Category Archives: lcross

How We Look

To LCROSS

Earth and Moon from LCROSS orbit.  August 17, 2009. Click to embiggen.
Earth and Moon from LCROSS orbit. August 17, 2009. Click to embiggen. Courtesy NASA/Ames.

Imagine you’re on this spacecraft coming to Earth — this is the scene you’d see from a vantage point of 520,294 kilometers from Earth and 880,850 kilometers from the Moon. You’d know there’s a planet there, and its moon would be tantalizingly far away… but it would be exciting to see.  If I were the alien piloting the ship, I’d be excited to see another world and, given the instruments on my ship showing the components of that planet’s atmosphere, I’d know there was life there.

Well, this isn’t a view from an alien ship — it’s the view that the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission, which is on a journey to study the Moon and, on October 9, crash a Centaur rocket stage into the south polar region.  The impact should kick up a plume of dust and other materials — and hopefully some of that stuff will be hydrogen or even water vapor. If there is water there, then we’ll know that there’s a supply of ice at the lunar south pole. How much ice is yet to be determined — but if there’s a lot, it could be a useful supply for future moon explorers.

So far, the LCROSS mission is on schedule for its delivery date, despite a sensor anomaly that caused one of the spacecraft’s thruster to fire excessively. That action consumed quite a lot of fuel, but the team estimates that the spacecraft still has enough to complete its full mission. They’re still assessing the situation and trying to figure out the complete chain of events that led to the over-firing of the thruster.  For a nice background on LCROSS from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, head to their Astronomy Behind the Headlines web page for a podcast interview I did with LCROSS team member Brian Day. This is going to be an exciting mission come early October, so stay tuned!

Water-hunting Spacecraft

Hear all About It from the ASP!

The LCROSS mission to the moon: on the hunt for water.
The LCROSS mission to the moon: on the hunt for water.

Those of you following the LCROSS mission to the Moon know that in October it will send a Centaur upper stage hurtling toward the lunar south pole. The resulting crash will (hopefully) kick up a water and/or hydr0gen-rich plume from ice that may be cached in a shadowed region. Where does that ice come from?  Scientists think maybe bombardment by comets supplies at least some of it.  Want to know more?  Well, as it turns out, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific has a podcast up about the mission as part of their Astronomy Behind the Headlines series, written and recorded by yours truly (with able musical and soundtrack assistance by Mark C. Petersen in his guise as Geodesium).  The star of the show is Brian Day, education and public outreach lead for the LCROSS mission. He’s got some interesting things to say about the upcoming water hunt, so go check it out. It’s five minuted well spent!

Astronomy Behind the Headlines is a series of podcasts for informal science educators from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Each month, ASP gives a look behind the latest headlines in astronomy and space science and provide links to related resources and activities so folks who present science results for the public (like planetarium professionals, scout troop leaders, astronomy club members, and of course, educators) can interpret these exciting topics for their audiences!

By the way, if you’re not a member of ASP, you should be. It’s a great organization — I’ve been a member for years and attend their meetings when I get a chance. Their next confab is in September in San Francisco — a city that’s a treat to visit no matter why you’re there!  The group offers materials for use by anybody who loves to talk about space and astronomy, and the members come from around the world.  So, run on over and check out the podcasts, browse their website, and see if there’s something for you. I’ll bet you there is!