Unidad N° 3

In Test of Water on Moon, Craft Hits Bull’s-Eye

More than 230,000 miles from Earth, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite hit a bull’s-eye — two, actually — on the Moon. But the initial images at least, both from the spacecraft and telescopes on Earth, failed to capture expected plumes of debris rising out of the impacts.

At 4:31 a.m. Pacific time (7:31 a.m. Eastern time), one piece of Lcross slammed into the bottom of a crater, excavating hundreds of tons of the Moon. Trailing four minutes behind, a second piece sent its observations back to Earth before it also slammed into the same crater.

The absence of a visible plume disappointed the hundreds of enthusiasts who braved a chilly evening outside at the NASA Ames Research Center here, which operated the spacecraft, to watch the live images transmitted from the spacecraft.

But Anthony Colaprete, the mission’s principal investigator, was ecstatic. “We got the data we need to address the questions,” he said at a news conference.

Of greatest interest is whether there is water ice hidden in the crater’s perpetual darkness and frigidness. The data could play into the debate over where NASA’s human spaceflight program should aim next, whether to return to the Moon or head elsewhere in the solar system neighborhood. The presence of large significant amounts of water could make it easier to set up future settlements with the ice providing water and oxygen.

Data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has already confirmed the presence of hydrogen deep within permanently shadowed craters near the Moon’s poles, and hydrogen is most likely in the form of water.

Skimmin: Los satelites en la nasa en 230.000 millas de caracter observatorio y satelites segun la imagen especifica en un telescopio. Los datos en el debate segun la nasa humanaespecifica programas en el sistema solar.
Palabras que se parecen al Español


Scanning
Titulo: In Test of Water on moon, craft Hits Bull´s - Eye

Informacion Especifica