On Oct. 9, 2009, the LCROSS Centaur upper stage rocket impacted the moon in the permanently shadowed region of the Cabeus crater near the south pole region. The crater was selected after an extensive review of the most likely places at the lunar South Pole to excavate water ice through the use of a high-energy impact. After impact, LCROSS flew through the impact plume collecting data for analysis.

In a press release issued today, NASA confirmed preliminary data from LCROSS indicates that the mission successfully uncovered water during the Oct. 9, 2009 impact.

Exactly what does this discovery mean for the future of space exploration? Water means more than the proposition of human sustainability on the lunar surface. H2O, can be broken down into Hydrogen and Oxygen, which are elements for rocket fuel that could be used for other trips throughout the solar system.

Because the gravity on the moon is 1/6^th of what it is on Earth, rockets leaving from the moon to other planets in our solar system could be launched without having to carry the massive fuel load needed to power out of Earth’s powerful gravity well.  The possibility of developing fuel on the moon is hugely important to the future of space travel.

While the discovery is exciting, there are, as always, special challenges arising from NASA’s announcement.  According to Clark Planetarium Director, Seth Jarvis, “The water LCROSS found exists in a polar crater where the angle of sunlight is so shallow that the bottom of the crater is perpetually in shadow.  That means that processing lunar water using solar power makes the location of the shaded crater bottom relative to a place where you can also collect sunlight for energy is going to be tricky.  As the real estate agents like to say, it’s all about location… location… location.”

Much more detailed surveys of the moon’s terrain needs to be performed to find out just how much water is present. Jarvis continued, “The LCROSS discovery offers a tantalizing and important bit of news that there are significant amounts of water on the moon. Knowing precisely where the water is and learning how it to get at and use the water will require a lot more exploration. But what’s really important here is that we now know that our nearest neighbor in space is very likely a lot more habitable that we’d ever previously thought, and that’s exciting.”

Visit  the Clark Planetarium’s YouTube Channel, for a more detailed look at the LRO/LCROSS mission. The mission video, titled Flight to the Moon was a joint project between Clark Planetarium and NASA to explain in high visual detail the LRO/LCROSS missions and the importance of searching for water on the moon.

As further details become available on the LCROSS findings, they will be published on our blog and featured in the Night Vision show in the Hansen Dome Theatre. For a complete schedule and ticket pricing, visit Clark Planetarium’s website.

Clark Planetarium’s mission is to create and present stimulating educational programs that effectively share astronomy and space exploration information with Salt Lake County residents, Utah students, educators and families, and visitors from around the country and the world.

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Contact: Dani Weigand
801-386-0251, dweigand-at-slco-dot-org

Called “LCROSS” for the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, it’s been looping around both the earth and moon for over three months now.  The delicate orbital dance will set LCROSS on the perfect trajectory for a high angle impact into a crater called Cabeus, only 5 degrees latitude up from the south pole of the moon.

Detail view of the targeted impact crater, Cabeus, located near the south pole of the moon.

LCROSS is still attached to its upper stage booster, called the Centaur.  They were left connected on purpose.  Normally the Centaur rocket would be jettisoned after placing its cargo on the right trajectory, but in this case, the Centaur is a key part of the cargo!  Scientists need an “impactor” with enough mass to blast out significant amounts of lunar material high enough to be measured by LCROSS and earth-based observatories.  By scanning this plume of dust and soil, we can measure its composition and find out whether water ice exists in the permanently shadowed craters of the moon.

Illustration representing the Centaur booster's impact. The LCROSS probe will impact just minutes after.

The impact is scheduled to take place about 5:30 a.m. MDT Friday, Oct. 9, 2009.  LCROSS and many other satellites and observatories will be watching.  NASA-TV will be carrying the event live, but there won’t be much to see until photos and video come in from hundreds of sources during Friday and Saturday.

To give you the best possible summary of the mission, I’ll be giving a presentation at Clark Planetarium Saturday afternoon, Oct. 10, at 3:30 p.m. in the Hansen Dome Theatre.  We’ll include as much high resolution imagery and video as we can get our hands on – more than you’ll get to see in any news story or magazine article – and in the most immersive environment available!

Tickets for the presentation at the planetarium are $1 at the ticket window. You can also purchase your online tickets now through our website.  (Note: Tickets purchased online have a $1 processing fee, making each ticket $2.)

I hope to see you this weekend!