comparable to a small lake in size, four football fields in surface area and 16 feet deep. This estimate was very uncertain, however, due to the nature of the data.

Why is ice on the Moon important?
The ice could represent relatively pristine cometary or asteroid material which has existed on the Moon for millions or billions of years. A robotic sample return mission could bring ice back to Earth for study, perhaps followed by a human mission for more detailed sampling. The simple fact that the ice is there will help scientists constrain models of impacts on the lunar surface and the effects of meteorite gardening, photodissociation, and solar wind sputtering on the Moon. Beyond the scientifically intriguing aspects, deposits of ice on the Moon would have many practical aspects for future manned lunar exploration. There is no other source of water on the Moon, and shipping water to the Moon for use by humans would be extremely expensive ($2,000 to $20,000 per kg). The lunar water could also serve as a source of oxygen, another vital material not readily found on the Moon, and hydrogen, which could be used as rocket fuel. Paul Spudis, one of the scientists who took part in the Clementine study, referred to the lunar ice deposit as possibly "the most valuable piece of real estate in the solar system". It appears that in addition to the permanently shadowed areas there are some higher areas such as crater rims which are permanently exposed to sunlight and could serve as a source of power for future missions.

[Shy--Ism]

Heard that views of the crash/plunging into the crater did not meet with the public's expectations indeed, and I was somehow personally anticipating such situation. Hence good thing I didn't ditch any of my lunch or studies in order to spend my time exploring a puzzled image in a certain field of view, whether through binoculars or any telescopes. We'll hopefully receive official results concerning this mission in less than two weeks, thus let's wait and see.

[Proof]

Ok, I watched this live ... never knew it was a 'crash' ... thought they were just landing. Seemed kinda ghey. Probably like 10 frames a minute.

[Nicktalopia]

Some Updates:


The first image of lunar material kicked up by the impact of NASA's LCROSS mission has been released, a week after the impact occurred. It was taken by a spacecraft trailing behind the impactor, whose bird's-eye view allowed it to see what has so far eluded the best telescopes on Earth and in Earth orbit.

Researchers are still studying the faint plume of material to try to identify its composition and search for signs of water.

On 9 October, the LCROSS mission used a "shepherding" spacecraft to send the 2-tonne upper stage of its launch rocket into a permanently shadowed crater at the moon's south pole. The shepherding spacecraft observed the impact before crashing into the moon itself 4 minutes later.

Scientists had hoped that dust and vapour ejected by the impact would climb high enough to catch sunlight, allowing telescopes to hunt for traces of lunar water in the ejecta. But no obvious plume of ejected material was seen by any observers on the ground or even by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Now, scientists report that a faint plume of ejecta was imaged by the shepherding spacecraft. "I think we are the only ones that have images," LCROSS principal investigator Anthony Colaprete told New Scientist.

Other instruments, such as LAMP on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter probe in orbit around the moon, caught spectroscopic signs of a plume at an altitude of about 10 or 15 kilometres above the lunar surface. But the ejected material was too thin there to be visible in an image, says Colaprete.

Vantage point

Ejecta would have had to rise at least 2 km above the surface to be seen from Earth, so the lack of a clear detection from ground-based telescopes suggests most of the ejecta stayed below that altitude.

By contrast, the LCROSS shepherding spacecraft was flying right behind the rocket stage. So it was able to peer down into the crater from overhead and see ejecta that did not get lofted very high. "The ejecta had to only come out and get into the sunlight a little more than a kilometre [high] for us to see it," he says. "It only had to rise half as high."

Before the impact, mission members said they expected the plume to reach no higher than about 10 km. But projectile experiments carried out on Earth weeks before the impact suggested the plume might reach far lower altitudes.

Crumpled rocket

That's because the rocket stage was hollow, giving it a low density, and the surface of the moon slightly spongy, or compressible, due to pores between particles of soil.

In such a situation, "a lot of the energy [of impact] goes into the crumpling of the low-density object [the rocket] and the compaction of the soil instead of being transferred into vertical velocity," Colaprete told New Scientist. "An analogy is what we do to make ourselves safe in car crashes – when a car crashes into something now, the frame is meant to crumple."

So was using a hollow impactor instead of a dense 'cannonball' design a good idea? Colaprete says that even though hollow impactors may throw up less material at high angles – where it is more easily observed – than dense ones, they create wider, shallower craters. "What we've been able to get with this is a nice, broad area at relatively shallow depth," he told New Scientist.

"That's kind of nice because we're interested in stuff a metre or 70 centimetres deep," he says, pointing out that hydrogen – and thus possibly water – has been detected in the top 70 cm of soil near the lunar poles by neutron spectrometers on spacecraft.

[Nicktalopia]

The argument that the moon is a dry, desolate place no longer holds water.

Secrets the moon has been holding, for perhaps billions of years, are now being revealed to the delight of scientists and space enthusiasts alike.

NASA today opened a new chapter in our understanding of the moon. Preliminary data from the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, indicates that the mission successfully uncovered water during the Oct. 9, 2009 impacts into the permanently shadowed region of Cabeus cater near the moon’s south pole.

The impact created by the LCROSS Centaur upper stage rocket created a two-part plume of material from the bottom of the crater. The first part was a high angle plume of vapor and fine dust and the second a lower angle ejecta curtain of heavier material. This material has not seen sunlight in billions of years.

"We're unlocking the mysteries of our nearest neighbor and by extension the solar system. It turns out the moon harbors many secrets, and LCROSS has added a new layer to our understanding," said Michael Wargo, chief lunar scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

Scientists have long speculated about the source of vast quantities of hydrogen that have been observed at the lunar poles. The LCROSS findings are shedding new light on the question of water, which could be more widespread and in greater quantity than previously suspected.

Permanently shadowed regions could hold a key to the history and evolution of the solar system, much as an ice core sample taken on Earth reveals ancient data. In addition, water, and other compounds represent potential resources that could sustain future lunar exploration.

Since the impacts, the LCROSS science team has been working almost nonstop analyzing the huge amount of data the spacecraft collected. The team concentrated on data from the satellite's spectrometers, which provide the most definitive information about the presence of water. A spectrometer examines light emitted or absorbed by materials that helps identify their composition.

"We are ecstatic," said Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS project scientist and principal investigator at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "Multiple lines of evidence show water was present in both the high angle vapor plume and the ejecta curtain created by the LCROSS Centaur impact. The concentration and distribution of water and other substances requires further analysis, but it is safe to say Cabeus holds water."

The team took the known near infrared spectral signatures of water and other materials and compared them to the spectra collected by the LCROSS near infrared spectrometer of the impact.

"We were only able to match the spectra from LCROSS data when we inserted the spectra for water," said Colaprete. "No other reasonable combination of other compounds that we tried matched the observations. The possibility of contamination from the Centaur also was ruled out."

Additional confirmation came from an emission in the ultraviolet spectrum that was attributed to hydroxyl, one product from the break-up of water by sunlight. When atoms and molecules are excited, they release energy at specific wavelengths that are detected by the spectrometers. A similar process is used in neon signs. When electrified, a specific gas will produce a distinct color. The ultraviolet visible spectrometer detected hydroxyl signatures just after impact that are consistent with a water vapor cloud in sunlight.

Data from the other LCROSS instruments are being analyzed for additional clues about the state and distribution of the material at the impact site. The LCROSS science team along with colleagues are poring over the data to understand the entire impact event, from flash to crater, with the final goal being the understanding of the distribution of materials, and in particular volatiles, within the soil at the impact site.

"The full understanding of the LCROSS data may take some time. The data is that rich," said Colaprete. "Along with the water in Cabeus, there are hints of other intriguing substances. The permanently shadowed regions of the moon are truly cold traps, collecting and preserving material over billions of years."

LCROSS was launched June 18, 2009 as a companion mission to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. After separating from LRO, the LCROSS spacecraft held onto the spent Centaur upper stage rocket of the launch vehicle, executed a lunar swingby and entered into a series of long looping orbits around the Earth.

After traveling approximately 113 days and nearly 5.6 million miles (9 million km), the Centaur and LCROSS separated on final approach to the moon. Traveling a fast as a speeding bullet, the Centaur impacted the lunar surface shortly after 4:31 a.m. PDT Oct. 9 with LCROSS watching with its onboard instruments. Approximately four minutes of data was collected before the LCROSS itself impacted the lunar surface.

Working closely with scientists from LRO and other observatories that viewed the impact, the LCROSS team is working to understand the full scope of the LCROSS data. LRO continues to make passes over the impact site to give the LCROSS team additional insight into the mechanics of the impact and its resulting craters.

What other secrets will the moon reveal? The analysis continues!