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NASA takes aim at Moon with double sledgehammer

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posted on Feb, 27 2008 @ 05:55 PM
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NASA takes aim at Moon with double sledgehammer


news.yahoo.com

LCROSS will piggyback on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission for an Oct. 28 launch atop an Atlas 5 rocket equipped with a Centaur upper stage. While the launch will ferry LRO to the moon in about four days, LCROSS is in for a three-month journey to reach its proper moon smashing position. Once within range, the Centaur upper stage doubles as the main 4,400 pound (2,000 kg) impactor spacecraft for LCROSS.

The smaller Shepherding Spacecraft will guide Centaur towards its target crater, before dropping back to watch - and later fly through - the plume of moon dust and debris kicked up by Centaur's impact. The shepherding vehicle is packed with a light photometer, a visible light camera and four infrared cameras to study the Centaur's lunar plume before it turns itself into a second impactor and strikes a different crater about four minutes later.

"This payload delivery represents a new way of doing business for the center and the agency in general," said Daniel Andrews, LCROSS project manager at Ames, in a statement. "LCROSS primarily is using commercial-off-the-shelf instruments on this mission to meet the mission's accelerated development schedule and cost restraints."

(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 27-2-2008 by DimensionalDetective]



posted on Feb, 27 2008 @ 05:55 PM
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Hmm, this mission seems a little 'odd' to me. Going after a violent, crater-causing impant on the moon? I wonder if this has anything to do with the space race heating up? Perhaps trying to be the first mining location for huge quantities of H-3?

news.yahoo.com (visit the link for the full news article)



posted on Feb, 27 2008 @ 06:04 PM
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reply to post by DimensionalDetective
 


I was wondering what this was good for. The article says they are looking for watter. So it does have to do with the space race. If any one is wondering watter is something very much needed for any long space operations.



posted on Feb, 27 2008 @ 06:09 PM
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Sounds to me like a practice frun for a furture NEO. I am not suggesting there is one on the horizon but after TU24 maybe some peoplea re a little nervous.
Just like human kind to want to destroy things so future gens cannot appreciate things in thier original state.



posted on Feb, 27 2008 @ 06:19 PM
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Wonder if this is an advanced diversion for an object that is already on course for impact with the moon.
This would offer a more "Controllable" course of information flow for media and other space observationists.

Could also be a precursor statement to account for an upcoming anomaly in our weather and seismic systems. Kinda like, oh well we've had some unexpected results from our mission, but since we caused them we can fix them too.

We can't let people think that humankinds well being and safety isn't in complete control by the Government , or else they may start altering funding.
And we can't have that...



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