The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #124164   Message #2740374
Posted By: KB in Iowa
07-Oct-09 - 09:58 AM
Thread Name: BS: Bombing the Moon
Subject: BS: Bombing the Moon
I only heard about this today. I'm surprised there hasn't been more coverage. At first I thought the person who told me about it was on drugs. According to NASA the plume will be visible from earth.

Got this from the NASA website

"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."

NASA LCROSS mission