Science Behind Things

NASA To Crash Into Moon, Deliberately

A year from now, in February of 2009, NASA plans to slam two spacecraft, called the Lunar Crater and Observation Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission, into the moon, and carefully analyzing the explosive debris to see if it gives evidence of frozen water ice under the lunar surface vaporized by the spacecraft-to-moon impact. Crashing a spacecraft into the moon is a lot less expensive than landing it gently and taking samples from the lunar soil, costing taxpayers “only” $79 million. LCROSS will be launched on October 28 atop an Atlas 5 rocket equipped with a Centaur upper stage. It may take only four days to reach the moon, but LCROSS will take three months to get into a proper moon smashing orientation to hit the right part of the moon (a large smooth area at one of the poles, rather precisely within 330 feet of its intended impact area), where water presumably has survived or exists at all in the shadows away from the very hot sunlight that causes temperatures at other parts of the moon to reach hundreds of degrees Fahrenheit).  LCROSS is expected to hit the moon at a high angle and high speed (1.6 miles per second) to maximize damage, kicking up over 1,100 tons of debris. The heavy (4,400 pound) Centaur upper stage will help the spacecraft it the moon really hard, in order to penetrate the lunar surface and kick up as much debris as possible, maximizing the likelihood of finding the frozen water, if it exists. A smaller spacecraft will observe the crash with four infrared cameras, a visible camera and a light photometer. Then it will also crash itself into the moon. Both impacts will be observed by Earth-based telescopes. NASA and others have used the destructive technique on asteroids and the moon, and might continue using it at asteroids and Mars as well.

Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=T&ct=us/39-0&fd=R&url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,333172,00.html&cid=0&ei=14vHR_faCqfm6gOq562yDA

Google Offering $30 Million Lunar X Prize

The goal of the prize will be to land a privately funded robotic rover on the Moon. According to the summary of the Google Lunar X Prize competition guidelines, the winning team must successfully land a privately funded spacecraft on the lunar surface that survives long enough to complete the mission goals: roaming about the lunar surface for at least 500 meters and sending a defined digital data package – called a Mooncast – back to Earth.

“We don’t care where you’re from, what you’ve ever done, where you went to school … if you can build a rover that lands and roves on the surface of the Moon you will win the Google Lunar X Prize purse,” said Peter Diamandis, the X Prize Foundation’s chairman and chief executive officer.

The $30 million to be awarded is segmented into a $20 million grand prize, a $5 million second prize and a $5 million bonus. Contestants have until Dec. 31, 2012, to qualify for the $20 million grand prize, which will drop to $15 million for missions accomplished any time between Jan. 1, 2013, and Dec. 31, 2014.

Source: http://www.googlelunarxprize.org