Today (October 9, 2009) Another expedition is set-foot towards the moon, only this time… US will not simply going to step-on it. They will BOMB it!
Millions of people gathered to watch-live as the LCROSS (Lunar CRater Observing and Sensing Satellite) spaceships skyrocketed out from earth and plunge into the lunar-soil (1.6 miles per second) on a southward location just where it’s supposed to land. The next accompanied spacecraft landed four-minutes later with a deathtifying dive towards the moon’s soil. (See the 3d pics below)
This expedition sure is historical as scientist says, but didn’t turned out to be quite smooth for the public. For the reason that photos were not allowed during the exact landing of the spacecrafts.
On Twitter a lot of hashtags are being tweeted on #lcross saying, “it’s too boring to watch”. One even commented
“Dear NASA, Now #lcross is all over I’m going back to garden to see if my veggies are growing bigger. It might be more exciting” (As seen posted in huffington post)
The mission of this expedition is to finally confirm if ever there was a trace of water on the moon. It is hoped that the readings taken will verify the presence of water-reservoir necessary to supply succeeding visits by astronauts.
Coming from NASA’s report:
“Transporting water and other goods from Earth to the moon’s surface is expensive. Finding natural resources, such as water ice, on the moon could help expedite lunar exploration”
Why the word “bomb”? 
Actually, that unfriendly word doesn’t mean “nuking”, “destroying” or other terroristic assault towards moon, it simply states that a missile will be launch exactly at the crater Cabeus A. The area wherein scientists believe, billions of tons of ice may be trapped beneath the lunar-rocks.
The impact site is a 60-mile-wide hole, which lies just a short distance from the Shackleton crater; The proposed location for the future NASA Lunar-base estimated to be completed on 2024
According to Dr Vincent Eke ( ICCU – Institute for Computational Cosmology)
“Water ice could be stable for billions of years on the Moon provided that it is cold enough.
“If ice is present in the permanently shaded lunar craters of the Moon then it could potentially provide a water source for the eventual establishment of a manned base on the Moon”
“Such a base could be used as a platform for exploration into the further reaches of our Solar System.”
“The energy generated by the rocket hitting the Moon will be equivalent to exploding about two tonnes of TNT”
“While this sounds dramatic, the impact of this will simply create one more dimple on the moonscape”
Violent Reactions?
This space exploration created a lot of confusion to the people, some cynics said rants like “Is it the end of the world?” other so-called critiques comment-out
“What did the moon do to us? Is somebody up there on the moon doing things that only Obama knows about?”
Wrap-up:
During the entire course of our history, there were only few explorations made to the moon. The first one was even flagged (Apollo 11 expedition) and said to be fake. Though, the statement, “There will be no more resources in the near future” is quite exaggerated. In our belief, there’s nothing wrong to explore places we haven’t seen before. It’s in our genes as humans to find and challenge ourselves to its maximum limits.
Don’t believe us? Try to search wikipedia for this queries “Amerigo Vespucci” “Christopher Columbus” and spanish voyages. Obviously, these explorations were not welcomed too by some “fault-finders”, although in the end, history proves that some exploration had became a critical part of our lives. Not to sound a historian here, but aren’t we repeating the same hasty-reactions like our ancestors did centuries ago?
It’s like c’mon! The last thing that we need now are pessimistics.
Our only concern is these space-voyages cost hundreds of billions of dollars. I hope this is not where all the money of USA are being used. Remember, economy of America is still on a downward slope.
(sources: huffington post, telegraph, nasa blog)
Updates: See the LCROSS moon-bombing video here
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Tags: blast moon, lcross bombs the moon, LCROSS exploration, moon bombing, moon bombing water, space exploration, USA bombs the moon
