Bombing the Moon; NASA briefing on mission to crash rocket into moon

Early on Friday, a rocket is scheduled to slam into a crater near the moon's south pole - all in the name of discovery. By slamming an object into the surface of the moon, NASA scientists want to literally "kick up the dust" of the lunar surface in order to analyse material blasted into the lunar atmosphere.

The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, will follow the two ton rocket down to the lunar surface, sampling the debris and doing a quick turnaround analysis of the material.

The LCROSS satellite will image the impact and provide direct measurements of the plume before it plunges into the lunar surface. Details from the results of the experiment will help verify recent spectrographic analysis of the moon showing there's more water than originally thought just below the lunar surface. Scientists think that the hydrogen detected in the lunar soil may be icy leftovers from ancient comet impacts or accumulations from the solar wind and want to know if that material could be tapped if needed. They are targeting an area near the moon's south pole on the "dark side" of the moon, in order to observe material that has been frozen in place for two (b) billion years.

The Cabeus crater was selected because it would provide the best back lit view of the plum of material from Earth. The expected crash is not for the faint of heart. The two ships will smash into the moon at 56-hundred miles per hour (nine thousand kilometres per hour), more than seven times the speed of sound. The explosion will have the force of one and a half tons (1.3 metric tons) of TNT and throw 772-thousand pounds (350-thousand kilogrammes) of lunar dirt out of the crater. It will create a new crater - inside the old one - about half the size of an Olympic swimming pool. Jim Garvin is chief scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, just outside Washington, DC. He says the "whack" of the empty rocket blasting into the moon's surface should produce a geyser of debris that could be five miles (eight kilometres) high into the lunar atmosphere.

While Friday's impact display may be visually stunning, scientists hope that the information learned will lead to further moon exploration as it may provide information on whether there's enough water or other minerals on the moon for sustaining a small party of explorers. The mission is a set-the-stage venture dreamed up by the NASA office that has been working on a 100 US dollar billion programme to eventually return astronauts to the moon.