We are Bombing the Moon at 7:30am EST Tomorrow...

[NikkyVix]

...And I'm going to be on a fricking BUS, on the way to work, MISSING it!

A six-mile plume of ejecta from the impact, visible on Earth under fair conditions--something likely never before seen on this planet. And I'm going to miss it most likely. I want to be at home, with the coverage on and a makeshift telescope to watch it. Grrr...

Sympathisers?

[Wulfie]

*patpats Nikky*

If it's any consolation, I'll be missing it due to sleeping in, not to mention the fact that by my time over here in England, the Moon would have gone over the horizon already.

[Mr. Munchlax]

I'll probably be in the shower or doing some other part of my morning routine so yeah, I'll probably miss it as well.

[Makaze]

Watch it wake up something akin to Space Godzilla. Wait, that'd be awesome.

[chungy]

4:30am my time. I should normally be in bed but I might just stay up for this.

Let's just hope for a cloud-free view

edit: apparently it won't be anything that the naked eye could see. At least a 10-inch telescope is recommended for viewing. ah well: http://spacefellowship.com/2009/10/08/g ... ar-impact/

[Mr. Munchlax]

[Stormcaller3801]

I just hope they don't screw things up, and discover that someone had a brain fart and calculated the coordinates for the hit to be the same place Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon, or a lunar buggy, or what have you. The last thing we need is for NASA to ask anyone to mail them, COD, any bits of the Eagle lander that you find in your yard...

[Makaze]

[Makaze]

But I'm curious now about all this, aren't they essentially shelving the shuttle program and a lot of nasa projects for a while? Where do they plan on going with this all aside from the obvious, are we still making plans to set up a station or base on the moon for research? Or was that shelved too?

[Stormcaller3801]

Dubya put forth the idea of a moon base which would then later lead to colonizing Mars, but he never actually went about providing any funding for the project. Since then, budgetary studies have basically stated that NASA might as well give up on the whole idea, as it's just not fiscally feasible with the money they have or the money they're likely to get. In the meantime they've got the replacement for the shuttle doing test runs, and in the gap between retiring the shuttle and getting this new system implemented we'll basically be renting space on other countries' rockets. They're also looking at focusing a lot more on orbital missions, and less on things like throwing very expensive rocks at comets.