SpaceVidcast Daily 07.10.09

One of my friends has been saying "NASA is going to blow up the Moon". While that's not necessarily correct, it does seem to get people's attention. So what's going on? NASA, along with just about everyone else down here on Earth, is looking to see if there is water on the Moon. And not just random bits of ice on the surface, but really big quantities of water that we can use, should humans ever have a Lunar colony. And how has NASA decided go about doing this? Well, with crashing things into the Moon. On Saturday October 10th at 1:30 am Coordinated Universal Time, we send a rocket crashing down at a specific spot hard enough that it will kick up a huge plume of debris and possibly water ice and vapor. The impact itself will release materials that we have not yet been able to analyze. While this is happening the Shepherding Spacecraft is taking pictures of the rocket’s descent and impact. Four minutes later it follows almost the exact same path, moving through the cloud and analyzing it with special instruments. It's specifically looking for water ice and vapor, hydrocarbons and hydrated materials. The Shepherding Spacecraft is collecting data continuously and transmitting it back to Earth before its own demise. This crash will be so big that we may be able to view the resulting material it ejects with a good amateur telescope. So no, NASA is not blowing up the Moon... but if that will make it sound much more exciting, enough to get people interested in this once in a lifetime event... then I'll go grab my hard hat. http://www.spacevidcast.com