On the eighth of October in the midnight our time robortska NASA spacecraft LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite) successfully separated from the rocket upper level "Centaur" with whom he was connected from the beginning of June 2009. , when LCROSS and LRO are brought back to the launch complex 41, a few days before the launch of Cape Canaveral.
LCROSS impact of the Month
After separation, LCROSS is made for the turning maneuver 180 degrees, and include brake motors, which increased the distance between himself and "Centauri" at about 600 km, which is the scientific team estimated as the optimal spacing for posmatrnje attack "Centauri," the surface of the moon . It happened this morning in 11:31:19 at Greenwich - the aircraft slammed into the crater Cabeus, near the south pole. Four minutes later, after he sent the latest scientific data control center, controlled and fell LCROSS satellite.
What the scientists get from LCROSS is a snapshot of a brief flash of infrared rocket boosters at the time of his shock at the surface and clearly formed impact crater. What has stunned all is the complete absence of the expected cloud of dust and debris. Nothing better has not passed even hundreds of telescope and observatory that accompanied this final NASA mission that aimed to search for water on the moon.
Immediately after the collision isplaniranog not noticed any obvious trace of the spectacular "explosion", as everyone expected. "Shooting the Moon is always unpredictable undertaking," he said at a press conference Anthony Colaprete, research director of LCROSS.
LCROSS computer display
Colaprete did not give a definitive answer as to why the visual camera has recorded the event, but added that there are some interesting changes among the spectral data is probably caused by a cloud of debris. "I am convinced that these data related to the crash," he said.
The worst possible scenario would be that the missiles hit into the rock rather than soft, loose soil. In this case, the cloud of debris would be able to raise the minimum height of 1.5 km as is necessary to elucidate the sun and be registered with the LCROSS's.
Because of the angle of the crater, the cloud should be lifted to a height of 2.5 to 3 km to get it spotted from Earth telescopes. Expected high fountain of dust at least 10 km.
The event was accompanied by Hablov telescope, but its data are not yet processed. Traces of shock was followed by several large observatories including the Keck and Canadsko-France-Hawaii telescope on Mauna Kei, but they did not register anything. The only positive report came from the Kitt Peak Observatory in Arizona, which is visible in a flash of light caught the presence of sodium.
"We are all a bit disappointed because we did not see anything," said David Morrison, director of the Institute Nasinog for lunar exploration.
Regardless of the great scientific importance, today's report considered by many one of najkonfuznijih episode in the long history of research Nasinog moon. Although the aircraft did as it was expected of her and the other end in contact with Mission Control, it is clear that scientists and viewers did not provide what is expected of it.
Shortly before the attack ..
In contrast to the catastrophic failures, such as the "Mars Lander Pollari" in 1999. year, or euphoric success, such as the crash was "Deep Impact" and the comet Tempel-1 from 2005., it seems that this explosion leaves possessing officials in doubt how to react.
The big question that scientists expect the answer was: if there is a significant amount of water on the moon? Last month it detected water in the moonlight the ground (I wrote about it in the article "The importance of lunar water"), but its amount was relatively small.
It also remains a mystery to the dark craters like Cabeus can behave as a cold thermos and to capture water molecules released by comets hitting the moon. Data gathered by the "Lunar Prospector" at the end of the nineties, showed a high concentration of hydrogen in Cabeus. It could belong to the water ice mixed with rocks and soil in the depths of the crater.
LCROSS was designed to detect the presence of other water molecules that would fly in a cloud of dust that would raise when the rocket hits the ground. It is also supposed to own a minute before the attack on the ground make the search for water molecules to the background radiation of the sun.
Without a cloud of dust raised apprentices is difficult to answer the questions, but Colaprete believes that the spectroscopic readings will be sufficient to determine the presence of water constituents. "It will take us probably about two weeks to respond if there is water or not," said Michael Bicay, scientific director of the Ames Research Center.
Drasko Dragovic