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blade
Joined: 30 Jun 2007
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 Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 4:52 pm Post subject: 'Significant' water found on Moon |
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'Significant' water found on Moon
Fri, Nov 13, 2009
Nasa has found "a significant amount" of water in a crater near the moon's south pole, the agency said today in announcing the preliminary results of an experiment last month in which it slammed a rocket into the lunar surface.
Yes, we found water," said Anthony Colaprete, a project scientist for the so-called Lcross mission, during a televised news conference today at NASA's Ames Research Centre in Moffett Field, California.
"We found a significant amount," enough to fill about a dozen 2-gallon (7.6 litre) buckets, he said.
Lcross, which stands for Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, crashed into the moon's surface October 9th.
The Northrop Grumman Corporation built the $79 million craft, comprised of a rocket and a followup probe, which plunged into a permanently darkened crater near the moon's south pole.
In last month's mission, the probe flew through a dust plume kicked up by the first impact, to observe the cloud's contents and transmit data to Earth.
Ice on the moon could supply future explorers with drinking water or air for breathing and rocket fuel, once broken down into hydrogen and oxygen, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
The water could have come from a comet or from the solar wind, Greg Delory, a senior fellow at the Space Sciences Laboratory and Center for Integrative Planetary Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley, said at the press conference.
Bloomberg |
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nautilus
Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Location: Je jump, Tu jump, oui jump!
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| Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 1:36 am Post subject: Re: 'Significant' water found on Moon |
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| blade wrote: |
"We found a significant amount," enough to fill about a dozen 2-gallon (7.6 litre) buckets |
A few buckets of water ain't going to support a colony of earthlings for long.
I'm not sure what the big deal is here. Finding water is entirely expected, we've known Comets are composed of it for decades.
If they can find tadpoles or something living in it ...then it would be time for celebration. |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 3:56 am Post subject: Re: 'Significant' water found on Moon |
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| nautilus wrote: |
| blade wrote: |
"We found a significant amount," enough to fill about a dozen 2-gallon (7.6 litre) buckets |
A few buckets of water ain't going to support a colony of earthlings for long.
I'm not sure what the big deal is here. |
The big deal is that now we're certain that water can be created in situ. Apollo astronauts were on the wrong part of the Moon at the wrong time of the day and thus brought back evidence that seemed to support that the Moon was completely dry and thus all water, air and fuel would have to be brought from Earth. It's the difference between going to a country and not being able to work (thus all expenses have to be earned and taken from elsewhere) vs. being able to make a living right where you live without having to bring in money or supplies from elsewhere.
What also makes this a big deal is the fact that it seals the case for the Moon instead of Mars. It was thought for a while that Mars would be a better destination in spite of being so far away but now there really is no need to try to settle anywhere but the Moon as our first destination. |
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nautilus
Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Location: Je jump, Tu jump, oui jump!
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| Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 7:53 am Post subject: |
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| Grumman Corporation built the $79 million craft |
Couldn't that money have been better spent on e.g. environmental awareness programmes or cleaning up the sea of garbage in our oceans... so that we can go on living here instead of having to one day jump off this planet to live on the moon because we've trashed this place?
Just seems like a waste of money. I mean surely scientists don't actually believe the moon is long-term inhabitable for people? |
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ChopChaeJoe
Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 9:09 am Post subject: |
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| Retiring on the moon would be awesome, what with the 1/4 gravity and all. Good show, NASA. |
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New Balance
Joined: 15 Jan 2007
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| Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 2:53 am Post subject: |
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One week of daylight and one week of darkness. That will be fun.  |
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caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
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| Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 3:09 am Post subject: |
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I'm constantly dehydrated on the Earth, for cryinoutloud.
Imagine that, all that Flood water trapped below my feet and I just keep on drinking gin and tonics and being thirsty.
Serious question: Does God flouridate? |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 4:00 am Post subject: |
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| nautilus wrote: |
| Quote: |
| Grumman Corporation built the $79 million craft |
Couldn't that money have been better spent on e.g. environmental awareness programmes or cleaning up the sea of garbage in our oceans... so that we can go on living here instead of having to one day jump off this planet to live on the moon because we've trashed this place? |
Yeah, or programmes that do things like tell you where malaria is going to strike before it actually does. If only NASA could help out with things here on Earth.
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| In September researchers at the Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland, part of America's space agency, NASA, told the authorities in Kenya that they had a problem. They told them again in October. And again in November. By the time the epidemic emerged, the Kenyan health ministry had dispatched teams to the area to distribute mosquito nets and urge village leaders and religious authorities to stop people slaughtering and eating animals. Though the outbreak still killed 300 people in Kenya, Somalia and Tanzania, it could have been a lot worse. According to Kenneth Linthicum of America's Department of Agriculture, the number of deaths would probably have been more than twice as high without the warning. |
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| Just seems like a waste of money. |
Q: why do so many gang up on NASA when it only receives 0.7% of the federal budget?
http://www.richardb.us/nasa.html
One single Iraq War = 40 years of funding for NASA. There are bigger fish to fry than poor NASA. Completely exterminating NASA (Shuttle gone, ISS gone, Moon, Mars exploration gone, Cassini gone, Voyager gone, tons of Earth-viewing satellites gone, absolutely everything gone) would bring the US a full 3.5% closer to balancing the budget.
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| I mean surely scientists don't actually believe the moon is long-term inhabitable for people? |
Of course it is. Technically a place like Siberia isn't inhabitable either. But we are smart and can develop tools. Water extraction, radiation protection etc. technologies are just more tools. |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 4:03 am Post subject: |
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| New Balance wrote: |
| One week of daylight and one week of darkness. That will be fun. |
You mean two weeks of daylight and two weeks of darkness. But the part of the Moon being proposed for exploration receives sunlight 86% of the time so that's 24 days of sunlight followed by 4 days of darkness. |
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caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
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itaewonguy
Joined: 25 Mar 2003
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| Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 11:10 pm Post subject: |
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no point sending people to the moon! waste of money and time...
that money could be better spent elsewhere.. |
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DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP
Joined: 28 May 2009
Location: Electron cloud
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| Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 9:16 pm Post subject: |
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| itaewonguy wrote: |
no point sending people to the moon! waste of money and time...
that money could be better spent elsewhere.. |
Exactly. Poor Cannif is in Boston without a makgolli supplier fahgadsake!
Spend all that money starting up a makgolli brewery in Springfield Ma.
This will make the world a better place. |
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Moldy Rutabaga
Joined: 01 Jul 2003
Location: Ansan, Korea
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| Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 9:26 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| 'Significant' water found on Moon |
Sorry-- that was me. I really had to go! |
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