Investigation for Water on the Moon
Associated Press. “NASA is Set to Give the Moon a One-Two Punch.” October 8, 2009. NewYorkTimes.com
NASA is about to slam a used spacecraft into the moon’s south pole to kick up a massive plume of lunar dirt and then remove it to see if there’s any water or ice. This is happening to confirm the theory that water is hidden below the barren moonscape. The crashing spaceship was launched back in June, along with an orbiter that’s now mapping the lunar surface. LCROSS-short for Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite-is headed straight towards the moon this Friday attached to an empty 2.2-ton rocket that helped get the probe off the ground. At exactly 7.31 a.m. EDT, the larger empty rocket, will crash into a dark crater on the moon’s south pole and result in a 6.2 mile spray of debris. Trailing behind that rocket is the LCROSS satellite, sending live pictures of the impact and the debris plume using color cameras. “It will scour for ice, fly through the debris cloud and then just four minutes later take the fatal plunge itself, triggering a dust storm one-third the size of the first hit. Within an hour, NASA will know whether the moon is hiding water or if its not. This mission is part of a 100 billion program to eventually return astronauts to the moon. As the moon gets crashes around this size about four times a month from space rocks, don’t feel bad for it. This crash is planned and at a precise angle and location. The crashes will also be viewable for people at home, live on NASA’s website. Astronomy buffs with telescopes living west of the Mississippi river are lucky enough to be able to see the crash, as it will still be dark outside. “People like explosions one way or another,” said Matt Benjamin, the Fiske Planetarium’s education programs manger. “And a celestial explosion is going to excite them.”
This event is obviously important to humanity, as the moon is very essential to our lifestyle. If the crash went wrong, which will probably not happen, the moon leaving our orbit would shape the earth. Some scientists argue that without a moon, life on earth would not be possible. Finding water on the moon would be a great discovery for mankind. This means that life on the moon could have been possible at one time, and it is a key resource if people are going to go back on the moon.
I very much enjoyed reading this article. I learned a lot about this event happening Friday, and I seem even more excited to hear what happens. Why I liked this article so much was the way they put in so much detail, but made it a pleasure to read.
This article was very well presented and very interesting to read. Warren made it very clear that this could be an important discovery for mankind if it is successful. It would be amazing if the mission was a success. Another well presented topic was how this would affect the moon or even if it could affect the Earth. He made it clear that it would not disrupt the moon's orbit or throw off the tides of the ocean on Earth. Warren also did a good job of explaining how this procedure is going to happen. How the rocket is going to crash, how another satellite will send pictures, and how we will know if the moon can support life.
ReplyDeleteThe review could have been made better if it told the results of the mission and if the moon really does have water and any signs of life. It would be a great discovery for mankind if there is water on the moon. Warren also could have gone into more detail about the new program to get astronauts back to the moon. This also sounds like a very interesting topic.
I was very impressed when I read this article review. Warren did a very good job of presenting this article and summed everything about this article up. This is a very interesting topic and Warren did a great job on his review.
I thought that the article did a great job at sounding as exciting as its topic really is. I also thought that the article’s facts were all mostly very easy to read and understand. The article was also very well structured in my opinion, starting out by explaining the topic then having all of the facts and ending with a quote. Though the article had many wonderful aspects it could have been improved by making everything easy to read, there were many facts that could be understood easily, but there were many that had to just be skipped because they were more difficult. Another way that the article could have been improved is that it could have said more about how and why knowing if there’s water on the moon is going to effect our studies and knowledge. I was very impressed and excited when I read this article, because I think it is very interesting that NASA is going to crash into the moon to see if there’s water, I feel like it’s a big mystery that we are about to uncover.
ReplyDelete