NASA rocket crash-lands on the moon

The impact was scheduled for about 5:30 a.m. The spacecraft LCROSS carried the Centaur rocket toward the moon before the two separated from each other and both crash-landed on the south polar surface of the moon, according to the NASA Web site. The objective of the mission was to crash into the moon and measure any traces of water in the lunar dust kicked up the impact.

The crowd of several hundred watching the NASA feed of the event was treated to the final impact of the LCROSS space craft a few minutes after 5:30 a.m. The camera mounted on the LCROSS showed almost no visible debris from the Centaur rocket.

CU’s director of the astronomy department, Keith Gleason, said that he was surprised himself.

“What I thought was interesting was that the (NASA LCROSS) satellite followed four minutes behind (the Centaur) and there was no visible impact. We were hoping we’d see a bright plume and ejection… the NASA camera was only a few hundred miles out from the impact and it didn’t seem like they got to see anything either so then I knew that the chances that we were going to see anything on CU’s 24-inch telescope feed were nil,” Gleason said.

Aerospace engineering major Josh Marshman, 21, though, said that he was not disappointed with the event.

“It was awesome. I think that there’s a lot of Hollywood hype, but the information we got from it I hope is helpful,” Marshman said.

Shortly after the impact, NASA reported that they recorded a thermal signature from their immediate data return.

Gleason explained that the thermal signature was proof that NASA didn’t waste its time or money on the impact.

“The expectation was that the impact would cause heat and vaporize the water. They were looking for hydrocarbons to breakdown and be released,” Gleason said. “The moon is extra dry, but the evidence (of water history) is in the craters. If a comet hit it it’s going to release some water that will be trapped in the moon’s gravitational field. The only areas that it would be preserved are at the craters that never receive any light.”

The impact was designed to hit a specific crater in the south polar region of the moon where there is never any sunlight, and where there was the best chance of finding traces of lunar water.