Certain people found my moon-cracking-open-like-an-egg fears alarmist. And obviously, in retrospect, the egg is on my face.* NASA’s LCROSS mission, designed to test for water (ice, actually) on the moon, went off without a hitch at around 4:30 this morning. The Centaur rocket made its divot, the following spacecraft sent back its data (series of photos, impact video), and then it too augured in a few minutes later, leaving a 100-foot-wide hole.
However, sane people do have concerns about tossing our old tincan spacecraft all over the moon. As National Geographic reports, NASA has already littered the lunar surroundings with over two dozen orbiters, landers, and rovers. It sounds funny, but there’s a growing “lunar conservationist” movement that wants to make sure future smash landings are carefully vetted, so that the moon doesn’t end up looking like Oscar Madison’s apartment. Neatniks in space!
*I can’t believe I left off the /joke tag.