Empty Rocket hits the Moon!! NASA is exuberant!!!

Penni, this is also bothersome to me. I just didn't have the feeling disrupting the moon's surface and tunneling in was a good idea. Who knows what sort of catastrophy this can cause universe-wide. But they did it, so I hope it goes well.

I can't remember reading anything about their intentions before they did it, Lynn...surprising, to say the least.

Oh they have been talking about it on the news this week. I still wish they hadnt done it. The drilling going on in Pennslvania makes me think we really ought to be careful with the way we treat our Earth, and that goes for our universe as well.

My reaction was similar to Lynn's, and Heather's. Will we never learn to stop messing with things we barely understand?

"before we do something REALLY stupid. " <- Heaven knows, we humans are all too prone to that. It doesn't seem much a stretch someone might come to that conclusion.

Penni, you can't remember reading anything about their intentions because the popular press was disinterested. This is an important scientific experiment. The effect on the moon is limited to one tiny, deep, dark crater near the south pole of the moon. We know there are water-containing compounds on the moon, but in very tiny quantities. Water would have to be extracted from many tons of dust to get one teaspoonful of water.
The experiment is designed to detect how particles above the surface of the moon move, and to determine if deposition is concentrated at the poles. The crater selected is in an area that stays dark all the time, where most of the moon is exposed to sunlight at some time. Scientists who know much more about astrophysics than most who comment here know that there is no impact on the moon's orbit or on the moon as we know it.

Great answer John. I think it would make a good scifi movie...
Miniature life particles on the moon group together to form a massive spaceship that rockets to earth, exploding with miniature machines that attack people. Wait? I think I saw that one.

It does bother me a little tho...what if we are being observed from afar and some creatures see this as us attacking another planet without cause? Kinda like if Iraq invaded Kuwait and the US attacked Iraq...

It's all fun to think about. And, I do appreciate the only way we will learn is by experimenting afar.

Maybe we should send another rocket that writes the following with its exhaust:

"Just kidding!"

LOL, Gary, your answer is very funny. I actually thought that maybe it was a cover up story to cover up the fact that we are looking for a dump site for all our hazardous waste. Maybe we could make the moon shine during the day as well as during the night ... LOL.

i say the same

You made a good point.

I watched this with my husband this morning. I was thinking the same thing...what if there was life and we disturbed them. You never know.

We do know the answer to that, heather, but what we learn about hydrocarbons on the moon from this may teach us much of what we don't know.

Oooops, we gave the Man in the Moon a black eye. I hope he is not p***** off.

For those with a Moon Goddess ... this was mean !!!

Our sky was overcast/raining: Thus no telescope view for us. Who knows what the result will be?

I don't think this is a good thing to blow up any part of the moon. Too much of that and the earth's tides are going to shift causing catastrophe.

Wrong, Angela. No part of the moon was blown up. The Earth's tides will not be affected. No catastrophe will result.

I'm thinking 'tis really good sci-fi fodder for a story, John. I know we did not harm the Moon, but think about what aliens might consider, were they out there and noticed.....

Ha! You are so much fun, Penni!
So far nobody has actually seen any plume, dust cloud, etc. Eventually we'll have images reconstructed from data. Not like when we allowed an asteroid to strike one of our probes or landed one on Saturn's moon, Titan. A fiction writer could probably find much more stimulating "fodder"!

I wrote on this also~it feels wrong on so many different levels~
ShootingTheMoon
the repercussions may not be immediately felt~ but there will be consequences for this~I feel it in my very bones~

Sure. The consequences will be that people will circulate doomsday e-mails which will then be forwarded to 10 people....
And the e-mail will take on a life of it's own. Like in 2003 when e-mails circulated that in August, Mars would be brighter than the moon. That one goes around every year since, shortly before August, despite the fact that Mars is far away and, of course, even in 2003 wasn't as bright as Jupiter or Venus have been recently.

please don't put me in the category of people like that~ because I personally don't operate in that vein~ however I do adhere to my gut instincts~ and this incident is not going to turn out as harmless as it seems~

Ok I understand some feelings.. yet I also need to understand they are doing this for the learning aspect of it. if not for today knowledge, the future is important to those who need to know

I heard that the US put a hammer and cycle on the rocket just in case

Was it a Harley?

I'm a terrible speller. cycle must be spelled wrong. where is spell check when I need it? I'm talking about the soviet logo

sickle I believe is the word. For Russian right??

you have come to my rescue, Esther

I did not see this news caption this AM. I hope to see this afternoon. I was not aware of what is going on. And the news media does not seem to mske this story a better issue for the day.

I weigh in on the side of "Nothing will happen" but I kinda wish it would. LOL! Shake the place up a bit ... might be a good thing in the long run.

(( peeking out of the cave, seeing if anything's happened yet))

hahahah

It wan an unprovoked attack

Your words are so provoking!!!

Well I for one hope that NASA finds what it is looking for...

I don't know, since everyone with half a brain knows the Moon is made of cheese. This was actually a new way of shredding for keeping up with the growing rate of Taco consumption. There is concern about the happiness of cows in Wisconsin.

I love cheese! perhaps it will rain cheese soon?

I love to cut the cheese.

Not having a Scientific mind, I just didn't like tax dollars spent on such foolishness.
O we are hurting the atmosphere with our hair spray, and aerasol anything, now have to us those pumps , that get clogged. Don't they think all that stuff they sent to outerspa ce , makes one giant hole, each and every one .
What we do is harmful to the atmosphere, but what they do is exploration, ??????????

That's no way to treat a lady/goddess!

Resistance is futile, humans.

I fear the Moon goddess shall cut a lot of cheese; but here's the rest of the story.
I had begged the telephone operator to put me through to NASA and I was going to offer the slab of concrete in my backyard as a substitute for the Moon and would cost a lot less money. Well, I got put on hold for a long time, so I went and got a bologna sandwich and when I got back, they had hung up on me. I tried, but failed and I don't know whether or not to blame the bologna or Obama.

I thought the same thing Penni...who are we to explode bombs on the moon...it's one thing to drill a little hole or take some rocks or walk on the moon...but it would serve us right to be attacked in defense of another worlds property.