It's fitting for me to use this mash-up image of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon as a header picture on the heels of a recent announcement of the LCROSS mission that had come to fruition last month. For those of you, and by you I mean anyone who's not a total nerd like I am, who don't know, the LCROSS, Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, mission was that of a rocket with a really big slingshot. This time, however, the pebble was a multi-million dollar probe that was jettisoned to the surface of the moon at dizzying speeds with one mission only--crash, really.
Scientists in charge of the LCROSS mission have announced today that they have detected about 25 gallons of water at the crash site--water in the form of vapor and ice that is. The implications are staggering--water on the moon might make it the ideal location for a leap-pad for further solar system exploration. Bush II made his vision clear when he expected the United States to be back in space, exploring, by the end of the next decade. 2020 is not that far off, assuming we're all still alive after the impending apocalypse.
It's interesting to hear talks about people going back to the moon or even going to Mars. With the technology mentioned before combined with the possibility of establishing human bases on the moon, the possibilities are endless. The existence of water, in any form, means that people can spend months on the moon, performing experiments, vacationing, or escape the inevitable doomsday alla CERN.
Mmm, I want me some Moonpies now.
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