NASA photos show moon strike created plume

[Ian David]

Source: Associated Press (via Cape Cod Times)

LOS ANGELES - NASA's much-hyped mission to hurl a spacecraft into the moon turned out some worthwhile data after all, scientists said.

New images show a mile-high plume of lunar debris from the Cabeus crater shortly after the space agency's Centaur rocket struck Oct. 9.

<snip>

In media coverage before the impact, many observers said they were disappointed at the lack of spectacle.

But scientists said the mission was carried out for "a scientific purpose, not to put on a fireworks display for the public," said space consultant Alan Stern, a former NASA associate administrator for science.

By creating the debris cloud, scientists were able to use the $79-million Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite to sample and study the dust. The LCROSS itself crashed into the same crater four minutes after the Centaur's impact, right on schedule, while its companion spacecraft, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, was flying in lunar orbit 50 miles above the site to gather still more data.

On the Net:
NASA's LCROSS site: http://www.nasa.gov/lcross

More:
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091019/NEWS11/910199990/-1/rss04



Read more: http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091019/NEWS11/910199990/-1/rss04

---

See also:

Diviner Observes LCROSS Impact
10.10.09

The LRO Diviner instrument obtained infrared observations of the LCROSS impact. LRO flew by the LCROSS Centaur impact site 90 seconds after impact at a distance of ~80 km. Diviner was commanded to observe the impact site on eight successive orbits, and obtained a series of thermal maps before and after the impact at approximately two hour intervals at an angle of approximately 48 degrees off nadir. In this viewing geometry, the spatial footprint of each Diviner detector was roughly 300 by 700 meters.


Figure 1 shows the locations of the Diviner LCROSS impact swaths overlain on a grayscale daytime thermal map of the Moon’s south polar region. Diviner data were used to help select the final LCROSS impact site inside Cabeus Crater, which sampled an extremely cold region in permanent shadow that can serve as an effective cold trap for water ice and other frozen volatiles. Credit NASA/GSFC/UCLA

More:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/main/diviner_impacts.html

[WriteDown]

1. More lies.....

Created to cover-up the fact that the moon is a holographic projection to hide US missile carrying satellites. :)

[Soylent Brice]

2. K&R

[Algorem]

3. "not to put on a fireworks display for the public," Right. All they could

talk about before it was "the money shot" this and "the money shot" that and "the money shot's gonna be huge and shoot way out there and and there will be gobs and gobs." The DVD will never sell.

[Alhena]

4. They should have had Peter North design the module

[Algorem]

5. He must be a real up-and-comer.

hope so.in a hairy situation like that things can go splat real quick then somebody's got a mess to clean up.