Kenneth_of_Borg
Ship Engineer
Joined: 10 Jul 2006, 01:00 Posts: 5130 Location: Space is disease and danger, wrapped in darkness and silence!
|
Tomorrow morning at 4:31:19 AM (PDT), an empty Atlas rocket stage will make a powerful first contact with the lunar surface in a large plume that will be visible from Earth. So, grab your TV, your telescope, or your best pal and sit back while we all watch NASA shoot the moon — literally. The mission, called LCROSS, will search for water ice in a crater located on the southern polar region of the moon.
NASA To Shoot the Moon TOMORROW — See the Impact from Your Backyard! Tomorrow morning at 4:31:19 AM (PDT), an empty rocket stage from an Atlas Rocket, called the Centaur, will impact the a crater in the South polar region of the moon known as Cabeus. The mission, called LCROSS or Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite, has an objective to search for water ice that could be hiding in the freezing dark of these southern craters. Upon impact, a large plume of dust (and hopefully water ice) will rise from the moon, which should be large enough to see from Earth with a 10” or larger diameter telescope. The second portion of the LCROSS, the Shepherding Spacecraft, which has scientific instruments on-board including cameras, will follow the centaur in taking pictures of the rocket’s descent and impact into the moon. Four minutes later, the Shepherding Spacecraft will follow almost the exact same path as the rocket, descending down through the big plume and analyzing it with special instruments.
Beware of Misconceptions! No, LCROSS is NOT a mission to “bomb the moon”. In fact, there is no “bomb,” “explosive,” or “missile,” of any kind onboard the rocket. Plenty of newscasters, radio hosts, and late night talk show hosts have been joking about or condemning the mission as being an attack on the moon. The local internet cooks have even come out of the woodwork to support the theory that we will face retaliation from the indigenous lunar peoples and that we need to stop the attack on the moon now! There will be a plume and a large impact, however, as the kinetic energy from the heavy (though empty) rocket stage will collide with the lunar surface at twice the speed of a bullet. But, you will need a rather decent (at least 10” in diameter) telescope to even get a glimpse of the plume.
*Beware* The above video is so jam packed with misinformation, I was hesitant to share it with you. Hopefully, we can all just have a laugh.
How Can I Watch? There are several ways you can take part in tomorrow morning’s festivities. A great way is to find a public event being hosted in your area. The LCROSS website has a list of all official public events around the country where you can watch first hand the impact of the centaur rocket.
If you can’t make it out to one of these events, or if there isn’t one in your area,the next best thing would be to grab your telescope (or your amateur astronomer buddy’s telescope) and set up shop in your own backyard. Or better yet, stake out a spot someone outside the city limits where city lights won’t dampen your view of the lunar surface. To do this, though, you’ll need a fairly decent telescope — at least 10” in diameter — if you want to see any kind of detail. More more tips and tricks to getting the best out of your telescope’s aperture, check out the LCROSS Viewing Guide.
No telescope either? That’s okay, grab a friend and a big bag of popcorn and tune into NASA TV on your television or online at NASA.gov/ntv. NASA TV will be hosting live coverage of the event, so you just might get the best view of the excitement from the vantage point of your own couch. And, this way, you can watch in your jammies! (or sleep in so you can if you are not in the Americas.)
_________________
|