The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), mounted to its Centaur rocket stage.

On June 18, 2009, NASA launched the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS). LCROSS executed the goal of its mission on October 9, 2009, following and observing the planned impact of its spent booster rocket into the southern polar region of the Moon. The LCROSS probe itself impacted the same region four minutes later.

There was little fuel remaining in this rocket stage. Thus the event could be accurately described as an “impact,” or even a “crash,” though crash has a connotation of being uncontrolled, which is patently not the case here. “Bombs,” on the other hand, from what I am led to understand, explode, which is an activity of which this spent rocket stage was incapable.

Thus, NASA did not “bomb the Moon,” despite media reports to the contrary, typified below:

A new chapter in space exploration has been opened up after Nasa confirmed that their mission to bomb the Moon had found “significant quantities” of frozen water.

[The Daily Telegraph, November 13, 2009]

The author of the above story, Richard Alleyne, goes by the title “Science Correspondent.” Presumably he should know better.

But this journalistic “one small misstep” seems trivial when compared to the “one giant pseudoscientific leap” taken by Ellen Whitehurst (purveyor of such verifiably false notions as astrology, feng shui, and new age remedies) in her ill-informed babbling against LCROSS:

So, it looks like NASA’s mission to blast a hole in the surface of the south pole of the moon is continuing as previously planned and could occur any day now. NASA is sending a weapon [note: misleading word choice] to blow a five mile deep crater [note: WRONG] in the surface of that unassuming [note: Oh! Poor Moon! How I weep for thee!] orb in order to dislodge debris that may or may not hold traces of water, ice or vapor. This alleged [note: sinister plot?] water-seeking and lunar colonization experiment is believed to be an attempt at seeing whether there are any natural resources on the moon.

Now, there are some who believe that there might be an extraterrestrial base [note: and now she trots out unfounded conspiracy notions] sitting over on the dark side of the moon as well … citing eyewitness accounts given the NSA by astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong.

[note: Wait, it gets better.]

If you want to tap into the powerful energies these autumn moons offer then wear oranges and yellows and purples. [note: WTF]

[The Huffington Post, October 7, 2009]

Rather than tapping into autumn moon energies with a colorful sweater, NASA’s LCROSS probe was on a mission of science.

The impact was intended to excavate lunar soil, or “regolith,” as well as some of the underlying rock beneath. This method was far cheaper and more rapid than sending some sort of automated backhoe to the Moon to perform the same task. The resulting plume of material, or “ejecta,” would be scanned by LCROSS as well as Earth-based telescopes in order to determine the chemical composition of the ejecta.

While the ejecta from the October 9 impact did not make for much a of visual show, analysis of the data did indeed confirm the presence of water in this region of the Moon which lies in permanent shadow. Any resource that would not have to be hauled up from Earth to a potential lunar base would make such a base easier and cheaper to maintain, so this discovery is a boon to any future human exploration of the Moon.