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!
Jimmy Kimmel asks Chewbacca to comment on LCROSS
i like the moon
Moon Juice. 100% natural. Only $4,000,000,000.00 per 8 oz. bottle.
Lemme guess; this is a hoax too?
Let’s watch the Apollo conspiracy morons insist that we’ve all had our telescopes fitted with RFID chips!
Considering LRO (launched on the same Atlas rocket with the LCROSS mission) has already taken snapshots of old Apollo lunar landing sites, you would think some of the “Did we really land on the Moon” debate would end.
And for those folks wondering why it’s so important to find water on the Moon…
– To haul water to the International Space Station (ISS) costs $40k US per gallon. Hauling to the Moon would be more expensive. (Regardless of the ISS having a new water recycling system, you have to transport the initial loads of water regardless.)
– Water can be used as propellant. (Fuel!)
– Water can be used for life support.
The list goes on…
Anthony,
Could you add this to your article?
YOU CANNOT SEE THE IMPACT WITH THE NAKED EYE
Or something to that effect? I know you cite using a 10inch telescope (or larger) which is true. It may be helpful for people to be reminded in a different way.
SAVE LAKE ARMSTRONG!
Should have named it LCARS.
This is finally some good publicity for NASA. They should bomb the Moon more often, take that you old devil moon! :o)
Hey, at least the woo-woos are admitting we’ve been to the Moon. Progress of a kind.
Oh My God! The tides! There will be tidal waves! Flee inland! Flee!
I feel sorry for the moon. Gonna have a crater in a crater after this “IT’S A DISASTER!” moment in history.
No respect I tell ya, no respect at all.
=A=
Holy -CRAP- is that full of paranoia.
So is the Star Trek logo derived from these moon men as well?
I’m sure all the green wackos are up in arms about the effects of global warming this will cause on the moon, what with all the NATURAL water vapor that will rise from the moon’s surface and will refract light onto the moon’s surface causing as of yet unknown consequences to the moon’s atmosphere and surface.
Way to go, NASA(Starfleet), way to go.
=A=
The Selenites will not appreciate this hostile gesture.
Oh, so that’s how they make swiss cheese.
#5
Doesn’t the mention of a telescope as a necessity strongly imply you cannot see this with the naked eye? How much more plain do they need to be?
13 – Atmosphere? The moon has no atmosphere. Too little Gravity. Weighty issues don’t apply ;)
#16.. we still get people staring at solar eclipses, despite blatant warnings that THIS WILL BLIND YOU are constantly repeated. Never underestimate the public’s inability to grasp the obvious. The same folk pass around the emails every couple of years about Mars appearing larger than the full moon as our orbits come “close”.
My brother tells me that if you work at Lockheed Martian in Denver they will be showing the impact on the 43 foot Auditorium Presentation Screen.
I asked if I could see, he said first get a job there and then earn the security ratings clearance and yes otherwise fat chance.
But I can still watch it on channel 213 on my Dish DVR. And the most I’ll get to see is a dust cloud. Have to wait for the sensor scans to learn anything else (i.e. Water Vapor). But I’ll hear info about that long before the pictures come out.
Now if we hit a UFO hiding there that will make really big news, just hope it does not PO them.
And to #8) Bill, the lets return to being animals agency is going to love that, If NASA did your request you’ll have Tree Huggers galore targeting your house. And then the Federal Attorney General will be letting all the luner animals start sueing you. He might even get the Earth Wolves to sue because you disterbed their idol they howl at on full moons.
#13) Adam, how much science did you take in school. The Moon has a greater density of background radiation that it has of an atmosphere.
In plain english, it has no atmosphere. if you want more proof look at the moon craters, see any wind cause sand dunes.
And lastly the surface sand has been fried by so much Solar light and radiation it has converted the background helium and hydrogen into Hydrogen 4 which is perfect for Fusion Reactors to be used as Heavy Water for Fusion. You scrape up the top inch or so of lunar soil and thats the next 500 to 1000 years of Fusion juice.
It’s kooks
That video is Hilarious!!!! All hail the invaders.
@ 21- Now they just have to get Fusion to work (at least in a scale that humans can manage)!
I once dropped me pants at Houston Missionary Control… them Aerospace coppers shot my moon, they did.
Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…
NASA finally gets to crash something on purpose. Yay, science! :)
By tha’ by… thar’s many a moon I’d like ta’ impact!!!
Can I start me list?
Cuz’ I like big moons and I canna’ lie
Science Friday be always good news to tide—
me over until other real science hits
Far and few between
Just like
A lass… a baby who’s got moon-back
Cold and away from tha’ earth
I could not finish tha’ search
Cuz’ her cold frozen face
Would detach and replace
My libido before I could place
An impact…
Gawd… so sorry… I guess tha’ full moon o’ late has made me crazed… I just wanna’ know me own Sea o’ Tranquility… I just wanna’ pee on tha’ moon right where Alan Shepard did do…
“Actually, this is quite an exciting and interesting news story as a lunar impact visible from Earth is something unique and truly extraordinary in human history. Count on Kayla to give us what CNN won’t report on.”
O’ course, CNN be farrrrrr too busy reportin’ on me peein’ in Linds’sy Lo-hands bushes… helps ’em grow…
Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…
#13
I go by the scientific consensus, not ideology or tribalism. Science indicates a big problem with greenhouse gases. Science does not indicate any difficulties at all with this moon mission; in fact it is a scientific experiment itself.
You should watch this show called Star Trek. It is all about science. One of it’s main characters, Mr. Spock, espouses the value of paying attention to facts which lead to rational conclusions. It was made in the 1960’s, but they recently came out with a new movie.
U.S. is going to bomb the Moon! Take cover, aliens!
I don’t recall this being in the opening credits of “Enterprise.”
Can we go back and edit it in?
What did the moon ever do to NASA?
There is no way that video is meant to be taken seriously. You can tell they cut away from that bearded guy just before he laughs.
Sometimes, free speech sucks, but that’s why we have it.
If you’ll recall just before he died, Sam Kinison challenged the Russians to go back to the moon and bring one of our flags back.
I’d rather believe other countries are responding to Sammy’s challenge.
TO Paraphrase Team America World Police: America, Frak Yeah!
The poor folks on Moonbase Alpha are in for it. This is the kind of thing that Space:1999 warned us about. And now we are going to lose the moon. I sure hope Commander Koenig remembered to pack extra socks.
I didn’t know it was NASA’s moon, I thought it belongs to all inhabitants of Earth! Shouldn’t there be a world council vote or a world civilian vote on this before these arrogant people who presume they can just do this because it’s theirs over the rest of us.
Viewing from Australia so I guess I’ll be watching it on NASA’s website.
IF i see one more headline saying we’re “attacking” the moon I’m gonna go live in a cave and wait for this dark age to pass.
seriously we need to improve Science education NOW!!!!!!!!!!!
we are all screwed otherwise.
Pete, you should be able to watch it at night time only if the sky is clear.
Dan…
We’ve done this in the past. The Saturn V rocket’s third stages crashed into the moon during the later Apollo missions (to create shockwaves for Apollo seismometers to measure). The Saturn S-IVB stage was much bigger than Centaur. No harm done, just one more tiny crater to join the millions already there.
Watching the moon while in your jammies is always fun!
Someone must have herd the question about how big of a scope to watch the moon impact, this may be a little late, but this afternoon on FOX News they started saying a 10x scope or better will be needed, and most binoc’s are not that strong.
As for Science education, some comments in this topic and in others does show there is a IQ above a middle finger salute here, but most seem to have saluted their science teachers with that middle finger.
But the way society in America is structured today you do not even need to know how to tie your shoes, and if you can’t they’ll pay you if you’ll keep giving them power over you and all the other like minded fools.
The Moon landing was a big driving force into getting people dreaming of higher education so they can go to the moon also. But that dream got flooded over with the as labeled in the DSN season 3 ender, season 4 opener ‘Past Tense’ with the Gimme’s. That time line was created with Atomic Bombs, but the way things are going we will not need to use heavy elements to destroy America.
#1 but not as much as a spoon?
Awaiting comment from Martin Landau…
so water did not com out the moon people say it did thank just wan”t to no
SPACE 1999! The Eagle spacecraft for the show were pretty realistic. Highly under-rated. What would be the practical reasons for a lunar base though?
Did “Space 1999” neglect the science of the moon and how earth interact. The moon leaving Earth orbit would devastate the earth.