NASA scheduled to set off moon explosion this week

This should be an interesting mission. Hope it doesn't end up like the picture here.

you know, if we stopped spending money on stupid space missions and focused on our problems here on earth things would be a lot better. But no, for some stupid reason we would rather waste billions of dollars on blowing up part of the moon ( a stupid idea in the first place) than feed the starving people of the world, or build more housing, or fix the energy problem... naaah I would way rather destroy part of the moon!! stupid. and even if we found another planet to live on only the elite would get to go.. the rest of us would be left with a dying planet thanks to global warming.

Ummm....won't a catastrophic explosion destroy most evidence of life on the moon?

they should launch the explosives with a giant lacrosse stick. =P

Bizarre.

What the eff are we doing? It's not enough to destroy Earth,... now we gotta start screwing up the Moon?!!?
The Moon goes epochs and eons without significant disturbances. So as far as the Moon is concerned,... what humans have been doing to it for the past 40 years must be too volatile, too much, too soon. I mean,... I find space info interesting,... I just don't wanna inflict human damage elsewhere, too.
We shouldn't even be allowed to trek space.

Are these people out of their fucking mind?!!!!!!! What kind of science is this? this is madness!

Hold on..the moon??? Where the eff have these guys been? We're in Mars already!! We set foot on that thing in 1969 and we still have not determined if there is water there??? I don't wanna tell scientists what to do, but aren't we getting ahead of ourselves trying to explore other planets' resources if we can't even do this with our moon..I have to agree with some of the posts here...

The picture is a little (ok, *very*) misleading, making most think that we're going to be blowing up the moon with this mission.

A little perspective: to stir up lunar surface material, a section of the rocket that will bring the LRO/LCROSS to the moon (an Atlas V) will be deliberately crashed into surface of the moon. Naysayers (and the photo above) make this out to be a catastrophic event.

But nobody complained when an experiment like this was done several times in the 60's and 70's during the Apollo program, where Saturn V third stage sections that had launched the Apollo astronauts were deliberately crashed into the surface of the moon to register results on seismometers the aforementioned astronauts left behind. Saturn V rockets, by the way, being much larger than an Atlas V.

fricken awesome

i dont know what all the fuss is about.
we have never really been to the moon anyway.
it was all staged........

oh boy, this should be good......................

Four months isn't too bad. Especially since a lot of space missions seem to take forever. I'm excited to hear how it goes. Granted that it doesn't blow up the moon :P

I agree wholeheartedly with the above posts. Who the heck wants to use science to learn basic things about ourselves, our Earth, and our Universe? Let's just spend all our money making sure that everyone in the world has an average-to-shitty existence where we all have to think of nothing more than where our next meal will come from. Let's return to the Dark Ages; hooray! And yes, all of those CRATERS ON THE MOON show that it has been undisturbed for "epochs" AND "eons." Definitely.

I for one support advancements in science and knowledge. This is no different than discovering a new species, the double helix, or that we're at the root of global warming. The search for knowledge is one of our greatest attributes; if this only goes so far as to say that there is/isn't water on the moon, that's a pretty big achievement in my book.

I really hope they dont mess up the moon's orbit trajectory, that would mean the end of all life on earth

I had a dream Kim Jong Il blew up the moon just to be a dick, it was pretty sad. Kind of creepy to hear about this the day after....

My God.
Why is it that every little piece of technology we get goes toward destruction.
We're like children. A little boy who is given a radio for his birthday. He then proceeds to take it apart and take a lighter to its insides. Why can't we just leave things alone?
Or better yet, use the knowledge we've already acquired to do something useful. We have massive amounts of information that we AREN'T USING!!
Why don't we utilize the stores of information we already have, before yanking on strings that weren't meant to be pulled?

Everyone who thinks this is a good idea should read "LIfe As We Knew It"
It's fiction, but it's identical to this situation. A very small meteor hits the moon and is only projected to jostle the surface.

Projections are NOT reality.
NASA should know this by now. Think of the Challenger, the Columbia.
Projected for safety. Ended in ruin.

Something tells me this will be no different.

I guess they don't teach science in high school anymore. The rocket will make a small explosion near the Moon's South pole. Some of the debris will rise a fair distance because of the Moon's low gravity. When scientists look at the plume through a spectrometer (to see the pretty colors of the elements and compounds), they will be able to tell what the plume is made up of. They think there is water (ice) there in fairly large quantity, and will be able to identify it. If there is water, the Moon could be an excellent staging area for additiional expeditions to the asteroids (for mining) and Mars to start with. The water can be broken down into hydrogen (fuel) and oxygen (comes in handy for breathing and for burning hydrogen).

"...the wrong of unreality is so general as to be nonexistent. It affects everyone and therefore affects no one in particular. Further, it is linked up with one of our society's most central beliefs, that technology is the salvation to most of our problems. Therefore, until the problem or issue becomes severely or palpably clear, no action will be forthcoming, for no problem will be perceived."

--Mitroff and Bennis, The Unreality Industry, 1989, pg 193

and they shall call it the Alan Parsons Project!

This should be awesome to see on a telescope.

Gee, this make me think of the movie, "Time Machine." They destroyed the moon in that one...

i have to say thismis cool and it is more cost effective than taking a rovar up there (i wonder if we will be able to see any kind of activity on the moon when it happens) i think NASA is just having fun with this one i think they have always wanted to blow the moon entirely up (which this rocket is to small i hope they see that) so they can take over the world (damn NASA; it WONT work)

(edit: you people took me to literally you damn people no just kidding but you do i was only trying to brighten your day and the americans really need to calm down)

First, why are we spending money on this? Second, what's the point of it?

Sad day that we do not learn from our mistakes of the past. Such an easy thing to blow up things rather than think of an intelligent way of approaching it. Like an unmanned probe to drill, more expensive maybe, but come on, how many more things are the Americans going to try and blow up, without the permission of the rest of the world. They do not own the moon, it is there for all mankind, and one nation should not have the power to do as they please with it. But sorry to say, whatever our opinions, the tossers at NASA will do it anyway.