NASA Tells the Moon to Say Hello to Its Little Friend

We’ve been waiting a long time for the moon to tell us if it holds sweet, sweet water.  And we’re not gonna wait any f*cking longer.

In an unprecedented scientific endeavor — and what may be one of the coolest space missions ever — NASA is preparing to fly a rocket booster into the moon, triggering a six-mile-high explosion that scientists hope will confirm the presence of water.

Six miles!  That’s like, six miles!

This doesn’t have to happen, moon.  You know what we want.  

If we find water, it will open an exciting new chapter in NASA’s exploration of the moon for the purpose of figuring out if we can live there after we ruin our own ozone layer with all the Axe spray.  Here’s how this mission goes down:

LCROSS may be one of NASA’s most participatory missions. If the spacecraft launches on schedule at 12:51 p.m. Wednesday, it would hit the moon in the early morning hours of Oct. 8. The cloud from the 350 metric tons of debris kicked up by the Centaur booster should spread six miles above the surface of the moon, hitting the sunlight and making it visible to amateur astronomers across North America. The space agency is enlisting telescopes around the country to help monitor the impact.

The 1,664-pound spacecraft will have the best view. LCROSS will separate from the Centaur booster less than 10 hours before impact and will be less than 400 miles above the moon when the spent rocket booster collides at a speed five times faster than a bullet from a .44 Magnum. NASA plans to stream a live view from LCROSS as the Centaur, followed by the spacecraft, plows into the moon.

Don’t be a hero, moon.  Nobody has to get hurt tonight.

The full story at Silicon Valley.