T-5 minutes until Nasa crash a Ford Transit into the moon...

[BrowneIssue]

Also have a look at where they crash it. The biggest shadowed area on the face of the dam moon. WTF!! Couldn't they have gone a few 100 meters north so they could actually see the crator or what might have gone wrong?

The purpose was to hit a deep, dark crater. There was a chance the top of the plume might have gone high enough to be illuminated by sunlight but it was not guaranteed.

The analysis is of the material detected in the plume by the probe, not a visible analysis.

[Mich the Tester]

Your baiting me to make a woman joke arn't you!! lol..

Anyway, for fear of being incredibly boring and actually bringing this conversation back around to the actual topic. Did anyone see the report on this dismal failure?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8299118.stm

No plume, no results = failure. Why do the mission controllers at the end stand up clapping. Was it hard to smash a probe in to the moon??

Also have a look at where they crash it. The biggest shadowed area on the face of the dam moon. WTF!! Couldn't they have gone a few 100 meters north so they could actually see the crator or what might have gone wrong?

Maybe I am not intellectual enough to understand this level of thinking but this looks like one might cock up to me.

Has this mission failed then?

I thought it had worked OK.

[gingerjedi]

They went for a shadowed crater as it would not have seen sunlight for a few billion years, therefore increasing the chance of finding frozen water.

HTH.

[Churchill]

Anyone remember how the moon got knocked out of orbit in Space 1999?

[BrowneIssue]

Anyone remember how the moon got knocked out of orbit in Space 1999?

Wasn't it a nuclear war on Earth?

Edit: no it wasn't:

In the pilot, nuclear waste from Earth stored on the moon explodes in a catastrophic accident on 13 September 1999, knocking the moon out of its orbit and sending it and the 311 inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha hurtling uncontrollably into outer space.

[Churchill]

Never let a woman drive a spacecraft ...

Last words on space shuttle Columbia - "Here Laurel, you dri..."

[northernladuk]

Has this mission failed then?

I thought it had worked OK.

Well it said there wasn't the plume of matter they were expecting so nothing for the following craft to fly through and gather so don't sound too promising.

[Churchill]

Well it said there wasn't the plume of matter they were expecting so nothing for the following craft to fly through and gather so don't sound too promising.

The second craft didn't have to fly through the plume, merely observe it.

[Mich the Tester]

Well it said there wasn't the plume of matter they were expecting so nothing for the following craft to fly through and gather so don't sound too promising.

The plume wasn't visible from earth; that doesn't mean it wasn't there.

[minestrone]

Who cares.