12:00 PM
Antoine
The mission operations team has initiated power-up of the LCROSS science payload and is evaluating the health of the spacecraft instruments. Spacecraft data being transmitted to LCROSS mission control at NASA Ames at 1.5 Mbps via the Goldstone Deep Space Network Facility in California. Spacecraft and science instrument data are relayed in real-time. More info here Live feed here |
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The Guardian,Saturday 10 October 2009
Latest news say that Nasa's hope of filming a spectacular crash on the moon was dashed satellite and telescope imagery failed to record the enormous plume of rock and dust that scientists had predicted.
After the collision at 12.31pm today, no sign of the plume was spotted, even from the second stage, which crashed nearby four minutes later.
Anthony Colaprete, principal investigator on the LCROSS mission, said of the missing plume: "We haven't been able to see it clearly in our data yet." He added that scientists were working "feverishly" on information sent back.
One theory is that the impact site was unexpectedly hard and that rock and soil gouged out by the impact failed to rise high enough to be lit up by sunlight.
"If it turns out to be as dull as it looked, I'd imagine the soil just didn't respond as was hoped to being hit," said Vincent Eke, an astronomer at the University of Durham who helped Nasa choose the impact site. "It might mean we don't get sufficient data, which would be a shame," he added.
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