:willy_nilly:... California spacecraft, bound for deliberate boom inside a crater on the moon, is scheduled to soar into space today, along with a lunar orbiter searching for safe landing sites where humans might one day establish Earth's first colony. Images Sequence of events Technicians attempt to install NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance... http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2009/06/18/MNJ41887O2.DTL&o=1 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2009/06/18/MNJ41887O2.DTL&o=2 In early October, the spacecraft will send a heavy rocket crashing into the moon's south polar region on a mission to find water that could support future crews bound for Mars. With its mission finished, the spacecraft itself then will die in its own final crash into the lunar surface Scientists on Earth expect the impact to blast out a huge cloud of dust, gas and vaporized water ice at least 6 miles high. The cloud will be clearly visible to astronomers at Earth-bound observatories and the Hubble Space Telescope's new planetary camera, allowing each to observe and collect data on its composition. . http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/18/MNJ41887O2.DTL
