Yes, Episode 2.5,
this is a minisode, according to FOX
Okay.
We have all heard something by now about this little "impactor mission" to the moon. This mission has been called Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS)
What we are planning on doing is basically shooting an SUV-sized bullet at the moon and using a satellite to pick up the plume of dust and shit and see if a full-time moon base is in order, or sane.
Keep in mind, this bullet is going to be going 5,000 miles per hour.
Now, this is something spectacular, this plume can be seen by anybody with a sense of direction and a pair of binoculars. But, someone always has to ruin our fun.
Some kid named Eddie Rose says:
"Keeping in mind the tidal influence of the moon on Earth, remember also that our bodies are composed of the same percentage of water. What if this sudden disturbance sends everyone (and everything) living on Earth crazy?"
Right, a two-ton flying chunk of metal is going to blow the Moon out of it's common and relatively undisturbed orbit.
Listen, punk, look at a picture of the moon and tell me what you see.
CRATERS!
IT'S BEEN HIT BEFORE DIPSHIT!
The moon is covered in craters caused by asteroids made of every single element we have ever heard of. Big, small, you name it, it has probably hit the Moon before. Again, let me point out that the Moon is far bigger than a pretty dot in the sky. Actually, much of it's composition equals that of the Earth's mantle. It's not made of cheese. It's solid and has mass. Maybe if we hit Europa ir Io or Triton (all moons in our solar system) this would cause said effect. It's not going to kill anyone out there, but our moon's a little closer.
and some people are so daft to say something like this. This is by someone named Ragaroiox:
"This is the stupidest idea I have ever heard of. These are the “greatest minds of our generation.” Yeah right."
Let's explore some other options then. Let's train about 100 scientists to be astronauts, and let's make a huge drill that is able to penetrate deep enough into the Moon to see if we can find water.
Now, with the economy the way it is, this amount of technology will cost about the same as our current national deficit.
Food for thought?
So our next best option is to send some huge fucking bullet flying into the moon at almost 3 times the speed of a rifle bullet and we'll collect the crap that flies away from it.
Sounds reasonable enough. It's great for the ole Budget.
I have studied orbital mechanics to the best of my understanding as a kid, and I'm taking an astronomy course in college. Let me tell you this.
I don't know what kind of physics is involved with calculating the explosion this will make. But we have set off more than 100 atomic bombs on the surface of this planet and we have had NO deviation from our orbit around the sun. We are hitting the moon with ONE object that is not exploding, not doing anything but hitting the moon, traveling at or less than the same speed as an asteroid. Explain to me how this will cause some catastrophic event that will cause the moon to be sent careening away from the earth, or orbiting in a different direction. It won't.
This all goes back to my first blog, where I said that humans feel as though we are causing an impact on something that is far bigger and so much farther beyond our control than we can grasp. We aren't. Take it to heart.
Trust me, The "greatest minds of our generation" know more about that rock floating around our planet than even I do and would know if we would be doing something bad. We wouldn't.
Get over it. Watch the show.
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NASA has confirmed what I said.
ReplyDelete"What effect will the impact have on the moon?
Countless objects have hit the moon since its formation (in fact, the moon's formation was quite possibly the product of a very large impact to the Earth). Most of the large craters one sees on the moon resulted from large asteroid or comet impacts early in the history of the solar system; however, numerous impacts by much smaller objects continue even today. These smaller objects range in size from smaller than a grain of sand to a basketball. Most of the shooting stars one sees at night are indeed small grains to rock-sized fragments entering the Earth's atmosphere. If they are hitting the Earth's atmosphere, you can bet some are also hitting the moon! (which has no atmosphere to burn them up or slow them before they reach the surface). While these objects are small, due to their high velocity (~40 km per sec), even these relatively small objects pack a considerable punch! The energy associated with the LCROSS impact is about 6 billion Joules (1 Watt = 1 Joule per sec, so the energy of LCROSS is what you'd get from 100 million 60 Watt light bulbs in a second). A 10 kg (about 22 lbs) meteorite would impact with about 8 billion Joules of energy. There are probably several of these size objects striking the moon every few months (some have recently been imaged by small ground-based telescopes using high-speed-film cameras). So, in short, the moon has been, and continues to be, pummeled by objects of all sizes over the last 3.9 billion years, many of them having energies many, many times greater than that of the LCROSS impact."
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/FAQs/index.html