The Moon

All the astronomy shows on tv lately are about the moon. These are exciting times we live in. Man is going back to the moon within the next decade and many of the planned NASA missions in the next few years are aimed at the moon in preparation of this.

Early next year there is a planned mission to send 2 probes to the moon to blast a new crater onto the surface to to find out what lies beneath the surface in the area of the south lunar pole where the next planned landing zone is going to be.

The effects of this impact will be visible to us as a plume of dust/rock etc rising from the south lunar pole.

I dont know about the rest of you.............but i am very excited about this new era of lunar exploration.

Me too. I know there's a lot of things that can be said against going back to the Moon, but it's pretty exciting for those of us who weren't around the first time.

but it's pretty exciting for those of us who weren't around the first time.

Thats a very good point...
We really need to push the envelope.
I've even started to think of the Shuttle as
'normal' space flight!?
Just go's to show how complacent we can become...
we gotta LONG way to go still!
The Moon is and has always been the best first choice for humankind to
head to.

lets hope this time around we dont stagnate once we reach a certain point, as has happened over the last 20-30 years.

we have gone backward IMO, due to now having no reusable space veichle capiable of bringing equiptment back from orbit.

The shuttle may be too dangerous, but thats not to say the functionality such a veichle provides is not fundamental to our exploration of space, even at this early stage. so yes, lets hope the envelope is pushed this time around.

Id like to see changes similar to that between 1900 and 2000
eg, from no flight at all to us being able to fly from one country to another in a few hours for bugger all cost.

In 2050- 2100 I would hope to see similar advances with regards to space travel ( obviously not to the same extent)

Early next year there is a planned mission to send 2 probes to the moon to blast a new crater onto the surface to to find out what lies beneath the surface in the area of the south lunar pole where the next planned landing zone is going to be.

The effects of this impact will be visible to us as a plume of dust/rock etc rising from the south lunar pole.

This is an exciting thought and it should be fantastic to see. But I cant seem to find any info on this event on the internet. Can anyone else find any info on it?

Wasnt that on the sky at night last week?, it will definitely be visible from the ground here and will hopefully be impressive through a telescope.

As for going back to the moon, they went for the wrong reasons 30+ years ago, if they go for the right reasons this time it will be more long term.
When they do go back, I'll be taking the day off and sitting with a good beer and nachos and if its night time will be keeping an eye on the moon as they land if its up, not that you'd see them landing through the scope, but it would be nice to say you were looking at the moon when they landed.!

Yes Dave it was mentioned on Sky at night. I have to say the prospect of seeing material being ejected from the moons surface due to a collision of a probe is about the most exciting astro news i have heard since comet Hale-Bopp blazed across our skies way back when.

I just hope NASA plan it right so it happens at night.

Imagine just sitting back taking in great moon views when all of a sudden a great plume of rock,dust,gas rises from the southern lunar surface.

And the GREAT thing about it is that reflected sun light from the moon takes little more then a second to reach us here on earth so we would be seeing it in almost absolute real time.

As for going back to the moon, they went for the wrong reasons 30+ years ago, if they go for the right reasons this time it will be more long term.
When they do go back, I'll be taking the day off and sitting with a good beer and nachos and if its night time will be keeping an eye on the moon as they land if its up, not that you'd see them landing through the scope, but it would be nice to say you were looking at the moon when they landed.!

Couldnt agree MORE. I am really getting excited about the new upcoming era of moon exploration.