LCROSS Lunar South Polar Cabeus Crater impact Mission

[baldyspate]

Yes, I guess that I have some disrespect.
Yes, you are telling me that I have no business asking, and that's evident because
you have no idea what I do or don't realize. I've been following science developments
as a poor layman for around 35 years. It's become obvious to me that one of NASA's
(whom I have been and enormous though not blind fan of) biggest problems is staying
in touch with the public. I really don't know if you are an insider on the LCROSS program
or just think you are, but if you are thanks for the factual and accurate information.

 

[MeteorWayne]

I don't understand what your problem is.

The early (quick and dirty, but not necessarily accurate) data and analysis was released. Have you read the many posts in this thread?

The complete analysis will take months and years. That's how science works.

 

[baldyspate]

Sorry for the shortness.
My original posts were intended to be a little "cute", but fell flat I guess.
This forum isn't where I should be making this statement, "There are
probably hundreds, maybe thousands out there losing interest in what they
were initially very interested. I talk to a few of them. I never get tired, but do
get impatient. My acquaintances just drop all interest.
Whether you care about their interest or not, they are voters and taxpayers.
If for instance, NASA's web site could at least occasionally show what
the science teams are working on specifically, or what is piquing their interest
at the moment I'll bet it'd cause some if not most to keep checking back
occasionally.
And there isn't much personally that I can't at least understand while I am
following the explanation.
In my searches for info I fell into and registered at this forum. I don't generally
get my "education" from forums, since while many and I imagine this one are
very informative it's probably not where I should have landed.
I got a little hot there. Sorry. Have a good one.....

 

[EarthlingX]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgBMQG-Gq3E[/youtube]

spacevidcast | October 09, 2010

For our 1 year anniversaryasode of LCROSS we are joined by Jim Munger, Craig Elder, Jose Cabinallas and Emory Stagmer. Great behind-the-scenes stories of this little mission that could as well as some details as to how it all worked out. The rest of this live show is available via Spacevidcast epic.

 

[MeteorWayne]

MEDIA ADVISORY : M10-144 NASA Hosts Media Telecon Featuring Results of Moon Mission Impact The Science journal has embargoed information until 2 p.m. EDT on Oct. 21

WASHINGTON -- NASA will host a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT on Thursday, Oct. 21, to discuss additional findings from NASA's Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, and NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, missions.

The results will be featured in six papers published in the Oct. 22 issue of the journal Science. The journal's embargo on these results will be lifted at the start of the telecon. The briefing will focus on the data from:
--The Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment which measures surface and subsurface
temperatures from orbit.
-- The Lyman Alpha Mapping Project which is mapping the entire lunar surface in the
far ultraviolet spectrum.
-- The Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector which creates high-resolution maps of
hydrogen distribution and gathers information about the neutron component of the
lunar radiation environment.

The panelists are:
-- Michael Wargo, chief lunar scientist, Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, NASA
Headquarters, Washington
-- Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS project scientist and principal investigator, NASA's Ames
Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
-- David Paige, Diviner instrument principal investigator, University of California,
Los Angeles (UCLA)
-- Igor Mitrofanov, Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector principal investigator, Institute for
Space Research, Moscow
-- Peter Schultz, professor of geological sciences, Brown University, Providence, R.I. and
LCROSS science team member
-- Paul Hayne, graduate student at UCLA and Diviner team member
-- Randy Gladstone, Lyman--Alpha Mapping Project deputy principal investigator,
Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio
-- Richard Vondrak, LRO project scientist, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center,
Greenbelt, Md.

To view supporting information available at the start of the teleconference, visit:


http://www.nasa.gov/lcross


Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live at:


http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

 

[3488]

LCROSS results released today.

LCROSS Results Released

Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS)

Oct. 21, 2010

Michael Braukus
Headquarters, Washington Oct. 21, 2010
202-358-1979
michael.j.braukus@nasa.gov
RELEASE: 10-271:

NASA MISSIONS UNCOVER THE MOON'S BURIED TREASURES

WASHINGTON -- Nearly a year after announcing the discovery of water molecules on the moon, scientists Thursday revealed new data uncovered by NASA's Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO.

The missions found evidence that the lunar soil within shadowy craters is rich in useful materials, and the moon is chemically active and has a water cycle. Scientists also confirmed the water was in the form of mostly pure ice crystals in some places. The re............................

NASA / Ames Research Center (ARC).

Andrew Brown.

 

[bdewoody]

I still think that Obama and NASA jumped the gun in abandoning the next logical step in manned space missions. The data revealed here clealy points to where we should go next.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Two SDC articles on LCROSS:

More water than expected

Almost missed

 

[silylene]

By the way, I correctly predicted in 2008 (a year prior to the LCROSS impact) that Hg would be found within permanently shadowed lunar craters. (I love their quote below on how that was a stupid idea, and he had to eat it).

p.s. this is my 4th correct significant astronomy prediction.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=5596&pid=165706&st=0&#entry165706
[quote name='silylene' post='130198' date='Nov 4 2008, 06:03 PM']I was thinking that maybe there is a mechanism that some tiny amounts of elemental Hg could actually coincentrated enough to be found on Mercury. I agree with you that there would expected to be only very trace amounts of Hg in the planet's crust, originally present in oxidized states. But what little there is perhaps could slowly vaporize if the mercury contaning minerals decompose under the intense heat / light, and move in the gaseous form into cooler regions. Gaseous mercury would then recondense in the cold, permanently shadowed polar craters. Once there, it would be permanent. So maybe tiny traces of Hg could be found in those locations via this concentration mechanism.

(Perhaps via similar mechanisms, tiny traces of mercury could be found in the moon's permanently shadowed craters too.)[/quote]

Interestingly, Hg was recently discovered on the moon in permanently dark craters via this mechanism . I guess the chances of finding Hg in permanently dark craters on Mercury are now much more likely.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
this is now taken from the recent sdc article that MW cited above:

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/how-...oon-101021.html

LAMP detected molecular hydrogen, carbon monoxide, calcium, magnesium — and, oddly, mercury.

"When one of our team suggested it was mercury when we were just throwing out ideas, well, I said, 'What a stupid idea, how can there be mercury there,'" Gladstone recalled. "I had to eat my words later."

The rock samples the Apollo missions brought to Earth showed heavier levels of mercury deeper down, which led one retired scientist, George Reed, to propose that sunlight might have baked the mercury out from the soil that then got trapped in craters at the south pole.

"He did a simple back-of-the-envelope calculation and nailed it," Gladstone told SPACE.com. "If I made a great prediction like that, I'd be tickled that I was right."

"The detection of mercury in the soil was the biggest surprise, especially that it's in about the same abundance as the water detected by LCROSS," said LAMP team member Kurt Retherford at the Southwest Research Institute. "Its toxicity could present a challenge for human exploration."

These findings support the idea that the freezing cold of the permanently shadowed regions of the moon can trap vaporized compounds that wafted in from deep space or other areas of the moon and preserved them there for eons. "They're almost literally gold mines for science," Gladstone said.