Wednesday 7 October 2009

Nasa's finger on button to bomb the moon

Late last night I heard that Nasa is going to bomb the moon this Friday.

OK - the space agency isn't intending to blow the moon up or anything - this is apparently a scientific attempt to examine water recently found at the moon's south pole, but I have to say I felt a bit shocked.

However, I'm not quite sure if I'm more shocked at the thought of huge missiles blasting away at the earth's natural satellite or the fact that I hadn't heard about it before. I do normally make an effort to watch the BBC news most days and I would have thought this was a reasonably big story.

Instead, I first heard about the moon bombing via a pagan forum. The tone of the message was concerned at what the writer described as "this act of destruction". The writer said: "I'm passing this on from another group. I feel very concerned and thought many of you would be."

Naturally, I immediately did a bit of web browsing to find out the facts as best I could.

One online news story said:

"The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is sending its Lunar CRater Observing and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) on a mission to fire a missile into the south pole of the moon at twice the speed of a bullet. The guided rocket will crash into the moon's surface creating a blast powerful enough to a huge plume of dust and debris. The spacecraft following closely behind will then take pictures and analyzing the debris kicked up after the impact."


Nasa scientists are apparently hoping they will be able to confirm that there is water on the moon and find out if there is enough to be usable by future astronauts or even lunar colonists. NASA hopes to return to the moon by 2020.

Plenty of people seem to be objecting to Friday's planned missile attack.

The website Do Not Bomb the Moon points out that scientists already know there is water on the moon - other tests have demonstrated this - and they also know there isn't very much water there.

People leaving comments on that site have also expressed worries that scientists haven't fully examined all the possible risks associated with bombing the moon.

The message on the pagan forum objected to the bombing because it shows disrespect to something that many religions honour and revere. It asked people - pagan or otherwise - to light a candle at 9pm GMT on Friday and meditate, say a prayer or do a ceremony for the moon to show her that not all humans are so uncaring. It pointed out that 9pm is not the time the bomb is due to hit the moon, but it is a suitable rallying time.

What do you think about Nasa's bombing of the moon? Do you think it an exciting step for mankind that will hopefully bring new scientific understanding for future lunar exploration or do you think it is unnecessarily destructive and offensive to all who honour the moon? Are you going to light a candle for the moon or spend the evening on web forums, eager to see pictures of the explosion?

Please leave a comment below.

Links:
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/politics/NATL-RRNASA-to-Bomb-the-Moon-Friday-63598462.html
http://donotbombthemoon.wordpress.com/

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think I,ll light a candle and look for the photos

T. said...

Wow, I haven't heard about this at all.
I won't light a candle or so, but I think it's not only disrespectful and maybe even dangerous, but also not really necessary. Poor old Moon...

Unknown said...

I hope it all goes well, I only heard about this today! Have a look at kids magazine AdventureBox- http://www.adventureboxbooks.com/ In the latest NatureBox we have a good look at the moon! A great way to educate children about the moon.