CyberWorld

NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) launched the rocket Centaur, aimed at the moon's south pole at 1.5 miles per second on Friday. The rocket bombarded the moon and created twin impacts on the lunar surface in search of water. LCROSS and the spent rocket Centaur, separated about 54,000 miles above the lunar surface at approximately 6:60 pm PDT, on Thursday, to create an impact. The Centaur hit the moon's surface at around 4:31 am on Friday and created an impact that lasted for approximately 4 minutes as observed by the instruments aboard the LCROSS. Approximately at 4:36 am, Friday, the lunar surface faced another the impact from LCROSS.

Scientists will study and analyze all the data observed by the spacecraft's instruments to examine if there is water ice present on the moon. Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS principal investigator and project scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, stated, "The LCROSS science instruments worked exceedingly well and returned a wealth of data that will greatly improve our understanding of our closest celestial neighbor. The team is excited to dive into data."

According to Doug Cooke, associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA, it was a great day for science and exploration. Daniel Andrews, LCROSS project manager at Ames',said that, "It has been an incredible journey since LCROSS was selected in April 2006," said Andrews. "The LCROSS Project faced a very ambitious schedule and an uncommonly small budget for a mission of this size. LCROSS could be a model for how small robotic missions are executed. This is truly big science on a small budget."

Other observatories who have captured both impacts, will be sharing their data with the LCROSS science team for further analysis. It has been estimated by the LCROSS team that the data will require several weeks to analyze before any definitive assessment of presence or absence of water ice is conclusive.