clhs sciblog

On Friday morning October 9^th, two NASA spacecraft barreled toward the moon at twice the speed of a bullet, crashing into a lunar crater in a search for ice.  Sounds pretty exciting right?  Well scientists sure were excited.  There wasn’t an exciting display of a smoke and debris explosion like in the movies, but scientists say, there was something more important: chemical signatures in light waves.  Chemical signatures in light waves don’t necessarily sound all that exciting to the public but according to Alan Stern, a space consultant and former NASA associate administrator for science, “the mission was executed for a scientific purpose, not to put on a fireworks display for the public.” The mission was called LCROSS, short for Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite.  The mission’s main goal was to look for some form of water on the moon, something that could still turn up in those light wave chemical signatures.

The mission worked, scientists just have to search for signs of water in the data, a process which may take weeks.  But what is exciting is how scientists have been able to achieve so much in NASA.  Water on the moon may bring up a possibility for a base on the moon, and a far cheaper base because scientists could use the water.  This achievement in science could spark up many more to come in the future.