LCROSS: Centaur rocket separating from the shepherding spacecraft upon final approach of the moon.
Courtesy NASAOn June 18, 2009, NASA sent up the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (or LCROSS, as it’s called) with the intent to find water on the moon. How? By sending LCROSS on a kamikaze mission. The first component of LCROSS (the Centaur rocket) smashed into the moon at speeds faster than a bullet. The second component (the shepherding spacecraft) then flew through the resulting cloud, gathered the vaporized particles, analyzed them, and sent that data back to Earth before it, too, crashed into the lunar surface. Although most earthling telescopes were unable to see the plume, as NASA had predicted (Joe mentioned this in his post just after the impact), it was large enough (10-12 km across) to get the information they were looking for.
What did they find? Oh, only that there’s water on the moon! How, exactly, did scientists come to this conclusion? The target for impact of LCROSS was located deep in the Cabeus crater on the moon’s south pole. This region is permanently in shadows and very cold. When the plume of debris rose above the crater’s rim and was exposed to sunlight, any water-ice, hydrocarbons, or organics vaporized and broke down into their basic components. Those components are what the spectrometers in the shepherding spacecraft picked up, analyzed, and sent back to earth. What’s interesting is that there were two independent spectrometers on board: an ultraviolet visible spectrometer and a near infrared spectrometer, and both relayed the presence of water.
Spectrometers produce graphs that look like EKG’s after a ton of caffeine. In the case of the NIR spectrometer, scientists compared the shape (spectral signature) of the graph sent back from LCROSS to those of various known materials. The LCROSS spectral signature matched that of water. For the ultraviolet visible spectrometer, however, scientists found the specific spectral signature spike (say that ten times fast) indicative of hydroxyl. Hydroxyl is produced when water vapor is broken up by sunlight, which is exactly what happened when the moon dust escaped the crater. Having two instruments saying the same thing makes scientists more confident that there is, indeed, water on the moon.
So, there’s water on the moon. Why is that a big deal? One reason involves future space exploration. Launching rockets directly from the moon for exploration in other parts of the solar system is much easier (due to the gravity being 1/6th that on Earth) and more cost effective (you can use smaller rockets) than launching from Earth. In order to do this efficiently, though, we would need to produce rocket fuel on the moon: hydrogen (the “H” in “H2O,” just to belabor a point) is required for this. Having a local supply of water is also important in establishing local infrastructure: semi-permanent lunar settlements, perhaps. Exploration aside, simply learning as much as we can about our nearest neighbor helps us continue to piece together this solar system we call home.
See the full LCROSS briefing here.
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Diviner Observes LCROSS Impact: The locations of the Diviner LCROSS impact swaths overlain on a grayscale daytime thermal map of the Moon’s south polar region.
Courtesy NASA/GSFC/UCLASo I totally missed that they crashed a probe on the moon last Friday? Where was I? I love this stuff, I can't believe I missed it! Not everyone was impressed.
Every space probe ever launched, all on one map of the Solar System.
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$750,000 prize for moving dirt
NASA is using prize money to create innovative solutions to building a base on the moon. The Regolith Excavation Challenge promotes the development of new technologies to excavate lunar regolith (moving moon dirt). In order to qualify, a team must excavate at least 150kg (330 lbs) of lunar regolith simulant (JSC-1A) within 30 minutes. For the first time in three years, teams took home the prize money.
- 1st Place, $500,000: Paul's Robotics, Moonraker Robot
= 439 kg excavated - 2nd Place, $150,000: Terra Engineering
= 270.6 kg excavated - 3rd Place, $100,000: Team Braundo
= 263.75 kg excavated
To learn more use the links on the California Space Education and Workforce Institute website.
$2 million Lunar Lander Challenge finish this week
Stay tuned for more from the NASA Centennial Challenges as the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge wraps up this week (Oct. 26 - 31). The Astronaut Glove Challenge will also take place on November 18-19 in Florida.
Armadillo Aerospace is winning again
Armadillo Aerospace took home $350,000 last year and has already qualified for a million dollars this year. Check out this FAQ page to learn how Armadillo was founded by DOOM and Quake computer game developer, John Carmack. Click this link to see videos, photos, and more about Armadillo Aerospace.
The lunar surface: The Sea of Rains (lower plain) and Sea of Cold (upper plain) on the Moon's surface. Early astronomers may not have been completely wrong thinking the Moon's mare were oceans of water.
Courtesy NASAThree separate sources have confirmed finding water on our Moon, according to a report in the journal Science. Although the Moon is still much dryer than any desert on Earth, the possibility of extracting water from the lunar surface could provide astronauts with a source of drinking water and fuel.
Chandrayaan-1 lunar image: Taken over the equatorial region of the Moon by Chandrayaan-1, the picture shows the uneven surface of the Moon with numerous craters. On the lower left, part of the crater Torricelli is seen.
Courtesy Indian Space Research OrganisationIndian space scientists lost contact with the Chandrayaan-I lunar orbiter today, and as a result were forced to declare the mission over. Chandrayaan-I operated for only 312 days, less than half of the intended two-year mission.
Chandrayaan-I was India’s first lunar probe and carried payloads from the United States, the European Union and Bulgaria. Chandrayaan-I’s primary missions were to take high-resolution images of the lunar surface, to search for water or ice and to identify the chemical composition of certain lunar rocks.
Even with the shortened mission, officials say that Chandrayaan-I met most of these scientific objectives during its more than 3,400 orbits of the moon.
Chandrayaan's imagery will be used to aid in identifying regions that will be explored in detail later by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (currently in orbit around the moon) in establishing a future potential lunar base.
Interested in lunar research? Here’s a list of all current and planned lunar missions.
Walking onto the Moon
Courtesy NASA
July 20, 1969
I was in college when humankind first stepped on the moon. We bought large glossy photos of the event and hung them on our dorm room wall. Monday, July 20, 2009 is going to be a day to celebrate the 40 year anniversary of stepping on the moon.
Events in celebration of the Apollo 11 anniversary
NASA has a web page of Apollo 40th Anniversary Events and Activities. Newseum.org has a great video showing Apollo 11 events. If your computer and internet are state of the art, here is a cool 360 interactive view of being on the moon.. Wired.com has links to photos, videos, and audios, and TV broadcasts celebrating the Apollo 11 moon landing.
We will go to the Moon again soon
I know a lot of you were not even born when this happened but don't worry. We are going to figure out how to do it again, soon!
Apollo 14's remains: Even higher resolution images will be coming from the LRO, when it enters a lower orbit soon.
Courtesy NASAThe Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is NASA's satellite orbiting the moon right now to give us all a much more detailed picture of our nearest space neighbor. Just in time for the 40 anniversary of the moon landing, the LRO has passed by several of the Apollo mission landing spots. In the best photograph you can actually still see the footsteps between the remains of the landing vehicle and the scientific instruments. It's so cool to see the path worn into the lunar landscape still there on this windless world.
Buzz Aldrin created a fantastic new rap about his mission to the moon along with some famous rapper friends, Snoop Dogg and Talib Kweli. Quincy Jones and Soulja Boy also make appearance. We all knew that Buzz was a legendary space hero, but who knew he could lay down the beats like this? Check it out.
Making of Buzz Aldrin's Rocket Experience w/ Snoop Dogg and Talib Kweli from Buzz Aldrin
More spectacular views from the moon
A Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) satellite known as Selene or Kaguya is going to impact the moon Wed., June 10.
HD video of Earth rise as seen from lunar orbit
What impresses me most about this mission are the high definition videos of the moon, and especially one of Earth rising over a lunar landscape.
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Sources
Thanks to MetaFilter and Kottke.org for the links.
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