Back to the Moon!

It’s been a long time since the Apollo missions. More than 30 years actually. Now, in a recent announcement, NASA have decided to go back to the moon in 2008. And if President Bush has his way, there could be a Human mission to the Moon in 2018. Sounds like a long time to go, but hey, the Moon isn’t round the corner. And I’m sure NASA don’t want any casualties due to a rush job.

Anyways, back to the point, the mission in 2008. NASA will crash a rocket into the South Pole on the Lunar surface. They hope it will create a big enough crater, so that a second robotic probe can follow it and take measurements and analyse the surface.

The measuring probe, called the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS will be put together mostly using leftover parts from other probes. This will take the cost down to about $80 million, which is quite a small budget by space standards.

Scientists and engineers are especially interested to find out if ice is mixed in with the lunar soil.  The results from an earlier mission in the 1990s, called the Lunar Prospector, suggested a large amount was, especially in the floor of craters near the lunar pole, where sunlight never reaches to melt it.

Click the link below to read the whole article.

It’s been a long time since the Apollo missions. More than 30 years actually. Now, in a recent announcement, NASA have decided to go back to the moon in 2008. And if President Bush has his way, there could be a Human mission to the Moon in 2018. Sounds like a long time to go, but hey, the Moon isn’t round the corner. And I’m sure NASA don’t want any casualties due to a rush job.

Anyways, back to the point, the mission in 2008. NASA will crash a rocket into the South Pole on the Lunar surface. They hope it will create a big enough crater, so that a second robotic probe can follow it and take measurements and analyse the surface.

The measuring probe, called the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS will be put together mostly using leftover parts from other probes. This will take the cost down to about $80 million, which is quite a small budget by space standards.

Scientists and engineers are especially interested to find out if ice is mixed in with the lunar soil.  The results from an earlier mission in the 1990s, called the Lunar Prospector, suggested a large amount was, especially in the floor of craters near the lunar pole, where sunlight never reaches to melt it.

Click the link below to read the whole article.