Moon Crash Will it cause any damage?

[krennon]

Story here
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8297811.stm

Just how do we know there isn't a "fault line" in the moon, by crashing a rocket into it at a zillion miles per hour to study the rock/ice debris that is then kicked up by said rocket crashing into the surface....As the moon has a very significant effect on good ole terra firma can anyone tell me why this is a good idea....if we break the moon we cause even more damage to our already fragile planet....as R.E.M. said "it's the end of the world as we know it" or it could be.....after all the Mayans calendar stopped at 2012.....irrepairable damage caused to the moon 'cos we smacked a rocket into it...tides rise 'cos the moons broke, weather systems cause havoc, hurricanes, tornado's, flooding, forest fires.....in a word armageddon.....did they know something we don't or am I just being a real pessimistic paranoid doomsayer.....

[magicrhodes]

Don't worry we have Bruce Willis!

[stevebedder]

Theres a film that I saw a while ago that has a bit in it where the moon is falling apart and it's causing the earth to break up.

Can't remember what it is but it sounds similar to what you're descibing krennon.

Steve

[Oldboy]

As the moon has been hit thousands of time by asteroids, much bigger than this rocket, then I don't think you have to worry. Some year ago they fired one into a comet and the comet survived, and as the moon is a lot bigger, I don't think it will have much effect.  

[Oldboy]

Theres a film that I saw a while ago that has a bit in it where the moon is falling apart and it's causing the earth to break up.

Can't remember what it is but it sounds similar to what you're descibing krennon.

Steve

Latest research suggests that the moon was created when a planet crashed into the Earth, and knocked a chunk off which became the moon. As this occured when the Earth was young and in a molten state, explains why we can't see any big hole where the moon came from.  

You can watch it live on NASA TV: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

[krennon]

Theres a film that I saw a while ago that has a bit in it where the moon is falling apart and it's causing the earth to break up.

Can't remember what it is but it sounds similar to what you're descibing krennon.

Steve

Hi Steve, yep I remember that as well it was actually Dr Who, man had been mining the moon and it broke 'cos we dug to deep.....As for the asteroids hitting the moon fair comment but asteroids aren't full of rocket fuel....I reckon it could all go horribly wrong (of course it might go swimmingly as well) and as I say how do we know there isn't a fault line right where they're going to target this rocket....can we sue NASA if they break the moon? 

[picsfor]

There's a film that I saw a while ago that has a bit in it where the moon is falling apart and it's causing the earth to break up.

Been a couple of TV/ film items on this.
The remake of The Time Machine had the moon breaking up due to human activities with ensuing chaos...
There was a 2 parter recently about an asteroid hitting the moon and causing it to go out of orbit to the point where it would collide with the Earth again
The Doctor Who episode as mentioned.

It should be noted that scientists think the moon is gradually ebbing away from the Earth and in a few millenia it will be so far away that it will no longer have any effect on the Earth tidal or weather systems.

I think we should be much more worried about colonising the moon than slamming the odd trajectory into it. Nature has already hit it much harder than we have the capability of doing and it hasn't buckled just yet.

Sleep easy - you won't need to move underground just yet!

[stevebedder]

The remake of The Time Machine had the moon breaking up due to human activities with ensuing chaos...

Thats the one I was thinking of - with Samantha Mumba and Guy Pearce.

[Carlj]

"Where there's blame, there's a claim"
"Had an accident, wasn't your fault? You could be entitled to compensation...."

[Hybridphotog]

My guess would be that the moon won't flinch much, as it's a bit bigger than the lump of metal NASA is throwing at it, and the moon itself is a bit denser. The moon is hardly likely to break apart. So really, the only damage done would be of the NASA thing itself impacting on the moon. I'd liken the event to throwing a grain of sand at a pebble.

Mind you, at least NASA are being honest this time. It's not the first time they've lost something...
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn10498-nasa-struggles-to-contact-lost-mars-probe.html
http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/giovanni/gesNews/adeos-spacecraft-has-been-lost
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9909/30/mars.metric.02/

[Oldboy]

They are trying to work out what happened as nothing was seen. Perhaps the moon is really made out of cheese and acted as a cushion absorbing the impact?  

[hevans]

Theres a film that I saw a while ago that has a bit in it where the moon is falling apart and it's causing the earth to break up.

Can't remember what it is but it sounds similar to what you're descibing krennon.

Steve

Hi Steve, yep I remember that as well it was actually Dr Who, man had been mining the moon and it broke 'cos we dug to deep.....As for the asteroids hitting the moon fair comment but asteroids aren't full of rocket fuel....I reckon it could all go horribly wrong (of course it might go swimmingly as well) and as I say how do we know there isn't a fault line right where they're going to target this rocket....can we sue NASA if they break the moon?  

The spacecraft will probably have considerably less rocket fuel (less than 5-10 kg) and latent energy than that you'd find in the average car. And people run those things into the side of all sorts of things on a daily basis. The real energy content in the projectile is it's kinetic energy, which is much much less than that of the meteors that have hit the moon in the past.

No, this will only break the part of the moon that it hits.

You can think of it like a spitball hitting the side of a supertanker.

H.

[krennon]

See I knew that Hugh would be along soon as the scientific voice of reason 
I'm still not convinced that spending 79m USd to see whether there is or isn't water on the lunar surface is a good idea in the middle of a recession.....how many hospitals or essential operations would that amount of dosh fund.....but that's a separate argument, and if Mr H says it won't do any damage I believe him as I only have a grade 4 cse in physics...and I think that Mr H has a bit more than that on me 

[hevans]

See I knew that Hugh would be along soon as the scientific voice of reason 
I'm still not convinced that spending 79m USd to see whether there is or isn't water on the lunar surface is a good idea in the middle of a recession.....how many hospitals or essential operations would that amount of dosh fund.....but that's a separate argument, and if Mr H says it won't do any damage I believe him as I only have a grade 4 cse in physics...and I think that Mr H has a bit more than that on me 

To be honest, the 79 M$  is American money, so it's not out of our pocket  .

But to put it into perspective , it will have been spent over the last 5-10 years, so only about 8M$/ year. If you consider the American population is ~300M right now, that'd be about 0.03$ per person per year . That's the kind of loose change that you lose down the back of a sofa, or # of pennies that you see in the street and can't be bothered to pick up because it's not worth the time or effort.

So...was it really that expensive? Compared, for example to a couple of Beckams?

H.

[Hinfrance]

 . .  or 11,000 useless wind turbines?