I am really sad to hear in the news that the US is sending a missile to the moon!!! Equivalent to bombing the moon and scarring it for ever – the excuse to find Water. It is unbelievable and extremely sad that governments still feel they can do what they like without consideration of how the people that put them in power feel about it. The moon is so sacred all we can do is send the moon our loving thoughts for a quick recovery. The following is the latest news.

Moon ‘bombing’ in bid to find water (UKPA) – 1 hour ago

Scientists hope to make a splash by “bombing” the Moon with two spacecraft.  The plan is to slam the projectiles into a dark crater at the lunar south pole, kicking up a six-mile high dust cloud that may contain water.

British researchers helped Nasa pick the spot for the drama, which will be broadcast live on the American space agency’s website.  The Cabeus south polar region was identified by the University of Durham team as a site with high concentrations of hydrogen – a key component of water.

It is believed water ice could lie at the bottom of dark craters at the Moon’s poles, where temperatures are lower than minus 170C.  The crashing spacecraft consist of an orbiter, LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite), which is now mapping the lunar surface, and its 2.2 tonne empty Centaur launch rocket. Both are currently on collision course with the Moon and still attached together.

In the early hours, British time, the probe and rocket will separate. Then at 12.31pm the larger rocket will smash into the crater at 5,600 mph, blasting out 350 tonnes of debris in a 6.2 mile high plume.

Following close behind, the LCROSS satellite beaming live pictures back to Earth will fly through the material and four minutes later plunge into the crater itself. LCROSS will trigger its own dust cloud a third of the size of the first one.  As the debris is propelled into sunlight, scientists on Earth will study its composition with ground-based telescopes.

Amateur astronomers in dark parts of the world will be able to view the spectacle through their own instruments. But daylight will make this impossible in the UK.