NASA's LCROSS slams into moon; results not picture perfect

October 9, 9:04 AMSpace News ExaminerPatricia Phillips

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The much-anticipated LCROSS mission to explore potential water resources on the moon ended with a bang today, even though the action photos may be lost in space.  

NASA's Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) empty Centaur stage slammed into the crater Cabeus right on time at about 4:30 a.m. PDT.

Four minutes behind it, the LCROSS spacecraft was intended to fly through thte debris plume of the Centaur impact to snap photos and use speoial instruments to prospect for water in the shadowed lunar dirt of the crater. The science craft then was targeted to do its own lunar crash landing.

So far, NASA hasn't posted photos of the impact and LCROSS's final moments.  LCROSS carried two near-infrared spectrometers, a visible light spectrometer, two mid-infrared cameras, two near-infrared cameras, a visible camera and a visible radiometer. The LCROSS instruments were selected to provide mission scientists with multiple complimentary views of the debris plume created by the Centaur impact.Also taking photos: the Hubble Space Telescope and numerous Earth-based observatories.

LCROSS's companion mission, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), flying about 30 miles above the moon's surface, also took pictures and gathered data.  LRO and LCROSS were launched from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on June 18 aboard an Atlas V rocket.

Although LCROSS's mission is over, LRO will spend at least a year in a low polar orbit above the lunar surface, Its seven instruments are designed to find safe landing sites for later manned missions, locate potential resources, characterize the radiation environment and test new technology.

The $79 million mission is NASA's third water prospecting mission. In 1994, the Clementine spacecraft explored the mineralogy of the lunar surface.  In 1999, the Lunar Prospector found evidence of ice near the lunar poles.

NASA is not alone in seeking water on the moon. The Japanese Space Agency's Selene mission sent home detailed images of the moon's surface. India also explored the moon's resources with the Chandrayaan-1 mission.

The urgent need for water resources for future space habitation may wind up being this century's space race. Just as the finding of gold set off gold rushes and reshaped human history, the finding of minable water may trigger the great  "space water rush" of this era.

NASA plans to release more information on the LCROSS impact later today.

Image credit/NASA screen shot from NASA TV