We Came in Peace For All Mankind
By Lizzy Hewitt
Monday 19th October 2009
Monday 19th October 2009
In 1969, man walked on the moon. In 2009, man bombed it.
On October 8, NASA shot two missiles into the surface of the moon at 5,000 miles per hour – twice the speed of a bullet. It was part of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission, launched June 18. One was the size of a bus, the other the size of a compact car. The impact of the probe sent up a plume of several thousand tons of the Moon, which will now be analyzed using microwave technology to determine whether water is present. The target was a crater near the south pole of the moon, which was identified by a team of British scientist last year.
Almost more interesting than the feat is the reaction down here on earth. There has been a flurry of activity in cyber space discussing the LCROSS mission; is this for the development of space weapons? No, not at all. The probes sent crashing into the lunar surface were not “bombs” because they were not explosives. How did it make the moon feel? Difficult to say, but probably not too bad. The Christian Science Monitor reported that the combined impact of the probes is estimated to be equivalent to dropping an eyelash in the aisle of a Boeing 747. Outside of the blogosphere, the real world has been deliberating what this means for the political future of lunar exploration.
Space exploration has always been steeped in international politics. Tensions between the USA and the USSR in the mid-twentieth century drove the Space Race. Led by several Soviet victories, including the first manmade satellite, the first living thing in space, and the first human in space in the late 1950s, the US made a come-back early in the next decade. US President John F. Kennedy made space exploration a priority of his administration. Mere months into his term, he made a plea to Congress to land a man on the moon by the end of the decade. “We choose to go to the moon,” pledged Kennedy to the American public in 1962.
The Cold War and the Space Race are now fixtures of text books, and it’s difficult to determine what role international politics will play in future space exploration.
It seems like everybody wants to lay claim to the great beyond. There are currently over seventy governmental agencies engaged in activities related to space in countries around the world. Only a fraction has launch capability, and even fewer can carry out manned and lunar missions. Although LCROSS made the biggest figurative and literal bang, the search for water on the lunar surface illustrates just how many players are in the game.
The LCROSS moon bombing came in the wake of a discovery by Chandrayaan-1, a lunar mission by the Indian Space Research Organization of Bangladore, India. An M3 imaging spectrometer picked up electromagnetic radiation suggesting the presence of water on the moon’s surface. It also made the surprising discovery that water may still be forming on the surface of the moon.
A week prior to the launch of LCROSS, a Japanese probe, Kaguya, collided with the surface of the moon. The mission, launched in 2007, was to collect a range of data including the first high definition images of the moon. In carrying out gamma ray spectrometry observations from orbit, it failed to detect signs of water.
The Chinese Chang’e 1 lunar mission was an unmanned lunar-orbiting spacecraft launched in 2007. It was the first phase of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program. Among many other objectives, Chang’e 1 photographed parts of the moon where water is likely to be found.
The politics of space exploration are different today than they were half a century ago. NASA is dominating the field. A technological rivalry resembling that of the Cold War Space Race is arising between India and China. As the number of nations exploring space grows, the inscription on the silver plaque on the leg of the first manned lunar lander, the Eagle, is especially apt: “We came in peace for all mankind.”
On October 8, NASA shot two missiles into the surface of the moon at 5,000 miles per hour – twice the speed of a bullet. It was part of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission, launched June 18. One was the size of a bus, the other the size of a compact car. The impact of the probe sent up a plume of several thousand tons of the Moon, which will now be analyzed using microwave technology to determine whether water is present. The target was a crater near the south pole of the moon, which was identified by a team of British scientist last year.
Almost more interesting than the feat is the reaction down here on earth. There has been a flurry of activity in cyber space discussing the LCROSS mission; is this for the development of space weapons? No, not at all. The probes sent crashing into the lunar surface were not “bombs” because they were not explosives. How did it make the moon feel? Difficult to say, but probably not too bad. The Christian Science Monitor reported that the combined impact of the probes is estimated to be equivalent to dropping an eyelash in the aisle of a Boeing 747. Outside of the blogosphere, the real world has been deliberating what this means for the political future of lunar exploration.
Space exploration has always been steeped in international politics. Tensions between the USA and the USSR in the mid-twentieth century drove the Space Race. Led by several Soviet victories, including the first manmade satellite, the first living thing in space, and the first human in space in the late 1950s, the US made a come-back early in the next decade. US President John F. Kennedy made space exploration a priority of his administration. Mere months into his term, he made a plea to Congress to land a man on the moon by the end of the decade. “We choose to go to the moon,” pledged Kennedy to the American public in 1962.
The Cold War and the Space Race are now fixtures of text books, and it’s difficult to determine what role international politics will play in future space exploration.
It seems like everybody wants to lay claim to the great beyond. There are currently over seventy governmental agencies engaged in activities related to space in countries around the world. Only a fraction has launch capability, and even fewer can carry out manned and lunar missions. Although LCROSS made the biggest figurative and literal bang, the search for water on the lunar surface illustrates just how many players are in the game.
The LCROSS moon bombing came in the wake of a discovery by Chandrayaan-1, a lunar mission by the Indian Space Research Organization of Bangladore, India. An M3 imaging spectrometer picked up electromagnetic radiation suggesting the presence of water on the moon’s surface. It also made the surprising discovery that water may still be forming on the surface of the moon.
A week prior to the launch of LCROSS, a Japanese probe, Kaguya, collided with the surface of the moon. The mission, launched in 2007, was to collect a range of data including the first high definition images of the moon. In carrying out gamma ray spectrometry observations from orbit, it failed to detect signs of water.
The Chinese Chang’e 1 lunar mission was an unmanned lunar-orbiting spacecraft launched in 2007. It was the first phase of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program. Among many other objectives, Chang’e 1 photographed parts of the moon where water is likely to be found.
The politics of space exploration are different today than they were half a century ago. NASA is dominating the field. A technological rivalry resembling that of the Cold War Space Race is arising between India and China. As the number of nations exploring space grows, the inscription on the silver plaque on the leg of the first manned lunar lander, the Eagle, is especially apt: “We came in peace for all mankind.”