Moon | Universe Today

The first attempt to send a rocket to the Moon via balloon hit a snag on Monday. The first test of the Aeronautics and Cosmonautics Romanian Association's (ARCA) balloon-launched rocket (or "rockoon") ended in failure when the "inflation arms" used to fill the balloon became entangled in the balloon itself. The arms had to be cut, and the operation – which required the use of a large naval frigate — was curtailed. ARCA hopes to compete in the Google Lunar X PRIZE, and intends on using their unusual rocket system to send an equally unique spherical lunar lander to win a $30 million prize.
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Water has long been suspected to exist in the permanently shadowed polar craters on the Moon, and now the LCROSS impact has allowed scientists to make a direct and definitive finding of this precious resource in a place NASA and other space agencies are considering exploring with human expeditions. Many say this could be a game-changing discovery for the future of lunar science and exploration. Unlike the previous announcement in September of water on the Moon, where water exists diffusely across the moon as hydroxyl or water molecules adhering to the surface in low concentrations, this new discovery could mean underground reservoirs of water ice. "There is too much water to be just absorbed in the soil," said Anthony Colaprete of the LCROSS mission at Friday's press conference. "There has to be real solid ice there. You could melt it and drink it."
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40 years ago today, Apollo 12 launched on their mission to the Moon. On board was Pete Conrad, Dick Gordon and Alan Bean. Bean is a gifted artist who has shared his experiences on the Moon like no other astronaut has through his paintings, which offer a unique look at both real and imagined events during all the different astronaut's moonwalks. (Check out his website to see a gallery of his amazing artwork.) And enjoy this great interview that Miles O'Brien did recently with Alan Bean.

NASA also has an interactive Apollo 12 feature.

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You've seen the pictures, now watch the movie! Zoom into the Apollo 11 landing site with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's latest images of Tranquility Base where humans took their first steps on the Moon. Thrill with the detail! Swoon with the history! Or, just enjoy it.

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The LCROSS team announced today the mission successfully uncovered water during the Oct. 9, 2009 impacts into the permanently shadowed region of Cabeus cater near the moon’s south pole. "Indeed yes, we found water. We didn't find just a little bit we found a significant amount," said Tony Colaprete, principal investigator for LCROSS at a press conference. The team was not able to put a concentration of how much water is held in the lunar regolith, but in a fraction of the 20-30 meter crater the impact made, they were able to observe about 25 gallons (95 liters) of water with spectroscopic data. Colaprete held up a 2-gallon (7 liter) bucket, to demonstrate how much they found.
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Latest look at Apollo 11 site from LRO. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

Here are the first images of the Apollo 11 landing site since the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter dropped into its 50 km mapping orbit. The sun is almost straight overhead on this image so there's no real shadows visible. What's great about this image is that we can actually see the footpads on the Lunar Module from which Armstrong made his giant leap for mankind! See the closeup below for more details. The other great thing about this top image is that we get a good look at West Crater, which is the rocky area that Neil Armstrong saw as the LM neared the surface. The computer trajectory would have taken them right in the middle of that boulder field, so Armstrong flew manually to change the flight plan to fly westward to find a safe landing spot. This image is 742 meters wide (about 0.46 miles). North is towards the top of the image.
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JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has released all the data from the Kaguya mission to the public. One of the ways to view the data is through a very nifty 3-D virtual brower. It only is available in Japanese for now (English version by the end of November, they say) so it is a little difficult to navigate, but once you figure it out, prepare yourself for loads of fun. First, you need Java. Then…
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Close-up view of Apollo 12 landing site from LRO. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

Wow! Just look at the detail visible in this image of the Apollo 12 landing site taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter from its lower mapping orbit of 50 km above the surface. Compared to earlier images taken in September when LRO was in a higher orbit, the Lunar Module descent stage really stands out, as well as the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package (ALSEP). Also visible are the trails left by spacewalking astronauts. From this and other LROC landing site images, it is clear that astronaut activity lowers the albedo, or reflectivity of the surface. Areas of heaviest activity have the lowest albedo, especially around the LM. NASA says this effect is most likely due to compaction of a very loose surface powder by the astronauts just walking around.

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The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter maneuvered into its 50-km mapping orbit on September 15, which enables it to take a closer look at the Moon than any previous orbiter. This also allows for comparing previous images taken by LRO when it was at its higher orbit. Here's the Apollo 17 landing site: just look at what is all visible, especially in the image below! These images have more than two times better resolution than the previously acquired images.

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Zoomed in image of the impact plume. The extent of the plume at 15 sec is approximately 6-8 km in diameter. Credit: NASA

Nine science instruments on board the LCROSS spacecraft captured the entire crash sequence of the Centaur impactor before the spacecraft itself impacted the surface of the moon. But from Earth, any evidence of the plume was hidden by the rim of a giant impact basin, a 3 kilometer-high (2-mile) mountain directly in the way for Earth telescopes trained on the impact site, said Dr. Peter Schultz, co-investigator for LCROSS. Additionally, the crater created by the impact was only about 28 meters across (92 feet) but Schultz said the best resolution Earth telescopes can garner is about 180 meters (200 yards) across.
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In late September, a team of scientists announced finding water molecule signatures across much of the Moon's surface. Now, a second instrument on board India's Chandrayaan-1’s lunar orbiter confirms how the water is being produced. The Sub keV Atom reflecting Analyzer (SARA) corroborates that electrically charged particles from the Sun interact with the oxygen present in some dust grains on the lunar surface to produce water. But the results bring out a new mystery of why some protons get reflected and not absorbed.
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Even without big explosions or bright plumes of ejecta, for all intents and purposes it appears LCROSS's impact on the Moon was a smashing success. While the mainstream media and the public seemed disappointed in the lack of visual data, mission managers said the mission has garnered plenty of spectroscopic data, and that's where the real science can be found. "There was an impact and we saw the crater with spectroscopic data," said LCROSS principal investigator Tony Colaprete. "We have the data we need to address the questions we set out to answer." The big question is whether the impact kicked up any signatures of water ice, but it could take days, weeks or months to analyze all the data.
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Speaking of lunar impacts: While we await the science data from the LCROSS mission impact earlier this morning, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter team has released this image of another impact on the Moon 38 years ago . The crater in the center of this image was formed by Apollo 14's Saturn IVB booster. The booster was intentionally impacted into the lunar surface on Feb. 4, 1971. The impact caused a minor "moonquake" that scientists used to learn about the moon's interior structure. Seismometers placed on the surface by the Apollo 12 astronauts returned data on the tremor.
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UPDATE: The MMTO Telescope on Mount Hopkins in Arizona has video from their observations that, while fuzzy, possibly show a bright plume emerging from the crater. (Further analysis says probably not). The video is here,,

In a bit of an anti-climax, the Centaur second stage, and later the LCROSS spacecraft impacted Cabeus Crater but produced no visible plume. Analysis of navigation telemetry indicated the trajectory was spot on, and the Centaur should have hit the surface to within about 64 meters (210 feet) of the planned target. The video above is from NASA TV, and below if video from the Lick Observatory, whose 36-inch telescope was trained on the Moon's south pole. They didn't see anything, as reports from telescopes at Palomar, Arizona, and Mauna Kea also confirmed. But a dim impact would mean regolith ejecta, which scientists say is good because that means it hit more dirt than rocks. Another thing to remember is that science is not always "seen" in visible light. The LCROSS sensors and instruments will provide the best data.

I'll post more later after the LCROSS press conference at 9 am CDT. In the meantime, enjoy these animations created by Emily Lakdawalla of the Planetary Society from the LCROSS camera as it approached the Moon — very nice!
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The LCROSS spacecraft will be giving it all up for science Friday morning when it and the second stage of the Centaur rocket impact Cabeus crater on the Moon's south pole, searching for possible water ice hidden inside the perpetually dark portions of the crater. Since we'll never see LCROSS again, its only fitting to take a good long, last look at her. Solar System Ambassador and Planetary Society volunteer Ken Kremer had the wonderful opportunity to see both LCROSS and her sister ship the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) in the Astrotech Space Operations Facility clean room in Titusville, FL earlier this year before the dynamic duo launched together on June 18. Ken has graciously given permission to allow us to publish these images (which were previously posted on the Planetary Society website) so we can all remember what she looked like. Above is a side view of LCROSS wrapped in gold multi-layer thermal insulation. The solar array is on the left side. Science instrument, avionics, navigation, communication and thruster equipment panels encircle and are attached to the central payload adapter ring. The star tracker is on the right side, and the payload fairing halves sit at either side.

More images below.
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